Manuscripts

Definition of a manuscript

1. The selection criteria

• The place where the manuscript is kept must be situated in the Communauté française de Belgique (in Wallonia or in Brussels)


• The manuscript must be from the Western European Middle Ages


• It must have been created between 500 and 1500

2. The following factors are optional

• The origin and/or the provenance of the manuscript


• The language(s) of its contents (French, Greek, Latin, Romance languages and Arabic languages, etc.)


• The nature of the contents (historical, literary, musical, philosophical, religious, scientific, theological, etc.)


• The form (codex, fragment, scroll, tablet, etc.)


• The medium (papyrus, parchment, paper, etc.)

2. The following are not currently included in the inventory

• Manuscripts written after 1500


• Private notes

Three categories of information

All the manuscripts kept in the French-speaking Community of Belgium (nearly 1,300 codices from the Middle Ages) are currently contained in our computer system. For standardisation reasons, and in order to guarantee the relevance of the information, each notice corresponding to the description of a manuscript was corrected, standardised and supervised by the project’s scientific committee, or by the institution that holds the manuscript, before being put online.

1. Information concerning administration and logistics

• Locating the manuscripts in relation to a region, a town or an establishment

2. General information on the manuscript collections

• General description of the collections owned by each establishment


• Illustration(s) of the collection

3. Targeted information on each manuscript

• Location of the manuscript within the establishment


• Contents of the manuscript


• Material description of the manuscript


• History of the manuscript

Methodology

Where does the information come from?

Logistical or administrative information concerning the place where the manuscripts are kept is provided by:

• the institution itself


• the institution's website, if it has one

General information on the manuscript collections is provided by:

• the institution itself


• the institution's website, if it has one


• the catalogues and/or inventories published

The information concerning the individual details of each manuscript originates from:

• the catalogues and/or inventories published


• the "physical" control of the manuscript carried out by the institution if it so wishes or by any other external person


• the private database, belonging to Dr Thomas Falmagne