Recently Digitized Manuscripts from the BAV

Welcome! This project is a continuation of the work started by Jean-Baptiste Piggin tracking new manuscripts added to the digitized manuscripts of the Vatican Libraries. Each week we add a new page with the manuscripts from the previous week, with title, author, date and incipt where possible. Announcements of the weekly update will be posted to Mastodon, anyone with additions, corrections or information about any manuscripts is invited to contact me there and I'll add it here.

Please note that this page only lists the most recent seven entries. For older entries, please look in the yearly archive files:

Manuscripts are browsable by Fond, the term for collection, in much the same way that they are on the official BAV website. The listing here provides all high-quality digitized manuscripts, that is those not from scanned microfilm, along with the same metadata one would find in the weekly listings and a thumbnail. For some of the collections, notably Latin collections, Vat.gr and Rossiani, this generates a very large page.

In addition to the weekly entries listed above, there are a series of custom pages where groups of manuscripts are pulled from the database using custom queries. These Ad Hoc query pages are available with brief descriptions of the contents and sometimes the reason for that specific query. Please contact the editor if you have an query you'd like generated as part of this collection.

2026 Week 14

2026 Week 13

Due to Holy Week observances, uploads were only done on Monday, containing seven manuscripts. These followed recent patterns for distribution: three for Ott.lat, two each for Comb and Barb.lat To the right is Pope Leo XIV carrying the cross for the stations procession on Good Friday Below a line of lovely 16th C script from f.4r Ott.lat.2533, a work ag...

2026 Week 12

A total of forty-eight manuscripts were digitized in the past week. The largest set, twenty-three, were from Ott.lat, as has been the recent trend. The second largest group was from one of the cassettes (cases) of fragments in the Borg.copt collection, fifteen separate items this week. The rest were small in number, five from Comb, four from Vat.lat, a...

2026 Week 11

Only ten manuscripts were digitized this past week, six from Ott.lat, four from Comb. This follows the recent pattern of relatively small output weeks consisting mainly of those two fonds. This brings the Comb fond to 166 of 281 digitized, and Ott.lat 20 1,797 of 3,379. To the right is a drawing of a cameo found on f.77r of Ott.lat.2391, part of a multi...

2026 Week 10

The pace picked up this week with a total of sixty-six manuscripts digitized. Following recent trends, the largest contingent, forty-eight, came from Ott.lat, with the 13 of Comb filling in the next largest set. The remaining were in small units, two each from Ferr and Barb.lat, and a single volume upgraded from microfilm in Pal.lat. To the right is f....

2026 Week 9

Another moderately quiet week with twenty-eight manuscripts digitized and uploaded to the Vatican archives. As has been the recent pattern, they consisted of Ott.lat with twenty manuscripts and Comb with the remaining eight. Working with the Comboniani collection is less difficult than might be expected, for someone with minimal working knowledge of Ge'ez...

2026 Week 8

Ten manuscripts in total were added to the online repositories this week. These consisted of six manuscripts from Ott.lat, three from Comb, and a single volume from Barb.lat. To the right is p.7 from Comb.F.6, a 19th C Mashafa Sa'atat(pdf). This is translated as Book of Hours, but is more like a Breviary, the liturgy of the Hours for a Monastic or other...