Manuscript Facsimile Sources

If you can't find a manuscript that you want on this blog, try searching these online collections:
Bibliothèque Nationale de France's online catalogues at Gallicia and Mandragore
Two different online repositories of the British Library's manuscripts. Searchable.

List of manuscripts from the Bodelian Library, University of Oxford, UK, arranged by century. There are links to select images from these manuscripts. See also LUNA (below).

Searchable online catalogue of the library of Cambridge University, UK.


As it says on the tin. Searchable.

Masses of full digitised manuscript facsimiles. Searchable.

From the Museum Meermanno, Netherlands.

An attempt to catalogue all extant manuscripts containing Lancelot / the Grail story and sort them by chronological and geographical order. The number of illustrations in each manuscript is listed and in several cases there are links to online facsimiles.

A digitised collection of the Western manuscripts of the Bodleian Libary, University of Oxford, UK. See also Bodleian Library Manuscripts (above).

A collation of European manuscript images from before 1450 with links back to their online facsimile sources. This collection is focused on military images and there are user-created tags as well as a search function.

Catalogue of the illuminated manuscripts of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek and the Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum, Netherlands.

Morgan Library & Museum Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts list
As it says on the tin. Lots of manuscripts!

Parker Library on the web
Digitisation of the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, Great Britain.

This incredible site has listed every single (known) extant copy of La Roman de la Rose and fragment copies - and, in many cases, there are links to online facsimiles. The only slight issue is the often broad datespans ascribed to the manuscripts which can make it difficult to form coherent timelines for the fashion. This is made up for by the ability to search by illustration title which enables one to analyse how depictions of allegorical figures, such as 'Vanity', changed with time (see tutorial).

As it says on the tin - a project to digitise and make publicly available the contents of the Vatican Library.

Wikipedia list of illuminated manuscripts
What it says on the tin. Covers the 2th to 21st Centuries, although many of them have not been fully digitised.