In the 8th century, numerous missionaries came to the German-speaking areas of Europe from England—one of these missionaries was Saint Walburga (approximately 710-779 or 780), a Benedictine nun and abbess of the Monastery of Heidenheim near Eichstätt. About a century after she died, her remains were transferred to Eichstätt, where a house of canonesses took care of them. In the 11th century, Count Liutger of Lechsgmünd and Graisbach converted the house to a Benedictine monastery for women, Benediktinerinnenabtei St. Walburg. Despite the official secularization of the monastery in 1806, the sisters remained faithful to their vows and received permission to continue their communal life. Three decades later, the monastery was renovated and granted permission to accept novices again. In 1852, they even dispatched the first Benedictine sisters to North America, some of whom established a new foundation in Central Minnesota in 1857: Saint Benedict’s Monastery (Saint Joseph, Minnesota). Still active and present on the same Eichstätt site today, Benediktinerinnenabtei St. Walburg houses a collection of manuscripts, now cataloged in Reading Room.

These 28 manuscripts date from the 14th through the 17th century and offer a range of materials that would be useful for the devotional life in a community of religious women. Fr. Jonathan Fischer, OSB, led the effort to microfilm the manuscripts at St. Walburg and other repositories in Eichstätt in 1984. Among other topics, the texts include Psalms and prayers, texts designed to help with teaching nuns and novices, commentaries on the legend of Saint Walburga and the miracles of the Virgin, dialogues, hagiographies, prayer books, rules for religious life, and sermons, many focusing on what it meant to live as a woman dedicated to a religious life. About half of the manuscripts are prayer books for personal devotions. Most of the materials are written in German, with only four manuscripts in Latin. View now

Pantal Vaidikan Dāmodaran Nampūtiri, a private collection belonging to Mr. Damodaran from Pantal Mana in Rappal in Kerala, India, has been digitized and fully catalogued under the DiPiKA Project (Digital Preservation of Kerala Archives) and is now available in HMML Reading Room. The collection includes 45 palm-leaf manuscripts and 47 paper manuscripts, most featuring either Malayalam or Sanskrit written in the Malayalam alphabet.

Mr. Pantal Damodaran belongs to the Vaidikan family of the Iriññālakkuṭa grāma, whose members are renowned experts in the procedure of Vedic rituals. Notably, there are only six families of Vaidikans in Kerala, making this lineage particularly significant. The collection is largely composed of texts on Vedic ritual practice, many of which – based on recent survey findings – are not known to exist in other archives. These manuscripts preserve a distinctive sacrificial tradition specific to this family line, offering valuable insight into a rare and localized Vedic heritage. The collection comprises, among other things, such unique works on the subject of Vedic ritualism as Yāgakriyā (DKA 003 00033), Agniṣṭomavidhi (DKA 003 00019), Yogiyāruṭe kārikā (DKA 003 00058), and Loṣṭacitiprakāra (DKA 003 00010).

The palm-leaf manuscripts in this collection are part of the ancestral holdings of the Pantal Mana. Some of the paper manuscripts contain notes written by the current owner's father, reflecting his scholarly engagement with Vedic tradition. The remaining paper manuscripts were acquired by him from various other families engaged in the practice of Vedic śrauta ritual. These include Taikkāṭṭŭ Mana, Kiṭaṅṅaśśēri Mana, Kapliṅṅāṭṭŭ Mana, Kōtamaṅgalam Mana, Kāpra Mana, and Tōṭṭam Mana.

While working on the collection, the team made a surprising discovery noting that two of the palm-leaf manuscripts had attached to them Dutch East India Company coins dated to the year 1751 (DKA 003 00022) and 1790 (DKA 003 00005). The coins have a hole in the middle and are affixed at the end of the string that serves to bind the bundles. View now

The Naṭuvil Maṭham Svāmiyār Collection, comprising 11 manuscripts written on palm leaves, has been digitized and fully cataloged under the DiPiKA Project (Digital Preservation of Kerala Archives) and is now accessible through HMML Reading Room.

