Archives and Special Collections: Medieval Manuscripts: Home

This guide covers medieval manuscripts held by Durham University, Durham Cathedral and Ushaw College. As the location of Durham manuscripts is often misidentified by inquirers and in published citations, it is useful to treat these separate collections together. As yet, there is no complete modern online catalogue of medieval manuscripts for any of the three libraries.

Medieval manuscripts are here taken to include material in book form (codices) and fragments. Archive material such as charters or volumes of records are not generally included, although there are areas where this distinction becomes blurred. Major collections such as Durham Cathedral Archives and the records of the bishopric of Durham contain large quantities of medieval documents, but these collections are dealt with separately. Where material of an archival nature is included here, it tends to be single volumes that have been detached from the body of records of which they were once part of.