Over 160,000 Full Color Manuscript Pages Now Available Online for Free

Links to the MSS

If you want to jump right into the collection, the University of Pennsylvania Libraries host the images and meta data at the OPenn manuscript portal. The collection is also available through the Internet Archive.

Information about the MS Collection

The online manuscript collection which was uploaded on November 28th, 2019 is the fruit of a three-year long endeavor untaken by the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL). The project was headed by Lehigh University. The collection contains over 160,000 scanned and digitized pages from 475 mediaeval to early modern manuscripts. The full name that was given to the project upon completion is Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis: Toward a Comprehensive Online Library of Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts in PACSCL Libraries in Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.

The project was made possible by a nearly $500,000 grant from the Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives: Enabling New Scholarship Through Increasing Access to Unique Materials initiative of the Council on Library and Information Resources, which is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis manuscripts contain information about science, humanities, and more.

“In addition to Lehigh and co-principal investigators at Free Library of Philadelphia (lead contributor) and University of Pennsylvania Libraries (OPenn host and lead imaging/metadata center), project participants include these libraries and museums: Bryn Mawr College, Science History Institute, College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Franklin and Marshall College, Haverford College, Library Company of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rosenbach Museum and Library, Swarthmore College, Temple University, University of Delaware and Villanova University.” [1]

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