Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts Collection

The Special Collections Research Center holds a diverse collection of medieval and early modern manuscripts with materials of Syrian, Ethiopian, South-Asian, Mexican, Persian, Byzantine, Italian, French, Flemish, English, and German origins. The ten medieval manuscripts showcased here represent only a small portion of this collection. One of the earliest digital initiatives of the Syracuse University Libraries, they were first selected, described, and digitized in 1999. The selection, ranging from the thirteenth through the sixteenth centuries, includes six books of hours, an apocalyptic text by Telesphorus of Cosenza, glossed papal decretals, an early sixteenth-century Dominican gradual, a thirteenth-century psalter, and a fragment of the Old Testament. Except for Telesphorus’ Libellus and the Gradual of Saints, all these works are illuminated manuscripts. It is important to note, however, that there is a great number of non-illustrated manuscripts in our collections as well, which are of no lesser value.