Welcome to peraldus.ch

Update, February 2009 peraldus.ch has been inactive for several years now. My work keeps me very busy. This project might become active again in the future. This said, I'm receptive to interesting, original ideas in how to reactivate or extend this project.

This is a collection of bibliographical references to medieval manuscripts. It started out as a small project to put online an index of manuscripts mentioned in Kaeppeli's Scriptores ordinis Praedicatorum Medii Aevi (in the absence of such an index in this publication). With time I decided to add an index of mss in Bloomfield et al., Incipits... (see details under Sources). Currently, the collection catalogs some 37'000 mss (see Statistics). Under About you will find a more detailed description of the project's history and background.

This idea is to (slowly) add to the collection further references to any and all medieval manuscripts, especially references from major works of references and scholarly journals on medieval philology and codicology, preferably, but not exclusively, from those works lacking such an index.

Each manuscript covered has its own page (see under Data) offering basic identification, including, when known, ancient call numbers (for example Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek) and previous ownership, together with references to this manuscript in the scholarly works examined. Some manuscripts are particularly well documented (see for instance Paris, Bibliothèque nationale : lat. 16481).

Ancient, no longer existing libraries are also covered, and any information gathered on the fate of its ancient holdings are added here (for example Cheltenham, Phillipps Library).

Occasionnaly, I also include links to internet resources on specific manuscripts, typically to the official pages of a particular library where a formal description and/or reproductions are offered (for example Salzburg, Universitätsbibliothek : M. III. 1). This is a really nice feature and I'd like to offer as many links to reproductions as I can, but the risk that, with time, many of these links become invalid is notoriously present. Please do let me know if you find invalid links mentionned here.

Occasionnaly as well, I link to books dedicated to a specific manuscript.

A scholar or student interested in a particular codex will find here a fast entrypoint to a wide collection of bibliographical, philological and codicological data.

Needless to say, it is by no means complete. But it could grow with time into a modestly interesting reference site for scholarly research on medieval philology and codicology. Contributions are welcome: If for research purposes you happened to have produced such an index or collection of scholarly data on classical and/or medieval manuscripts in some kind of electronic form and should wish to contribute your effort to this collection I will gladly and gratefully add it to the main database (with all due acknowledgement).

I keep wanting to formalize this idea in some way, especially by giving some specific name. I fail to come up with any reasonable proposition just now. A previous version of this site has been on line since 2001 offering the first three volumes of Kaeppeli. That was just a first try, but generated a bit of interest.

This is all relatively new and should improve with time. This will certainly be the case if you, benevolent reader, would be generous enough to let me know what you think (see Contact). I'll be happy to comment or discuss any aspects of this site and/or project.