Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts

The UCLA Library Special Collections holdings of medieval and Renaissance manuscript materials created across Western Europe is comprised of approximately 400 bound manuscripts, and hundreds of documents, leaves, and bifolia. The collection is an exemplary teaching collection for paleography, history of the book, as well as the history and culture of the Medieval and Renaissance eras.

For more information, contact:

Devin Fitzgerald
Curator of Rare Books and History of Printing
 310.825.7253
 devinfitzgerald@library.ucla.edu

Current Collecting Priorities

• Materials that bring new documentation of or by those to whom access to the knowledge and power held by those of higher religious, scholarly, or social classes was limited or denied during the medieval through 17thcenturies.
• Manuscript materials written by or for use by women.
• Manuscript materials in vernacular languages, including Spanish language, and early literature.
• Manuscript materials that evidence who owned and used them, how and for what purposes.
• Materials from which one can learn about manuscript and bookmaking methods, artisans, and their sources, and will facilitate codicological study and research.
• Materials offering exemplary forms of writing and scripts that will facilitate paleographic study and research.
• In striving to select exemplary objects for teaching, we value manuscript materials that may be incomplete or imperfect where their content is rich, over materials that are of high monetary value due to the amount and level of artwork they hold, or because they are traced to an origin of high power.

Out of Scope

• Manuscripts that duplicate our current holdings of medieval and Renaissance Western European manuscripts; e.g., Western European liturgical manuscripts, unless they embody characteristics listed under Current Collecting Priorities (above).
• Manuscripts that would overlap with medieval and Renaissance manuscript strengths of other local institutions, such as French illuminated manuscripts or English bibles and illuminated manuscripts.

More About the Collection

• Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Library Special Collections Research Guide
• Medieval Mastery: Manuscripts from the Richard and Mary Rouse Collection - January 2019
• The Orsini: A Roman Baronial Family in Context,  January - March 2007
• Medieval Manuscripts from the Collection of Richard and Mary Rouse, October 1-7 2007, and September - December 2003