Naṭuvil Maṭham is one of four Hindu monasteries (or mathas) originally located in the city of Thrissur, Kerala (India), where it is believed they were established by the renowned Indian philosopher Śaṅkara, proponent of the non-dualistic doctrine of Advaita Vedānta and allegedly founder of the pan-Indian monastic order of the Daśanāmī-Saṃnyāsins. These four maṭhas (Vaṭakke Maṭham, Naṭuvil Maṭham, Iṭayil Maṭham, and Tekkē Maṭham) were built adjacent to one another, forming a unique monastic complex, which fostered a thriving vernacular monastic tradition that dates back to approximately the 12th century, according to inscriptional evidence.

Today, three of the mathas remain in Thrissur: Naṭuvil Maṭham and Tekkē Maṭham, which continue as active Advaita Vedānta monastic institutions; and Vaṭakke Maṭham, which has functioned as a traditional Vedic school (vedapāṭhaśālā) for at least two centuries, run by members of the Nampūtiri community. In this capacity, it is known as Vaṭakke Maṭham Brahmasvam.

The Naṭuvil Maṭham Svāmiyār Collection was donated to Vaṭakke Maṭham Brahmasvam in 2019 by the head of the monastery, Maṟavañcēri Tekkēṭattŭ Nīlakaṇṭhan Bhāratīkaḷ. The manuscript collection includes, among other things, important texts of the monastic order such as Saṃnyāsakalpavyākhyā (DKA 001 00001), Yatyācārasaṃgraha (DKA 001 00006), and Samādhividhivyākhyā (DKA 001 00005). These and other works offer a rich entry point into this Hindu monastic tradition and the communities that lived together and followed it. View now

Cataloging is complete for 102 manuscripts from the private collection of ʻImād Ḥikmat Kūrkīs in Baghdad (PLB IHG). Kūrkīs, who died in 2023, was the owner of Babylon Bookshop on al-Mutanabbi Street, historic center of bookselling in Baghdad. He also amassed a wide-ranging collection of manuscripts, from contemporary school notebooks to dozens of medieval and early modern Islamic manuscript fragments.

The notebooks display an interest in such topics as military geography (PLB IHG 00015), the Turkish-speaking minority in Iraq (PLB IHG 00014), and the modern history of Palestine (PLB IHG 00008, PLB IHG 00024), among others. Some of the fragments are likely quite old, such as an otherwise unknown text on the names of God attributed to an Ibn Ḥabīb (PLB IHG 00040). The oldest dated item is a fragment of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī's commentary on the Qurʼan from 1345 CE (PLB IHG 00098), while the newest is a collection of Neo-Aramaic prayers and hymns from 1998 (PLB IHG 00100). Languages in the collection include Arabic, Syriac (and Neo-Aramaic), and Turkish, with small amounts of French and Persian. View now

The main collection from the Convent of Our Lady of Bzummār in Lebanon (BzBz) comprises 422 manuscripts, 396 of which have been digitized and fully cataloged; they are now accessible through HMML’s Reading Room. In the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide, some of the Armenian artifacts from Constantinople were relocated and added to the Bzummār collection after the year 1924, including the Armenian Antonine manuscripts—cataloged and announced earlier. This most recently cataloged collection includes the manuscripts held at Bzummār prior to the 1924 additions to the collection.

The Bzummār repository includes an exceptionally rich collection of illuminated and illustrated manuscripts, with works dating as far back as the early 12th century. Among the earliest is a 12th-century copy of Mosēs Khorenatsʻi’s Ashkharhatsʻoytsʻ, or Geography (BzBz 00204); a 13th-century copy of Mkhitʻar Gōsh’s Datastanagirkʻ Hayotsʻ, or Armenian Code of Laws (BzBz 00180); and a 1289 copy of the important Commentary on the Psalms by Daniel of Ṣalaḥ, translated by Grigor Vkayasēr (BzBz 00120).

