Manuscripts

Manuscripts are documents written by hand, produced before the advent of movable type and the general use of printing presses. They include original works created by scribes as well as copies of texts that circulated in manuscript form. Manuscripts span religious, legal, scientific, and literary domains and are often organized in monastic or scholarly scriptoria.

Historically, manuscripts were written on surfaces such as papyrus, parchment, or vellum, and later on paper. The codex—a bound book with pages—became the dominant format in antiquity and the Middle Ages, replacing scrolls in many contexts. Writing may be in various scripts and languages, and ink and pigments varied by region and era.

Creation involved trained scribes who copied texts, sometimes with marginal notes, glosses, or decorative initials. Illuminated manuscripts add painted illustrations, gold, and ornamental borders. Palaeography and codicology study handwriting, materials, and book structure to determine date, provenance, and authorship.

Manuscripts can be autographs, produced by or for an author, or copies made by others. Notable manuscript traditions include illuminated religious books, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells, as well as medieval epic and scientific codices. In many fields, manuscripts are complemented by printed editions derived from textual comparison.

Today, manuscript material is preserved through careful conservation, climate-controlled storage, and digitization. Cataloging and digital archives enable scholars to examine marginalia and variant readings without handling fragile copies. Manuscripts remain essential for understanding the transmission of texts, material culture, and the history of literacy.