Netherlands: Medieval Manuscripts in Dutch Collections (MMDC)
Today all medieval manuscripts in the Netherlands are available on the website Medieval Manuscripts in Dutch Collections (MMDC). The website provides a portal to a database with short, uniform descriptions and photographs of all medieval manuscripts in the Netherlands, about 6000 items in all. Jos Biemans, Special Professor of Medieval Manuscript Studies launched the website today in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, by making the first click on the homepage.
© Koninklijke Bibliotheek National Library of the Netherlands
The Hague KB 78 D 38 I & II. Bible, ca 1430. Maitre Alexandre. Détail f. 1 r.
§ Medieval snapshot
Medieval manuscripts provide a fascinating snapshot of the cultural and intellectual life of this period. Until now, information about these manuscripts and the related knowledge and expertise was dispersed, but MMDC brings all of this material together. MMDC has been set up by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the university libraries of Leiden, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Groningen, and the Atheneumbibliotheek Deventer and it is partly financed by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
§ One website for all manuscripts
MMDC is focussed on creating possibilities for progressive research based on medieval manuscripts, by building a database with uniform descriptions, digital images and links to facsimile editions and subject-specific websites. This way, all the disseminated information about medieval manuscripts in the Netherlands has been brought together and made available through one database. To benefit international use, all information is published in English.
§ Virtual platform
The website also contains more information on medieval books in the Netherlands. This website will function as a virtual platform for researchers and students in palaeography, art history, philology and other fields. Visitors will find an overview of all Dutch institutions with medieval books, along with information on the history of the collections, contact information and procedures of requesting manuscripts. The website also contains digital versions of several key out-of-print books about medieval manuscripts and an illustrated overview of medieval script.
For questions you can contact Saskia van Bergen, project coordinator
Parchment to Portal, tel.: 070-3140430, e-mail: saskia.vanbergen@kb.nl
Medieval manuscripts in dutch collections [En ligne]
Palaeographical atlas
Manuscrits datés
The Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts
Le site web de The Penn Library de l’Université de Pennsylvania abrite désormais la base de données de Lawrence J. Schoenberg, véritable trésor bibliographique. Elle donne ainsi accès à plusieurs milliers d’entrées, manuscrits écrits avant 1600, passés en ventes publiques ou par des libraires spécialisés.
« The Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts encompasses more than 60,000 searchable entries of manuscripts written before 1600 and consisting of five or more leaves. This database is intended to be a powerful tool in :
– Locating and identifying information about particular manuscripts.
– Establishing the history and provenance of manuscripts.
– Aggregating descriptive information about specific classes or types of manuscripts.
It includes bibliographic information culled from approximately 4,000 catalogues issued by 400 dealers and auction houses since the early nineteenth century. This data is supplemented by entries from inventories and catalogues of private and institutional libraries. With twenty-nine searchable fields, it provides broad access to manuscripts through a range of discrete descriptive (i.e., vendor, catalogue name or number, item number, price, etc.) and physical (leaves, size, illuminations, etc.) properties. Multiple references to the same manuscript are cross-referenced to facilitate the tracking of individual manuscripts. The database is updated and augmented periodically on an ongoing basis. »
Source :
Michael T. Ryan, Director
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Van Pelt-Dietrich Library
University of Pennsylvania
Digital Scriptorium
»The Digital Scriptorium is an image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts, intended to unite scattered resources from many institutions into an international tool for teaching and scholarly research.
Medieval and renaissance manuscripts lie at the core of the work of scholars in a great number of fields: medievalists from many disciplines, classicists for the transmission of classical texts, art historians, musicologists, codicologists, paleographers, diplomatists, to begin to name the categories. The Digital Scriptorium looks to the needs of this very diverse community, and to the limited resources of libraries; it bridges the gap by means of extensive rather than intensive cataloguing, often based on legacy data, and sample imaging. »
Le remarquable projet initié par la Bancroft Library de l’Université de Berkeley porte actuellement sur un catalogue de plus de 5300 manuscrits soit environ 24300 images numérisées. Cette base de données couvre des documents du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance provenant des prestigieuses bibliothèques d’Austin (Univ. du Texas), Baltimore (Johns Hopkins), Berkeley (UC & affil.), Columbia (Univ. du Missouri), New York (Columbia & affil., Jewish Theological Sem., New York Public Library), et San Marino (Huntington Library). D’autres établissements vont intégrer cette base (Philadelphia, Free Library of Philadelphia, par exemple). Il va s’en dire que le médiéviste trouvera là un instrument remarquable car on connait assez la richesse de ces diffèrents dépôts.
Chaque description de manuscrit (reliure, provenance, bibliographie, etc) est accompagnée de plusieurs images de très bonne qualité visibles en trois formats. La base est consultable à partir de nombreux critères.
Le site donne également accès au Guide to Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the Huntington Library [En ligne] qui en fait est un vrai catalogue en mode texte (index auteurs, copistes, etc) de cette très riche bibliothèque.
Managing Director :
Consuelo W. Dutschke, Ph.D.
Curator, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts. Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Columbia University
535 W. 114th Street. New York NY 10027
tel: 212-854-4139. fax: 212-854-1365
email: cwd3@columbia.edu
Sources : site de Digital Scriptorium [En ligne]
PAGES ANNEXES
Auteur du blog : Jean-Luc DEUFFIC
Evangeliaire breton (Boulogne-sur-Mer, BM, ms 8)
