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Definition: manuscript from Collins English Dictionary

n

1 a book or other document written by hand

2 the original handwritten or typed version of a book, article, etc, as submitted by an author for publication

3 a handwriting, as opposed to printing b (as modifier): a manuscript document

[C16: from Medieval Latin manūscriptus, from Latin manus hand + scribere to write]


manuscript

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
a handwritten work as distinguished from printing. The oldest manuscripts, those found in Egyptian tombs, were written on papyrus ; the earliest dates from c.3500 B.C. parchment , which succeeded papyrus as a writing material, was much more durable; most extant ancient manuscripts are of parchment. Both sides were used and palimpsests, which were erased and reused pages, were common. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the mid-20th cent. added immeasurably to the world's treasury of ancient manuscripts. In the ancient world the making and distribution of extra copies of manuscripts was widely practiced. There is some evidence of such treatment of manuscripts in Athens in the 5th cent. B.C. , and the great libraries of the Hellenistic world encouraged the making of manuscript copies. The manuscripts of the Middle Ages were often beautifully illustrated in colors (see illumination , in art) on vellum, a fine variety of parchment. Initial letters of first lines and titles were often…
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Translated by Patrick Baker The oldest extant manuscript books, which can be assigned to the late 4th century bce , are rolls of papyrus, the vegetable writing material obtained from the plant of the same name. These rolls have sufficiently well-defined characteristics to suggest that this form had…
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Full text Article manuscript

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
a handwritten work as distinguished from printing. The oldest manuscripts, those found in Egyptian tombs, were written on papyrus ; the earliest dates from c.3500 B.C. parchment , which succeeded papyrus as a writing material, was much more durable; most extant ancient manuscripts are of parchment. …
| 415 words
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Full text Article Findern Manuscript

From Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature
Also known as: Findern Anthology ca. 1456 Cambridge University Library MS. Ff. 1.6 is commonly known as the “Findern Manuscript” because it is believed to have belonged to the Findern family and to have been produced at their country house in Derbyshire in the middle of the 15th century, perhaps…
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Full text Article Junius Manuscript

From Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature
Also known as: The Caedmon Manuscript ca. 1000 MS Junius 11 in Oxford's Bodleian Library (MS 5123) is one of the four major collections that contain virtually all extant Old English poetry. The manuscript, named for the 17th-century antiquarian Franciscus Junius (who donated it to the university), …
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Full text Article ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS

From Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions
Miscellany. Decorated colophon of the scribe...
The appearance of illuminated Hebrew manuscripts as historians know them today corresponds to the appearance of the Hebrew codex. Although the first literary source that testifies to the existence of codices among the Jews is dated to the eighth century, at present, the earliest known Hebrew codex…
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Full text Article Huarochiri Manuscript

From Encyclopedia of Renaissance Literature
1608 Written in the Quechua language of the Peruvian Andes at Huarochiri, a locale situated between the Spanish capital of Lima and the Inca capital city of Cuzco, and penned after 70 years of contact between the Quechuans and Europeans, this manuscript chronicles many important aspects of Andean…
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Full text Article manuscript

From The American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language
A handwritten book, poem, or other document, or a collection of such handwritten documents bound together: The contents of the manuscript include a romance and a saint's life. A version of a book, article, or other work before being published or prepared for publication: The author submitted the…
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The Hengwrt manuscript (National Library of Wales Ms. Peniarth 392 D) is the earliest surviving manuscript of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales , and is therefore of prime significance in helping scholars establish Chaucer's intent for his text. The scribe responsible for the manuscript appears to…
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The Ellesmere manuscript (Huntington Library MS. Ellesmere 26.C.9) is the most famous literary manuscript from the English Middle Ages. It is one of the two earliest manuscripts of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (the other being the Hengwrt Manuscript), and is probably composed by the same…
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One of the most relevant consequences of the change from roll to codex for the transmission of classical texts was that many corpuses underwent a process of selection. This was true in several ways. First, texts were selected in order to fit the average size of a codex. This happened with the New…
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