Catalogue of Digitised Medieval Manuscripts The good folk at UCLA have set up this site that allows users to locate fully digitised manuscripts currently on the web, using a search box and various browse criteria. Useful for finding these treasures, as well as for finding such things as multiple versions of the same text or the works of a particular author.

Early Manuscripts at Oxford University High resolution images of complete manuscripts, only to be attempted with a fast connection and plenty of RAM. There is more information about copyright than about the manuscripts.

Codices Electronici Ecclesiae Coloniensis This is a true research resource with digitised images in a great range of magnifications of a large number of complete medieval manuscripts in the Cathedral Library of Cologne. They are presented in a database interface with good catalogue information. There are also texts of printed books about the Cathedral Library. If this became the standard for digital presentation of medieval manuscripts, it would be possible to do real research over the internet. A peek into the future of history?

Irish Script on Screen This site displays digital reproductions of complete manuscripts, not all medieval, from various Irish institutions. There is commentary and catalogue information. Modest sized, but quite readable, images are available to all and specialist users may register to see enlargements.

National Library of Wales: Digital Mirror An increasing selection of treasures from the library, not all medieval but there are some fascinating representatives, with some complete manuscripts and basic commentary. There is also a selection of monastic charters.

The Royal Library, Copenhagen, ELEKTRA - e-manuscripts A series of complete manuscripts is displayed in good quality images, large enough to read. There are brief notes on this site, but more detailed notes are provided for some manuscripts on Late Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts on the Web.

St Laurentius Digital Manuscript Library Lund University Library, Sweden is digitising and making accessible its collection of medieval manuscripts. 65 complete volumes are presented in large clear jpegs with brief catalogue information and a search facility.

Catalonian Manuscripts Digital facsimiles with description and background information in a user friendly database format. Includes both books and document collections.

Manuscriptorium From the National Library of the Czech Republic, this bilingual Czech/English site provides catalogue information in a database interface on manuscripts in various Czech repositories. There are some complete digitised manuscripts, but full access requires a paid subscription.

Digital Manuscript Library from the Research Library in Olomouc This Czech language site features around 50 fully digitised medieval manuscripts in resolutions up to high quality legible. The material can also be obtained on CD-ROM, if you know how to fill out online forms in Czech, otherwise click on the obvious places and just look.

Manuscripta Mediaevalia A German language site that is the beginning of a project to digitise complete medieval manuscripts in German libraries. It continues to develop, now with colour reproductions as well as black and white, in a good database style interface with catalogue information.

Heidelberger Handschriften - digital This site from the University Library of Heidelberg contains a very large collection of digital facsimiles in several sets.

Verzeichnis der Handschriftenfragmente der Universitätsbibliothek Salzburg This German language site provides full reproductions of fragments of medieval manuscripts which have been used as pastedowns, bindings or similar, from the university library of Salzburg. There are high quality images and catalogue information. As they say themselves "Fragments of manuscripts relate the histories of vanished books."

Digital Collections - Bayerische StaatsBibliothek This is an enormous collection of digitised books of German interest from the Bavarian State Library in Munich. They are listed under various categories, several of which involve medieval manuscripts in Latin, German and other European languages, as well as blockbooks and woodcuts from the early printed period. Images are high quality, although some are black and white, taken from old microfilms. This is the English language version of the site, although some sections are not translated and are in German.

Digitisation of Middle English Manuscripts: The Hunterian Collection From Glasgow University Library, mainly a statement of intention to produce digital facsimiles and transcripts of manuscripts in the library. A pilot project The Romaunt of the Rose, an English translation of the famous French poem possibly by Geoffrey Chaucer, is available.

e-codices - Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland What was already an ambitious project to digitise all the medieval manuscripts in the famous Abbey Library of Saint Gall has grown into an even more ambitious project to digitise all the medieval manuscripts of Switzerland, or at least those in public collections. This may be the first nation to make all its medieval manuscripts available freely to all. The site is accessible in German, French, Italian and English. Awesome!

Valenciennes - Bibliothèque This French library has several displays of virtual medieval manuscripts, but they keep changing their website. If you click on the Fonds numérisés link from here, you should get to a list of treasures, including digitised microfilms of a large set of medieval and later manuscripts in the library, some black and white and some in colour, derived from 500 microfilms and 20,000 slides. There are also three different volumes of lives of St Amand, and a little exhibition on the Cantilène de St Eulalie, an early French poem. The French have a bit of a propensity for burying their treasures in complex municipal websites, so if the direct link doesn't work, go to the Valenciennes home page and type "fonds virtuels" into the search box.

Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image From the University of Pennsylvania Library, high quality images with very large reproductions of details from a large number of books, some of which are medieval manuscripts.

Bibliotheca Corviniana Digitalis A virtual reconstruction of the Renaissance library of King Matthias of Hungary, with full digital facsimiles. It is supposedly in four languages, but this feature does not seem to be fully operational. Click on the Corvinák link to pull up a list of shelfmarks and go from there. There are English catalogue notes on individual manuscripts.

Manuscrits de la mystique rhénane From the University of Strasbourg, a large set of complete digitised manuscripts which can be seen at very great enlargement.

Digital Library of Illuminated Manuscripts Complete digital facsimiles, but without transcripts or extensive notes, from several American University libraries.

The Stair Society - Manuscripts Full digital facsimiles of two manuscripts in the National Archives of Scotland, both with significance for Scottish legal history.

Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore di Firenze: Corali Complete digital facsimiles of a large number of liturgical music manuscripts from Florence Cathedral.

Tammelahandskrifterna From Finland, this site provides complete digital reproductions of three liturgical manuscripts with large images. The site is in Finnish, but as there is no detailed commentary, just click on the obvious links and look.

Cirsfid, Progetto Irnerio This site from the University of Bologna has been updated and its purpose is now clear. Digital facsimiles are available for a very large number of works of law and philosophy. These are only available in low resolution mode for casual readers, but subscription to access high resolution images is free. Just one little problem. Registration requires a fixed IP address, which works if you are accessing it from a university library or the like, but not if you are a freelancer working via a modem from home. Perhaps someone could tell them about passwords.

Scriptorium: Medieval and Early Manuscripts Online This site from Cambridge displays 20 manuscripts of miscellaneous content, or commonplace books, from the 15th to the 18th centuries. There are complete digital facsimiles of the manuscripts, with descriptions and bibliographies. There is also a paleography section to help you read them. It replaces the site DSpace at Cambridge: Scriptorium: Medieval and early Modern Manuscripts Online which is still online, but the new version is freely available to all.

The Parker Library on the Web This is a beta version of a site where it is intended to eventually display high resolution digital copies of 538 medieval manuscripts in the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Only limited access is available without registration.

World Digital Library This site from the US Library of Congress, with partner institutions in many countries, aims to produce digital editions of significant books and images, including manuscripts, in major library collections. It is searchable by date, geography and other criteria. The interface is user friendly, but it really requires a broadband connection. The items are viewable page by page, or downloadable as a (very large) package. It is free. Yay!

Medieval Music Database This site from La Trobe University in Australia gives information on the content of liturgical manuscripts, but also displays complete digital facsimiles of four such manuscripts.

Bibliothèque des livres à feuilleter Among the many wondrous online exhibitions of the Bibliothèque nationale de France is a series of stunning full digital facsimiles of beautiful medieval manuscript books. The images have high resolution zoom facilities and there are transcripts and commentaries. You will find you need a reasonably fast connection, but any wait is worth it. This section of the site is currently only in the French language version.

The Goodspeed Manuscript Collection From the University of Chicago, this site provides full digital facsimiles with zoomable images and catalogue decriptions of 68 manuscripts and 114 papyrus fragments. Four of these are Latin manuscripts, the others in various eastern languages.

Centre Culturel Irlandais - illuminated manuscripts This shows three full digital facsimiles of medieval manuscripts; a Flemish psalter, an English chronicle and a French book of hours. Why they are on a site devoted to contemporary Franco-Irish relations is a tad mysterious, except that they have them and they want to share.

Ville de Laon: Bibliothèque municipale This provides full facsimiles of a number of manuscripts, mostly liturgical.

De Proprietatibus Rerum From the University of Victoria, Canada, this provides a full digital facsimile of a 13th century manuscript of the much copied work by Bartolomeus Anglicus. When the site is complete it will also provide commentary and transcriptions.

Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel A large collection of complete digital facsimiles of high quality from the aforesaid library. There is also a collection of medieval blockbooks, and some documents mainly from the 16th century. Individual pages of manuscripts have persistent URLs so that they can be directly linked from other sites. Libraries have been talking about this for donkey's years, but this one has done it.

Medieval and Early Modern Manuscript Collection: Database and Digital Images From the Harry Ramson Center, University of Texas at Austin , a database of 215 manuscripts, with complete digital images for some, with the intention of providing them for all eventually. The interface is awkward for finding which manuscripts have been digitised, and the facsimiles are in the form of pdfs - not the most user friendly system.

Manuscrits médiévaux messins numérisés Complete digital facsimiles of five manuscripts from the library at Metz and one from the library of Verdun. The interface seems a little strange.