Fragmentarium Laboratory for Medieval
Manuscript Fragments

Fragmentarium enables libraries, collectors, researchers and students to publish images of medieval manuscript fragments, allowing them to catalogue, describe, transcribe, assemble and re-use them. Read more

All 4602 Fragments

Projects

Medieval Music Fragments from Württemberg Monasteries

The project conducts research and publication of until-now unknown medieval music fragments from Württemberg monasteries, which fragments are currently in the holdings of the Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart, the Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg, and the Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart. Show more

The “Bohn Fragment Collection” of the Stadtbibliothek Trier.

The Stadtbibliothek Trier possess an important collection of sources for the history of Gregorian chant: roughly 120 pieces of original fragments of parchment manuscripts, most from the eleventh to the fourteenth century. Many fragments survive… Show more

Fragments in Beneventan Minuscule

The project aims at the systematic identification, photographic documentation, and scientific description of manuscript fragments in Beneventan Minuscule (the script type specific to medieval Central-Southern Italy), with particular reference to those conserved in libraries and… Show more

Writing and History in the Fragments of the Bibliothèque nationale de France

The sub-project Retracing the Past will concentrate on fragment volumes in the fonds latin of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF). These volumes contain approximately 30% of the total number of fragments so far identified… Show more

The Detached Fragments of the ULB Tirol

The Austrian National Bank project The Detached Fragments of the ULB Tirol and Their Digital Catalogue aims to describe and publish on Fragmentarium some 233 fragments over the course of the project (2018–2020). Show more

Fragments in Southern Brazil: The Memorial Jesuíta

The Library of Unisinos in Saõ Leopoldo hosts the Memorial Jesuíta, which holds some incunables and numerous early modern books bound in Europe and sent to Brazile in the nineteenth century. A survey has revealed… Show more

Fragmenta Bongarsiana

Fragmentarium, e-codices and the Burgerbibliothek Bern have facilitated the digitization of approximately 150 fragments of parchment, mostly from the collection of Jacques Bongars (1554-1612). Show more

Swiss Fragments from Fulda (Codices Fuldenses Helvetiae)

This project, a collaboration between e-codices and the Institut Bibliotheca Fuldensis provides digital access to the Fulda Manuscripts of Switzerland, in hopes of providing new impetus for investigating this scriptorium and library. Show more

Manuscript Fragments from Transylvania

Among the religious institutions of Cluj (Romania), St. Michael’s parish church, the Dominican and Franciscan convents, and the Benedictine abbey of Cluj-Mănăștur (established in the eleventh century) had significant book collections in the Middle Ages.… Show more

Ticinensia disiecta

The aim of the project is to inventory, catalogue and study fragments of codices and of other medieval documents that are conserved in libraries and archives located in the Canton of Ticino (Switzerland). The ultimate… Show more

Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission (DACT)

Plainchant, that is, liturgical music from the European Middle Ages, travelled geographically and temporally, taking on new meaning and languages through religious reforms in Europe, international trade, and above all, colonialism. The Digital Analysis of… Show more

FIDEM Diplôme Européen d'Études Médiévales (DEEM)

Participants in the Fédération Internationale des Institutes d'Études Médiévales, Diplôme Européen des Études Médiévales (DEEM), Codicology 1 Course, used Fragmentarium to describe and publish images of manuscript fragments. Show more

University College Dublin: Medieval Manuscript Fragments

This is a workshop-style module which focuses on palaeographical skills and knowledge of manuscripts in a research environment. Working with medieval manuscript fragments selected by the course coordinator and librarian, the module introduces students to… Show more

Manuscript Studies at the University of Victoria

Prof. Adrienne Williams Boyarin works in collaboration with Fragmentarium and UVic's Special Collections and University Archives to teach students about UVic fragments, fragmentology, and the Fragmentarium CMS. Students in her courses research UVic fragments and… Show more

The Medieval Manuscript from Charlemagne to Gutenberg

Since the Fall of 2017, the final project in the course LIS 464 has been a virtual Fragmentarium-based reconstruction of one of the Books of Hours dismembered by Otto F. Ege in the mid-twentieth century. For… Show more

Fragmenta Iguvina – Manuscript Fragments from Gubbio

This project’s objectives are the identification, the digitisation, and online dissemination – via the Fragmentarium – of the rich collection of medieval manuscript fragments found in the archive of the Biblioteca Comunale Sperelliana, in Gubbio.… Show more

Manuscripts across the seas

The project will develop the first catalogue of early modern manuscript fragments in Australian and New Zealand library collections. It builds on preliminary work to produce an inventory of the small holdings of fragments in… Show more

Comites latentes: Hidden Manuscripts Revealed

The project ‘Comites latentes’ catalogues medieval and early modern manuscripts in the collections of church institutions and organisations in Flanders, as well as about 1500 medieval fragments held in public collections across Flanders. Show more

Fellowships

Manuscript Fragments in Argentina

This project proposes a first-ever survey of public and private collections in Argentina, starting with institutions in Buenos Aires, Mendoza, and Córdoba. The manuscript fragments, both loose and in situ, will be identified, described, digitized,… Show more

Maculature in the van Buchell collection

This project proposes to investigate the collection of books of Hu(y)bert van Buchell (1513-1599), canon of St. Mary's Church in Utrecht, and the in-situ fragments ("Maculature") in their bindings. Show more

Fragments from the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

A collection of fragments have been detached from some 28 incunabula in the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Although these fragments have merely been inventoried, information concerning their host volumes… Show more

The Beginnings of the Fragment Collection of Leipzig University Library

The project explores the origins of the fragment collection of the Leipzig University Library, concentrating on seven soft-bound fascicles holding several groups of fragments. Show more

The Exeter Fragments Project

In spite of the importance and interest given to its books, Exeter Cathedral Library has a collection of medieval manuscript fragments that remains almost entirely unexplored. This project will publish fragments on Fragmentarium and produce… Show more

Medieval manuscript fragments of Teutonic Prussia

This project proposes to use in-situ manuscript fragments to illuminate understudied aspects of the history of medieval Prussia. It proposes to reveal the specificity of the local intellectual environments and the relations between them, to… Show more

Hidden and Uncatalogued Fragment Collections: The Abbey of Stams (O. Cist.)

