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Senate House Palaeography Collection

Senate House Library, University of London -- Special Collections

Overview

This is one of the finest open access teaching and research collections for the study of Western manuscripts in the world. The collection supports the study of manuscripts in Greek, Latin and Western European languages.

Detailed usage description

The Palaeography Room houses what is considered to be one of the finest open access teaching and research collections for the study of Western manuscripts in the world. London is acknowledged to be the principal centre in the UK for the teaching of Palaeography, and the University has the only established chair of Palaeography in the UK. A Centre for Palaeography was established in November 2000 in the University of London School of Advanced Study to act as a focus for the subject area; the Palaeography Room provides library facilities.

The collection supports the study of manuscripts in Greek, Latin and Western European languages. It covers palaeography, diplomatic, sigillography, the history of the manuscript book, codicology, illumination of manuscripts, history of libraries to 1500, the cataloguing, care and preservation of manuscripts and archive administration. There is much relevant material in other parts of the Library, such as book studies, history, literature, and theology, which includes the series Corpus Christianorum. The Library's collection of medieval manuscripts and documents, notably the Fuller Collection, are also used in teaching and research.

How to tell if the collection is useful

If you are studying palaeography in order to enhance your research, this collection may well be of interest. If you are interested in consulting the collection, email , Senate House Library, University of London.

If you plan to email the archivist with a query we suggest that you read our tutorial on how to do this most effectively.

Access arrangements

Reference access to Senate House Library holdings for members of the public costs £5 per day, or £25 for seven days. Access to archival holdings generally requires that you make prior arrangement with the . Details of membership arrangements and opening hours are available on their website.

More Information

Senate House Library's catalogue is available online.

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Abstracting information

Usage Themes Geographic area covered Size of collection Dates
  • Family history
  • Local history
  • Pre 1750

Europe

There are approximately 18,000 items in the collection.

600 -- 2000

Glossary

The Helpers system is developed as part of the Accessing our Archival and Manuscript Heritage project, at Senate House Library, University of London, funded by the Laser Foundation and the EARL Consortium. Please see the project website for further details.