With over 1500 codices, rolls, and fragments amassed over the past two centuries, Houghton Library's early manuscript collections are complex and wide-ranging. The Harvard Library catalog, HOLLIS, can be difficult to navigate, even for the seasoned academic library researcher (or librarian!). Records vary in their completeness and accuracy, reflecting shifting descriptive standards and priorities over the years.

This guide will give you some manuscripts-specific pointers on how to search the catalog as well as locate relevant secondary sources.

For more information about the collection, see the collections page on Houghton's website. Please be in touch with the curators of Early Books & Manuscripts or the Public Services department at houghton_library@harvard.edu if you have any further questions.

Shelfmarks

The Houghton Library manuscript collections bear shelfmarks (call numbers) that designate language, subject, and provenance classifications. These classifications are not always straightforward: MS Arab 12 (a legal & linguistic miscellany) includes texts in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish; MS Lat 235 (a medical & alchemical miscellany) has recipes in Latin, French, and Middle English; and MS Gr 23 (collected tragedies of Euripides, produced in Switzerland) is a Latin translation of the Greek.

The following links lead to catalog searches for Houghton manuscripts dated between 500 and 1599. Note that these search parameters will exclude undated materials.

In addition to the language/subject shelfmarks listed above, the following named collections include early manuscripts:

  • MSS Riant are materials collected by Paul Édouard Didier, comte de Riant (1836-1888), a portion of whose library Harvard purchased in 1899
  • MSS Richardson were donated by William King Richardson '80 (1859-1951)
  • MSS Typ were donated by Philip Hofer '21 (1898-1984), founding curator of Houghton's Printing & Graphic Arts collection, or purchased with his bequest
  • MSS Widener were part of the collection of Harry Elkins Widener '07 (1885-1912)