Research on early medieval Latin manuscripts has been utterly transformed in the past 15 years or so by the ever-increasing availability of high-quality digital images online.
Nonetheless, these collections are spread across many different online locations, and some are not easy to find. Here is some general guidance and a collection of useful links.
General resources
- IIIF is a wonderful set of technologies that facilitate image sharing over the web. This is increasingly becoming the standard method for cultural institutions to display and share images of artefacts, including manuscripts. Biblissima is an excellent project that allows you to search for IIIF-compliant manuscripts and books before 1800 across many different institutions.
- E. A. Lowe’s Codices Latini Antiquiores catalogued Latin manuscripts from before AD 800. This foundational work is the basis of the wonderful Earlier Latin Manuscripts database, which very often includes links to digital images.
Regional collections
- Europeana Regia (old project 2010–2012): incl. Bibliotheca Carolina, masterworks from the main abbeys and bishop schools of the Carolingian Empire (8th-9th centuries), including Reichenau, Saint-Denis, Corbie, Reims, Saint-Amand, Freising, Wissembourg.
- Austria: https://manuscripta.at/ (see section Digitalisierte Handschriften, seems limited).
- France: Bibliothèque Virtuelle des Manuscrits Médiévaux (c. 2013 and now quite outdated, but contains some images not available elsewhere).
- Germany: http://www.manuscripta-mediaevalia.de (now quite out of date).
- Ireland: Irish Script on Screen. See also Manuscripts with Irish Associations.
- Italy: Internet Culturale (difficult to find resources).
- Switzerland: e-codices (incomparable, long the leading example of best practice).
- US: Digital Scriptorium.
Individual libraries
For Swiss libraries see e-codices, above.
- Bamberg: Kaiser-Heinrich-Bibliothek (165 codices + frags.)
- Berlin: https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/
- Cambridge: Pembroke College.
- Dresden: https://digital.slub-dresden.de/
- Düsseldorf: http://digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de/nav/classification/507874
- Florence: http://teca.bmlonline.it/TecaRicerca/
- Karlsruhe: https://digital.blb-karlsruhe.de/topic/view/21210
- Kassel: https://orka.bibliothek.uni-kassel.de/viewer/searchadvanced/
- Leiden: https://digitalcollections.universiteitleiden.nl/
- Milan: https://ambrosiana.comperio.it/
- Munich: Latin manuscripts
- Paris, BnF: Extensive information available at Archives et manuscrits.
- Paris, Mazarine: https://mazarinum.bibliotheque-mazarine.fr/
- St Petersburg: http://nlr.ru/eng/RA2403/digital-library
- Vienna: some images can be accessed via https://search.onb.ac.at/, but very difficult to use.
Other resources
- Manuscripts with German language: Handschriftencensus
- Early Medieval Monasticism: links to digital manuscript collections.
- Insular Manuscripts Project, Leeds.
- CODECS Repositories and Archives (Celtic Studies).
Cover image: Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, MS 237, f. 56v.