Sidebar
Main Content
Special Collections: Manuscripts
I. Program Information
Manuscript acquisitions support research and learning in the humanities in both general and specific ways. They are not tied to any single department, program, or set of academic units at Penn. To a considerable extent, acquisitions relate to existing collections and collection strengths. This is the case for both codex manuscripts and for modern manuscript collections. Although not tied directly to Penn academic programs, manuscript acquisitions are available for consultation by all Penn faculty and students.
II. Collection Description
At present, manuscript and archival holdings housed in Special Collections comprise approximately 9,500 linear feet. The number of codices exceeds fifteen hundred titles, and the number of manuscript collections exceeds three hundred, with an estimate of the number of leaves in the millions. The earliest manuscript dates from the eighth century A.D.; the latest is present day. Although English-language materials predominate, we hold manuscripts in many foreign languages, including Arabic, Dutch, Flemish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Lithuanian, Persian, Portuguese, Sanskrit, Sinhalese, Spanish, Tamil, and Turkish.
Codex manuscripts have traditionally been acquired for their textual significance, not for illuminations. Most dates range from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries. Geographically, European codices are emphasized. Of particular note are the holdings in medieval philosophy and theology; medieval Catholic liturgical and devotional literature, including legends and lives of the saints; rules of religious orders and other items documenting monastic life; late medieval and early modern French and Italian poetry; golden-age Spanish poetry and drama; Aristotle texts and commentaries, mostly in Latin; and materials extensively documenting the history of the papacy and of various Italian city states during the late Middle Ages and early modern period. Additional holdings include several American bound manuscripts comprising works of literature, commercial or legal documents, and class notes from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries and music scores from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Individuals or institutions for which we are the major repository include American Musicological Society; Marian Anderson; Robert Montgomery Bird; Van Wyck Brooks; Theodore Dreiser; James T. Farrell; Arthur Huff Fauset; Edwin Forrest; Waldo Frank; Horace Howard Furness, Sr. and Jr.; Wanda Gag; Institute of Contemporary Art; Henry Charles Lea; Horace Liveright; Alma Mahler-Werfel; John Mauchly; Lewis Mumford; Musical Fund Society; Margaret Naumburg; Eugene Ormandy; Joseph and Elizabeth Pennell; Philadelphia Art Alliance; Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture; Samuel Randall; Burton Rascoe; Agnes Repplier; George Seldes; May Sinclair; Edgar Fahs Smith; Leopold Stokowski; Franz Werfel; and Carl Zigrosser.
Notable additional holdings include the Benjamin Franklin Papers relating to his residence in France; the Wetherill Collection of business records; the Curtis Publishing Archives containing files from the company's advertising and marketing department; the Brinton Collection relating to Mesoamerican linguistics and anthropology; the William Smith Papers and the William Pepper Papers (both former Provosts of the University of Pennsylvania); various collections relating to nineteenth-century American theater history; various collections relating to Indian history from the eighteenth through twentieth century; and a collection of manuscripts in various Indic languages (Sanskrit predominates).
III. Guidelines for Collection Development
- Chronological
Materials that originate from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries currently predominate. Codex manuscripts from the Middle Ages through the early modern period are also acquired selectively, as opportunity and programs permit.
- Formats
Archival research materials are acquired in a wide variety of formats. They include but are not limited to codices; personal papers; institutional records; photographic materials; prints; programs; playbills; music scores; original works of art on paper; individual letters, manuscripts, typescripts, and documents; audiotapes and transcripts; and to a lesser extent, various additional forms of realia.
- Geographical
Emphasis is placed on American and European materials. Materials from India are also acquired selectively.
- Language
The preponderance of materials acquired are English-language. Western European languages are also emphasized.
- Publication Dates
IV. Principal Sources of Supply and major Selection Tools
V. Subjects Collected and Levels of Collecting
VI. Subjects Excluded
We have an agreement with the University Archives and Records Center not to collect University records or faculty papers, except for those faculty papers that directly relate to current holdings. We do not actively collect architectural drawings, for which the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania remains the primary repository. We do not actively collect Hebraica, which remains under the purview of the Center for Judiac Studies, now part of the University of Pennsylvania.
VII. Cooperative Arrangements and Related Collections
