Texts on Parade

From Antiquity to the Modern World

Types of Texts preserved in Manuscripts and Written Records
on Papyrus, Parchment, Paper, and other Materials

Specimens in a private collection
Reproduced by permission
Descriptions by Mildred Budny

PART I.  Here we group, by their Type of Text or by their Writing Material, a selection of specimens drawn from our Galleries of Scripts on Parade and other parts of the same collection.

So far:

I.      Texts on Papyrus
II.    Biblical & Liturgical Manuscripts
III.  Koran/Qur’an Manuscripts
IV.   Sanskrit & Prakrit Palm-Leaf Manuscripts
V.    Chinese & Related Materials
VI.     Occult, Astrological & Magical Texts

Here are specimens — mostly fragmentary — of manuscripts and documents in various languages, including both secular and religious concerns.  They represent, for example, records of divers transactions, Biblical texts of various kinds, the Qur’an/Koran in different copies, an Abbasid biographical collection, an apocryphal ‘Life of the Virgin’ in Byzantine Greek, a variety of Arabic and Ottoman Turkish texts using watermarked European paper, and the components of a composite Yemeni bookbinding with reused leaves from older manuscripts.

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I.     Texts on Papyrus

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Deed of sale in Latin on parchment, with folded flap and attached tag but missing seal(s), circa 1200 CE. Deed of sale of a plot of land at Preston (Suffolk), near Ipswich (purchased in a group in London)
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II.    Biblical & Liturgical Manuscripts

[More Coming Soon]

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III.  Koran/Qur’an Manuscripts

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Recto of 2 fragments of a leaf from a Qur'an/Koran in Arabic in Kufic script on parchment, 9th or 10th century CE (purchased in London in the 1980s from the dregs of an antiquarian book-shop or antiquities-shop which closed down in the 1940s)
« of 7 »

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IV.   Sanskrit & Prakrit Palm-Leaf Manuscripts

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Front of leaf from a 5-line Palm-leaf manuscript with a functional single stringing hole and a Buddhist text in Sanskrit from Nepal, probably 15th century CE.(purchased online from a seller in the United States)
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V.     Chinese & Related Texts

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« of 4 »

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VI.     Occult, Astrological & Magical Texts

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« of 4 »

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You can visit the Gallery of Scripts on Parade.

Other Galleries are in the course of installation for Latin, Western European Vernacular, and other Languages.

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