@sims-mss.bsky.social
We post about manuscripts, mostly from UPenn. SIMS brings manuscript culture, modern technology and people together. https://schoenberginstitute.org/
For #CoffeeWithACodex on December 11, Curator Dot Porter will bring out LJS 16, a volume comprising Books 25 to 28 of the Speculum historiale of Vincent of Beauvais. It was written in France, probably Paris, circa 1400. #medievalsky
Register here: https://bit.ly/3Xt3Zs8
Today’s #FragmentFriday is the back flyleaf and pastedown of LJS 236, which is formed from a fragment from a mid-11th-century German homiliary; the text is from Pope Leo I’s Sermon 42. The main text block is 15th century medical miscellany. #medievalsky
Online: https://bit.ly/4oqPTlS
Today we take a peek at (an excellent facsimile of) the Voynich manuscript, an inscrutable book in the collection of Beinecke Library at Yale University. It has sections found in other manuscripts - herbals and astrological materials - but the script is not found elsewhere and it's very strange.
03.12.2025 15:52 — 👍 5 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
For #CoffeeWithACodex on December 4 (12pm Noon, on Zoom), South Asian Studies Librarian Jef Pierce will bring out a beautifully illustrated Sanskrit manuscript written sometime between 1700 and 1850.
Register here:
Take a peek at our new book of hours! Made in Bruges, ca. 1470, this lovely illuminated book has several full-page miniatures, decorated margins, and many large and small illuminated initials. (UPenn Ms. Codex 2324) #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/4hO98Va
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.
- Mary Oliver, "Wild Geese"
A goose heads home in the bottom margin of f. 312v, Ms. Codex 724, a 13th century illuminated Bible #DrolleryDonnerstag
🔗: https://bit.ly/4gNmqRc
Sometimes your parchment is imperfect, but you use it anyway. This leaf has a large hole that was caused during the processing of the animal skin. Part of the hole was sewn up using thick thread, and then the scribe just wrote around it. (UPenn Ms. Codex 747) #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/3WqLDYc
For #CoffeeWithACodex on November 13 (12pm ET, Zoom), @leoba.bsky.social will bring out LJS 101, the oldest codex in Philadelphia! It includes a translation of Aristotle's De interpretatione by Boethius. Written in France ca. 850 and ca. 1000. #medievalsky
Register here: https://bit.ly/3JvfKuI
Today’s #FragmentFriday is from the binding of LJS 470, which is a 16th century Italian collection, written in Hebrew, of medical and magical texts. The fragments are deep in the spine, and haven’t been cataloged or identified. Can you tell what this is? #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/43GkrIS
This 15th c. Italian manuscript contains the texts of two treatises, both attributed to Saint Augustine (erroneously). One is actually De anima et spiritu by Alcherus of Clairvaux, the other one is unidentified (UPenn Ms. Codex 17) #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/3WYaouZ
This little manuscript contains a treatise on cosmography that describes and illustrates the Ptolemaic model of a spherical earth at the center of the concentric spheres of the universe, and includes diagrams of eclipses and an astrolabe (UPenn LJS 26) #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/41EAKFa
For #CoffeeWithACodex on November 6 (12pm ET, Zoom), Lawrence J. Schoenberg Curator Nick Herman will bring out Ms. Codex 2324, a Flemish illuminated book of hours including 6 full-page arched miniatures and 15 historiated initials on gold grounds. #medievalsky
Register here: https://bit.ly/48JljzY
This small manuscript contains a few texts, including the Speculum monachorum, attributed (incorrectly) to Bernard of Clairvaux. The first folio has a colorful, illuminated Madonna and child. It was written in France in the 13th century. (UPenn Ms. Codex 716) #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/4ht3NlX
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
A lonely owl sings in the bottom margin of f. 312r, Ms. Codex 724, a 13th century illuminated Bible #DrolleryDonnerstag
🔗: https://bit.ly/4gNmqRc
The genealogy of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, tracing his descent from the earls of Leicester and Chester, beginning with individuals of the 11th and 12th centuries, and providing the heraldic devices of the principal members of these families. (UPenn Ms. Codex 1070)
🔗: https://bit.ly/4qvHgsK
For #CoffeeWithACodex on October 30 (Noon ET, on Zoom), we'll bring out LJS 266, a collection of genealogical and chronicle material in Middle French, written in France between 1440 and 1460. #medievalsky #cwac
Register here: https://bit.ly/4qHymbR
This early 16th century collection of papal letters dealing with the Eremite Friars of St. Augustine has a secret - a scrap of unidentified earlier manuscript that lurks in the depths of the spine. What could it be? We don’t know. (UPenn Ms. Codex 85) #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/473znDa
So pretty! #bookhistory
22.10.2025 21:28 — 👍 11 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0Social media was invented for this sort of thing:
20.10.2025 19:16 — 👍 11 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0
We had a great time kicking off #OAWeek with a panel of Penn Press journal editors (including from Change Over Time, @easmisc.bsky.social, @thejqr.bsky.social, and @sims-mss.bsky.social's Manuscript Studies) discussing their experiences with and thoughts on Open Access publishing!
