 The pre-1600 codices and fragments at the Beinecke Library date from the fourth century through the Renaissance. The particular strength of the collection is in documenting the variety of texts and types of books preserved from the early period. Manuscripts from most parts of the Latin West are found in the collection, the greatest number coming from Italy, France, and England. Manuscripts of German monastic origin are also well represented. The majority of the items are in Latin, Italian, English, or French, with a few manuscripts in German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and other languages of Western Europe. In addition to biblical, theological, and liturgical texts, the reading matter of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance societies is documented by noteworthy holdings of classical and medieval Latin works, as well as numerous vernacular and neo-Latin texts of the Renaissance. The library's holdings document the history of the codex, with examples that record various stages in the development of manuscript books. The collections reflect three areas of medieval culture with particular distinction: twelfth-century monastic libraries, scholastic/university literature of the thirteenth century, and the Italian Renaissance, the last being probably the single most important area of the collection. In this field we have not only the representative items, but minor figures, texts, and genres as well. Catalog records for most of the medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the Beinecke Library can be found in the Finding Aid Database under the subsection "Search Collections in: Beinecke Library--Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts." These records for General Collection manuscripts 1-500 and the Marston manuscripts are derived from Barbara Shailor's Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Marston MSS (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, Binghamton, N.Y., 1984-92). The Shailor catalogs contain fuller information on the manuscripts as well as illustrations. The catalog records for the manuscripts in the Mellon Collection are derived from Alchemy and the Occult, A Catalogue of the Books and Manuscripts from the Collection of Paul and Mary Mellon, Volume 3, Library, Yale University. Vol. 1, MSS 1-250; vol. 2, MSS 251-500; vol. 3, Manuscripts 1255-1671* (New Haven, 1977), compiled by Laurence C. Witten II and Richard Pachella. For information about searching other Library catalogs, see Searching Online Catalogs.More recent acquisitions, pre-1600 manuscripts held by the Yale Law Library, the Historical Medical Collection, the Yale Music Library, the British Art Center, or other Yale libraries are not described in these files. The extensive finding aid to the Spinelli Archive, which contains many 15th and 16th century documents, is located with other manuscript and archival holdings in the Beinecke Library section (not in the Medieval and Renaissance Mss. subsection) within the Finding Aid Database.
The Papyrus Catalog, located in the Beinecke Library, can be searched using keyword and Boolean connectors (and, or, not). If two search terms are entered without a connector, an "or" connector is assumed. Words can be truncated using an asterisk, and the searching is case-insensitive. Parentheses may be used to build more complicated searches, such as: (greek or latin) and contract. To learn more about the history of papyri at the Beinecke and more about the catalog records, read the Catalog Introduction (Long Document). For more information about papyri at the Beinecke, contact the curator. [Beinecke Research Workstation] Comments:Ellen R.
Cordes, ellen.cordes@yale.edu |