The collection features a wealth of texts from the 14th and 15th centuries, including several copies of the Աստուածաշունչ (Astuatsashunch, or God-Breathed Scriptures), Bibles, illuminated Gospels, Psalters, Lectionaries, Mashtotsʻ, Zhamagirkʻ, Sharaknotsʻ, Gandzaran, Tonatsʻuytsʻ, Kʻanonagirkʻ, etc. It also contains medical treatises and dozens of translations from Latin, Italian, and French into Armenian.

A significant portion of the collection is dedicated to theological works, including rare volumes of homilies and biblical commentaries by renowned Armenian vardapets: Nersēs Shnorhali, Sargis Shnorhali, Nersēs Lambronats‘i, Grigor Tatewats‘i, Grigor Xlatʻecʻi, Mattʻēos Jughayetsʻi, and more.

Selecting a single highlight from this rich collection, overflowing with the treasures of Armenian Christianity and the layered histories they embody, is nearly impossible. What follows is just a glimpse into the more than 400 remarkable manuscripts preserved here:

• BzBz 00068 is a richly decorated Sharaknotsʻ, featuring illuminations depicting the life of Christ, the lives of the martyrs, and the founders of the Armenian Church, most notably the sufferings of Grigor, the Illuminator.
• BzBz 00105, dating to the 15th century, is a Mashtotsʻ, one of dozens found in the collection, offering insight into how liturgical services were conducted in medieval Armenia.
• BzBz 00250 is a 1330 copy of the medical treatises of Mkhitʻar Heratsʻi.

The 1964 printed catalog by Mesrop Kʻēshishean—made possible through the visionary support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation—remains an indispensable resource. Without the Gulbenkian’s unwavering commitment, Armenian treasures would have remained inaccessible in scholarship. Each digital catalog entry at HMML is linked directly to this foundational volume, allowing scholars to deepen their research into the treasures of the Bzummār collection now fully viewable at the HMML reading room. The Gulbenkian Foundation’s enduring faith in Armenian heritage and its steadfast support for critical scholarly projects have been instrumental in ensuring that Armenian studies not only survive but continue to flourish. View now

Cataloging is complete for three Syriac liturgical manuscripts from the Diocese of Adiabene of the Ancient Church of the East (DAACE), located in Erbil, Iraq. The manuscripts were copied in northern Iraq between 1710 CE (DAACE 00002) and 1921 CE (DAACE 00001). The colophon of the latter manuscript testifies to the scribe's recent escape from the Sayfo genocide during World War I and his status as a refugee in the ʻAqrah area. This is the first collection belonging to the Ancient Church of the East to be made available in HMML's Reading Room. View now

243 records for manuscripts microfilmed at the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen are now available in Reading Room. This library has roots going back to the 17th century. HMML has microfilms of manuscripts from this collection dating from the 10th to the 17th century. These include theological and legal texts, as well as literary and historical works. Most manuscripts come from libraries in and around Bremen, including two larger collections: manuscripts belonging to the Swiss polymath Melchior Goldast von Haiminsfeld (1578-1635), and the collection from the cathedral of Bremen. Among these manuscripts are texts in Latin, German, Greek, Low German, Dutch, Czech, and French. The HMML records include links to new digital copies created recently by the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen.

Highlights include: an illuminated 13th-century manuscript with glosses on Roman law and feudal law (HMML 45848, msa 0148); three heavily decorated Books of Hours (HMML 45948, msc 0013; HMML 45889, msb 0022; and HMML 45936, msb 0146); and an illuminated Saxon world chronicle from the 13th century (HMML 45809, msa 0033). View now

Cataloging is complete for the collection of Nordrhein-Westfälisches Staatsarchiv Münster, a state archive in northwestern Germany, where HMML photographed 482 manuscripts and folders of documents onto 426 microfilm reels in 1985.

