Cambridge University Library and Heidelberg University Library Announce Major Project to Digitise More Than 800 Treasured Medieval Manuscripts

From U. of Cambridge:

Hundreds of medieval and early modern Greek manuscripts – including classical texts and some of the most important treatises on religion, mathematics, history, drama and philosophy – are to be digitised and made available to anyone with access to the internet.

In a major collaboration announced today, Cambridge University Library, 12 Cambridge colleges, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Heidelberg University Library and the Vatican Library have come together as prt of a two-year £1.6m project, funded by the Polonsky Foundation, to digitise more than 800 medieval manuscripts.

The project between two of Europe’s oldest universities, both renowned for their medieval collections, will see the digitisation of every medieval Greek manuscript in Cambridge and all those belonging to the Bibliotheca Palatina collection, split between Heidelberg and the Vatican.

It will provide a unique insight into the chronological range of Greek manuscript culture, from the early Christian period to the early modern.

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The current catalogues for them date from the nineteenth century; many of those for the Cambridge manuscripts were written by the scholar M.R. James, Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, but best known for his ghost stories which remain popular to this day.

Of the Cambridge Greek manuscripts, around 210 are held at the University Library, 140 at Trinity College, and a further 60 spread across 11 other colleges and the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Of the Bibliotheca Palatina Greek manuscripts, 29 are in Heidelberg and 403 are in the Vatican Library, having been transferred there from Germany as a spoil of war in 1623.

Learn More, Read the Complete Announcement

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