This project proposes to conduct a first survey of the fragments, organizing them according to paleographical and linguistic criteria, as well as content. In the first project phase, the fragments were assigned shelfmarks, 262 of… Show more

News

2023

May

New Romanian Publications on Fragmentology and Manuscript Culture

Professor Adrian Papahagi announces:

It is my pleasure to announce that the catalogue of an exhibition of medieval manuscript fragments from Cluj, Romania (2022) can now be downloaded freely here:

https://centrulcodex.files.wordpress.com/2023/04/papahagi-transylvanian-puzzle-fragmenta-codicum.pdf?force_download=true

Also, a book discussing numerous manuscripts, manuscript fragments, and incunabula connected to the medieval dioceses of Cenad, Oradea, and Transylvania may be of interest to some of you. It can be ordered from the publisher:

https://libraria.ubbcluj.ro/produs/books-from-lost-libraries-the-medieval-dioceses-of-cenad-oradea-and-transylvania/

The book inaugurates a series edited by the Centre for the History of the Book (CODEX) at the University of Cluj. The second volume in the series, focusing on the book culture of the Transylvanian Saxons, can also be ordered from the publisher:

https://libraria.ubbcluj.ro/produs/the-transylvanian-saxons-and-their-books-in-the-middle-ages/

2023

Mar

Fragmentarium Video Conference: video available

Interested in stories of in-situ manuscript fragments? The video from the Fragmentarium Video Conference of Friday, March 10, 2023 is now available. Featuring Marina Bernasconi Reusser, Adinel Dincă, and Alessandra Molinari.

2022

Dec

Fragmentology #5 Published

Fragmentology 5 (2022) has been released! Concurrent with issue #5, Fragmentology has moved to the Shared Open Access Publishing Platform (SOAP2) to improve its sustainability.

Events

2023

Jun

Upcoming Event

Fragmentarium Video Conference: Deathless Fragments

Eric Johnson, Professor and Curator of Thompson Special Collections, The Ohio State University, will present a video conference: "Deathless Fragments: A Virtual Tour of the Current Exhibit at the Thompson Library" on 9 June 2023 at 1700 Central European Summer Time (1600 BST, 1100 EDT, 800 PDT). Please register to attend.

Ohio is awash in the remains of medieval books. Between the 1930s and early 2000s, hundreds of medieval manuscripts were broken and dispersed, principally by two key figures: Otto Ege (1888-1951) and Bruce Ferrini (1949-2010). Although they never knew each other, together these two figures cut apart and scattered the remains of countless valuable and exceptional medieval books, obscuring their contents and complex histories, seemingly forever. Many of those pieces now reside at Ohio State, presenting students, teachers, researchers, and the public with limitless opportunities for exploration, learning, and discovery. Deathless Fragments considers Ohio’s complex medieval manuscript legacy by exploring both its history as a site of manuscript destruction and its future as a center for the reconstruction and recovery of lost medieval books.

2023

Apr

Fragmentarium Video Conferences: Round Table on Cataloguing loose Fragments

Monday, 3 March 2023, at 5 PM Zürich time, Round Table on Cataloguing loose Fragments, featuring

Godfried Croenen, Flemish Heritage Libraries / Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheken
Anne Fellinger, Archives d'Alsace
Marie Turner, Cambridge University Library

The Round Table was held on Zoom.

The video is now available.

2023

Mar

Fragmentarium Video Conference: Round Table on Cataloguing in situ Fragments

Fragmentarium Video Conferences are back, starting with a pair of Round Tables on cataloguing fragments.

Friday, 10 March 2023, at 5 PM Zürich time, Round Table on Cataloguing in-situ Fragments, featuring

Marina Bernasconi Reusser, Centro di competenza per il libro antico, Lugano, director of the project “Ticinensia disiecta”
Adinel Dincă, Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai, Cluj, director of the project “Literacy and Literary Culture in Mediasch/Mediaş (Transylvania) in the 14th-16th Centuries. Conservation, virtual reconstruction, and scholarly analysis of a Transylvanian parish church and gymnasium library.”
Alessandra Molinari, Università di Urbino, director of the project “Textus Invisibilis”

The Round Table was held on Zoom. The Video is now available.

Publications

Fragmentology

Fragmentology is an international, peer-reviewed Open Access journal, dedicated to publishing scholarly articles and reviews concerning medieval manuscript fragments.

Latest issue:

Fragmentology #2 (2019). DOI: 10.24446/2ipg

W. Duba, “Fragmentarium”, Das Mittelalter 24 (2019): Digitale Mediavistik und der deutschsprachige Raum, 221–223. DOI: 10.1515/mial-2019-0015
P. Pludra-Żuk, “Czy potrzebna nam fragmentologia? Na marginesie pierwszego numeru pisma „Fragmentology““ (“Do We Need Fragmentology? Notes on the First Issue of the Journal ‘Fragmentology’”), Kwartalniak Historii Nauki i Techniki 64:4(2019), 173–182. DOI: 10.4467/0023589XKHNT.19.035.11043

Participation & Recruitment

Fragmentarium Cataloguing Courses

Scholars interested in an intensive two-day course on manuscript fragments and Fragmentarium may be interested in attending one of our cataloguing courses, where they will undergo intensive training in how to describe and encode manuscript fragments.