Münster was originally founded by a missionary assigned by Charlemagne in 793, and this early relationship between imperial and religious authority continued to shape the city and its diocese over the next thousand years. The archival collection bears witness to this history. From cartularies of monasteries and collegiate churches representing more than 15 different religious orders in the region, to a plethora of chronicles centered on Münster’s bishops, to the extensive documentation of the Anabaptist takeover of the city in 1534-1535—the collection represents the shifts in power that rocked the region and that sent religious communities and cities scrambling to document their legal standings.

The collection includes notable objects tied to monastic presence in the region, including the illuminated Liber aureus, a gospel lectionary for Kloster Freckenhorst (HMML 41187, Msc. VII Nr. 1315), and the decorated register of goods and income for Kloster Sankt Mauritz und Simeon in Minden (HMML 41115, Msc. VII Nr. 2714). View now

In partnership with Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland), HMML has added 67 volumes of archival material from the papal chancery and archives of the Roman Inquisition to Reading Room. These manuscripts escaped the loss or destruction that befell many volumes of the Lateran registers during and after the transfer of the papal archives by Napoleon Bonaparte to Paris in 1810. The volumes were bought in 1841 by George Montagu, viscount Mandeville (Duke of Manchester after 1843). Richard Gibbings, graduate of Trinity College Dublin and rector of Killyleagh, purchased them from Mandeville. Gibbings sold the manuscripts to Charles W. Wall, vice-provost of Trinity College Dublin, who presented them to the library in 1854.

The Trinity College collection of papal records is divided into three parts. The first part includes 13 volumes of registers of papal correspondence dated from 1389 to 1787. The second part contains sentences and abjurations from the Roman Inquisition with records dated between 1564 and 1660. The third part includes denunciations and examinations from the Roman Inquisition with records dated between 1565 and 1800. The inquisitorial materials largely describe cases in Italy, but there are important cases from Malta and France in the collection.

All images and metadata provided courtesy of Trinity College. Metadata entered and augmented by HMML. View now

Along with thousands of other manuscripts in a wide range of languages, the HMML team filmed 186 manuscripts in Cyrillic and Glagolitic at the Austrian National Library. Some of these have been at the Austrian National Library for over two centuries, although many were purchased in the 19th century.

The collection includes all manner of texts, but the most common are liturgical works, such as copies of the Menaion, the Euchologion, Octoechos, Psalters, and Gospel books. Distinctive hagiographical works includes the lives of Serbian saints Sava (1169-1237) and Simeon (or Stefan Nemanja, 1114-1200). There are also numerous volumes of church law or the Nomocanon. The works written in Cyrillic date from the 13th to the 19th centuries, while the Glagolitic books tend to be older, dating from the 10th to the 16th centuries. View now

Metadata for 503 manuscripts from Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Jena, Germany, has been added to HMML Reading Room. The manuscript collection includes a wealth of material from the medieval and early modern period. The library is rich in its late fifteenth-century illuminated French translations of medieval and classical works prepared for the Court of Burgundy. Several illuminated choir books by Petrus Alamire from the sixteenth century also stand out. Central to the library's collection are the early works of Martin Luther and other Protestant Reformers prepared by Georg Rörer to support the early publication of Luther's works in Germany. View now

The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) is delighted to announce completion of processing for records from the Series nova (new series) of manuscripts at the Austrian National Library. HMML filmed approximately 966 manuscripts in this collection, including fragments, later acquisitions (after 1870) of the National Library, and collections of historical documents and manuscripts that are important to the study of Austrian history.

Highlights include a 16th-century collection of watercolor depictions of animals that are much more accurate that most found in medieval sources (CVP S.n. 2647; HMML 20882) and a significant treatise on surgery by Zahrāwī, Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn ʻAbbās (CVP S.n. 2641; HMML 20883), along with numerous illuminated books of hours and prayer books. Historical collections include several 17th-century volumes collected by Franz Christoph Khevenhüller and dedicated to the life of Emperor Ferdinand II (Annales Ferdinandei; e.g., HMML 20639), as well as notes, essays, and related materials on European history collected by Joseph von Sartori in the early 19th century (e.g., HMML 25516). The collection also includes several catalogs, concordances, and other early descriptions of materials in the manuscript collections at the Austrian National Library.