20.10.2025 20:56 — 👍 9 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0Take a look at this 12th century collection of works by Augustine. It's written in a clear transitional (or protogothic) script by 4 different hands, and is simply decorated with large initials in red. Look for a mend in the parchment! (UPenn Ms. Codex 708) #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/471CL1p
This Missal (Texts for the Mass), written in Gothic textualis script, contains a few large red and blue initials with penwork, and a full-page miniature of the Crucifixion. The binding is very early; it may even be original. Northern Italy, 1375-1425 (UPenn Ms. Codex 2053)
🔗: https://bit.ly/4qbm2A9
For #CoffeeWithACodex on October 23 (Noon ET, on Zoom), we'll bring out CAJS Rar Ms. 534, a manuscript written by Moses Gomez de Mesquita documenting his administration and institution of prayer customs for the Sephardim in England.. #medievalsky #cwac
Register here: https://bit.ly/4oldipr
11-line initial depicting a ship without sails held up by two angels, in red, blues, lavender, brown, and gold.
In a colored border at the bottom of the page is the coat of arms of a branch of the Malespina family, surrounded by two angels
A photo showing the alternating red and blue initial that begin each section of text
A photo showing spaces left for initials at the beginning of each section, but not filled in.
Photos of a manuscript containing Statutes in 151 chapters of the Order of the Ship, founded in Naples in 1381 by King Carlo III 'di Durazzo'. The Order was a secular order of knighthood in the Kingdom of Naples founded and dedicated to the Holy Trinity #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/3INiWBI
Woof? A strangely wyrm-like doggy waits patiently in the top margin of f. 311v, Ms. Codex 724, a 13th century illuminated Bible #DrolleryDonnerstag #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/4gNmqRc
Grey day in Paris just became brighter as I read in Manuscript Studies of @sims-mss.bsky.social the very first review of my book 'Lost but not forgotten' published by @tayoxford.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk. Thank You!
Link to the review:
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...
Today's manuscript contains hymns and prayers bound with slightly later printed pastoral works. It contains prayers in Latin with interlinear German, each followed by a German translation, with some marginal notes. Germany, late 15th c. (UPenn Ms. Codex 1604) #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/3Xd1Voy
Performatively reading in the cafe, but wearing white gloves so I'm still venerating the Book As Object, with a t-shirt saying "I know archivists don't wear gloves" so people know the gloves are performative.
14.10.2025 11:12 — 👍 536 🔁 115 💬 12 📌 11In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand
Where are your gloves?
For #CoffeeWithACodex on October 16, Curator @leoba.bsky.social will visit @rosenbachmuseum.bsky.social where she'll join Librarian Elizabeth Fuller for a look at MS 1004/29, a mid-fourteenth-century physician's belt book. #medievalsky #cwac
Register here: https://bit.ly/4ohnEqu
