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 20

After two weeks of no manuscript digitizations, May 3-17, 2026, thirty-four manuscripts have been digitized so far this week.

2026 Week 17

This week concludes with twenty-four manuscripts digitized. Of these, a full three-quarters, eighteen volumes, came from the Ott.lat collection. Of the remaining, five were from the Pal.lat, and a single volume from Vat.lat. To the right is p.117 from Ott.lat.2159. This late 17th C manuscript is a heavily illustrated book on the fortresses and guard...

2026 Week 16

Only ten manuscripts in total were digitized this week. Nine were from the Ott.lat collection and the last one was a 12th C glossed Gospel of Luke from Vat.lat. An interesting note, all of these manuscripts were uploaded on Friday. To the right is f.14r from Vat.lat.10680, the previously mentioned 12th c glossed Gospel of Luke. This page has the start...

2026 Week 15

A total of twenty-seven manuscripts were digitized by the Vatican this week. As with recent weeks, the vast majority, twenty-two, came from Ott.lat. The remainder, also as expected, were three from Comb, and one each from Barb.lat ant Vat.lat. As an interesting note, there was not a single illuminated, or otherwise decorated, manuscript scanned this we...

2026 Week 14

A total of nineteen manuscripts were digitized this week. The vast majority, thirteen, were from the Ott.lat collection, with the remaining contributions being three from Comb, and one each from Barb.lat and Vat.gr. Despite the ratios being somewhat skewed, this stays in-line with the pattern of recent weeks. To the right is p.1 from Vat.gr.649. This ...

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...