Throughout this collection, HMML has added links to catalog records at the Austrian National Library, as well as any links to digital copies available online.

Cataloging is complete for 225 Hebrew-script manuscripts from the collection of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (Austrian National Library). These manuscripts were microfilmed by HMML decades ago and have now been added to Reading Room as updated catalog records.

They feature a variety of religious, philosophical, and scientific works produced by Jewish authors and translators across Western Europe and beyond. Many of the works testify to the fruitful medieval scholarly networks connecting Jews, Christians, and Muslims, all building on the ancient Greek philosophical heritage and producing a large corpus of Hebrew translations from Greek, Arabic, and Latin sources. Other manuscripts bear witness to the persecution of Jewish communities in Europe, as in Cod. Hebr. 16 (microfilm 22034), which was copied in 1299 CE and mentions a pogrom in its colophon. Many of the manuscripts are richly decorated. Most of the texts are in Hebrew, with a significant portion of Aramaic in religious and legal texts, but there are also examples of other languages including Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), Judeo-Arabic, and even one text including Ottoman Turkish in Hebrew script (Cod. Hebr. 212, microfilm 22130). Medieval manuscripts are found alongside modern ones, many of which were gifts to the Austrian emperors from their Jewish subjects in the 18th and 19th centuries. This is the first large corpus of Jewish manuscripts in HMML's Reading Room. View now

When Father Oliver Kapsner, OSB, and his team came to Melk Abbey in late 1965, it was only the fifth library for HMML’s microfilming project, but it was the largest collection they had filmed thus far. In fact, the Melk collection doubled the size of HMML’s holdings at that time.

The Benedictine abbey, founded in 976, possesses a large manuscript collection which has fortunately survived three fires (1297, 1682, 1738). Its collection offers a broad and diverse range of materials, with manuscripts relating to all areas of research. While a few manuscripts date from the 9th to 11th centuries, the bulk of the microfilmed collection dates from the 12th to 16th centuries, including materials associated with the monastic school that flourished at Melk. Many of the later manuscripts reflect the relationship between the Abbey and faculty from the University of Vienna (founded in 1365). View now

With the addition of records for 1,105 manuscripts from Melk Abbey, HMML has reached an important milestone in the improvement of metadata for manuscripts from Austrian libraries. As of January 2025, HMML’s microfilm holdings from all Austrian libraries—except the Austrian National Library (cataloging is underway) and the Mechitarist Library in Vienna—have been added to Reading Room and are available for public use. This includes more than 22,000 manuscripts from 41 Austrian locations, housed in 72 repositories. Metadata for these microfilmed collections is available online in HMML Reading Room.

Cataloging is complete for the 28 microfilm reels of the Donald Davies Microfilm Collection. In 1968, Donald Davies traveled around Ethiopia and Eritrea, microfilming manuscripts with the permission of Abuna Theophilus, the patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawāḥedo Church. Davies visited 23 churches and monasteries and microfilmed 38 manuscripts. He deposited copies of these photographs on 28 reels of microfilms at HMML, where they have been available for research ever since. In 1979, William F. Macomber cataloged many of these manuscripts in an unpublished handlist: Catalogue of Ethiopian manuscripts from Abbā Garimā, As̆atan (Church of St. Mary), Axum (Church of Zion), Dabra Bizan, Dabra Dāmo, Dabra Libanos, Gunda Gundē, Kebrān, Lālibalā (Church of the Savior of the World, Emmanuel Church), Maqalē, Ura, Kidāna Meḥrat, Monastery of Dabra Dāgā (Church of St. Stephen), Monastery of Lake Zewāy, Dabra Māryām, National Library and Haiq from microfilms in the collection of Dr. Donald Davies, De Land, Florida and Godfrey, Ontario, and of the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, St. John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota. Additional cataloging work on these manuscripts and others has been done by Dr. Jeremy R. Brown, HMML cataloger of Ethiopic manuscripts. The Davies family generously has given permission for this microfilm collection to be made freely available online in Reading Room.

Donald Davies’ goal for his microfilming project was to create a photographic record of the oldest Biblical manuscripts in Ethiopia as witnesses to the early text of the Bible. Because of this goal, his microfilm collection is a treasure trove of some of the earliest witnesses to the Bible in Ge'ez. This includes the famed Gospel manuscripts from Endā Abbā Garimā Monastery (SEP DAVIES 00001) and (SEP DAVIES 00002), a 12th-century Gospel manuscript from Madḫānē Ālam Church in Lālibalā (SEP DAVIES 00023), and a Gospel manuscript from Dabra Māryām dating to the 13th or 14th century (SEP DAVIES 00012). Davies also microfilmed three manuscripts in the famed monastery of Dabra Bizan in Eritrea, providing important witnesses to the manuscript traditions of Eritrea (SEP DAVIES 00006) and (SEP DAVIES 00007). In addition to Biblical manuscripts, he also microfilmed several manuscripts of the Miracles of Mary, including a manuscript with 61 full-page paintings from Dabra Warq (SEP DAVIES 00013).

This collection has already had significant influence on critical editions of the Ge'ez Bible since it was microfilmed, particularly for the study of the Gospels, and we are grateful to the Davies family for helping make this important collection available to an even wider audience. View now

Cataloging is complete for 1,042 Greek manuscripts from the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (Austrian National Library), microfilmed by HMML decades ago and now added to Reading Room as updated catalog records. These manuscripts are divided into shelfmark classes related to philosophy (Phil. gr.), theology (Theol. gr.), history (Hist. gr.), medicine (Med. gr.), and law (Jur. gr.), with a supplement (Suppl. gr.) consisting of more recent acquisitions.

Contents range from foundational ancient authors like Homer, Plato, and Aristotle to early modern apologetic texts, 19th-century hymnals, and other examples of later Greek literature. The oldest dated manuscript in the collection is Phil. gr. 314 (microfilm 21417), copied by Iōannēs Grammatikos in 925 CE, which includes introductory texts on the philosophical schools of Plato and Pythagoras along with Greek works by Thāwudhūrus Abū Qurrah, better known as one of the earliest Christian authors to write in Arabic, who died only a century before the manuscript was produced. Undertexts in palimpsest manuscripts likely date from much earlier, while Suppl. gr. 119 (microfilm 21588) is a false palimpsest produced by Kōnstantinos Simōnidēs, now one of the more notorious manuscript forgers of the 19th century. Theol. gr. 154 (microfilm 21774), an 11th-century copy of the four Gospels, includes elaborate canon tables and lavish full-page portraits of the Evangelists, while Phil. gr. 75 (microfilm 21138) is a 1445 copy of seven works by Aristotle that includes a relevant and sometimes humorous decorated initial for each text.

Med. gr. 1 (microfilm SEP ONB 00003), also known as the Vienna Dioscorides, is one of the most well-known manuscripts in the world, including the Peri hylēs iatrikēs (De materia medica) of the 1st-century author Dioscorides Pedanius along with several other medical, botanical, and zoological works. Illustrated with detailed images of medicinal plants on almost every page, it was copied in early 6th-century Constantinople for a Roman princess named Anicia Juliana and includes a portrait of the princess on fol. 6v that is the oldest known extant dedicatory portrait in any manuscript. It remained in Constantinople for a millennium, acquiring marginal notes in Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew along the way, before passing to Austria in the 16th century. This collection is the first large corpus of Greek material to be added to HMML's Reading Room and has greatly enriched the information available on Greek literature in the HMML Authority File database. View now

Cataloging is complete for the collection of the Lebanese Maronite Order, which primarily consists of manuscripts originating from the monasteries of the Order in all regions of Lebanon. It is housed in the Library of the Holy Spirit University (Université Saint-Esprit) in Kaslik. These manuscripts are written in Arabic, Arabic Garshuni, Syriac, and, to a lesser extent, Latin, Armenian, Geʻez, Persian, Turkish, and French. The oldest manuscript fragments date back to the 15th century (OLM 00106a and OLM 00106b) and were discovered within the binding of a printed book.

The collection includes numerous illuminated manuscripts, the most renowned being the Evangelion in the manuscript OLM 00983. These manuscripts encompass a wide variety of liturgical texts, including evangeliaries, synaxaria, funeral rites, missals, offices, and more. Furthermore, a considerable number of manuscripts were utilized in the education of future priests of the Lebanese Maronite Order, covering subjects such as moral theology, logic, and Syriac and Arabic grammar. The collection also includes poetic works and a variety of spiritual texts, many of which are translations from Latin and other European languages. A portion of the collection comprises Islamic manuscripts, including Qur’ans and prayer books. The physical collection in Kaslik continues to expand, regularly acquiring new manuscripts from diverse origins, but all manuscripts photographed by HMML are now available for public use.

Cataloging is complete for the collection of Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek in Weimar, which was first founded as a ducal library in 1691. Three hundred years later, it was renamed after Duchess Anna Amalia (1739-1807), who had been an avid supporter of the arts and one of the most prolific book collectors among her peers, with a passion for promoting literature in the German language. This legacy is reflected in the manuscript collection: out of 524 manuscripts, just over half were copied at least in part in German or another Germanic language.

HMML microfilmed the collection in 1994; just 10 years later, these manuscripts narrowly escaped a fire that tragically destroyed the library’s early book collection. Nonetheless, access to these manuscripts remains limited: the library has published two print volumes in German that cover only two-thirds of the collection, while 78 manuscripts can be viewed digitally online. HMML’s catalog is currently the only complete representation of the collection available online to researchers, particularly providing access to data concerning many regional chronicles and Meistersinger songbooks. Also of interest are German translations of the Bible that predate Martin Luther (HMML 47092 through 47099) and the earliest proto-naturalist observations of fauna and flora north of the Alps (HMML 47174).

Sixteen manuscripts written in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish were cataloged by Dr. Joshua Mugler.

A portion of the collection at Our Lady of Bzummār Convent, manuscripts once belonging to the Armenian Antonines (HMML project code BzAn), is now fully cataloged and available in Reading Room. This collection was not always at Bzummār. The transmission of this sizable collection traces the history of the Armenian Antonines (Antonean Miabanut‘iwn), Armenian Catholics who began in Aleppo, and in 1752 upon their adoption of the Rule of St. Anthony moved to Rome and later to Ortaköy region near Istanbul, Turkey. As the order came to an end at the turn of the 20th century, the Antonean Library was transferred to the care of the monastery in Bzummār, Lebanon, where HMML digitized the Armenian Antonine collection.

The collection consists of 257 manuscripts in Classical Armenian, ranging in date from the 14th century to the 20th century. Among these manuscripts are beautifully illuminated Gospels, illuminated liturgical books, Synaxaria/Menologia, one illuminated prayer scroll, homilies and commentaries by Armenian vardapets, illuminated hymnals (Sharagnots‘), illuminated Psalters, philosophical works by Aristotle commentated by Grigor Tat‘ewats‘i and Yovhannēs Orotnets‘i in the 14th and 15th centuries, works by Dominican missionaries in Armenia, and interesting collections of astrological writings, liturgical calendars, and parzatōmars (see Dr. Ani Shahinian's story on the Armenian liturgical calendar).

A highlight of the collection is a manuscript dated to 1711 containing the works of Dionysius, the Areopagite (BzAn 00438; see also a story on translation and illumination in this manuscript). Another fascinating manuscript is the illuminated depiction of Apostle Paul and a collection of commentaries on the Epistles of Paul (BzAn 00455). View now