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~~[[Image:Codex Bruchsal 1 68r.jpg|thumb|right|[[Christ Pantocrator]] seated in a capital "U" in an [[illuminated manuscript]] from the Badische Landesbibliothek, Germany.]]~~

-

A '''manuscript''' is a recording of information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way. The term may also be used for information that is hand-recorded in other ways than writing, for example [[inscription]]s that are chiselled upon a hard material or scratched (the original meaning of ''[[graffiti]]'') as with a knife point in plaster or with a [[stylus]] on a waxed tablet, (the way Romans made notes), or are in [[Cuneiform script|cuneiform writing]], impressed with a pointed stylus in a flat tablet of unbaked clay. The word ''manuscript'' is derived from the [[Latin language|Latin]] ''manu scriptum'', literally "written by hand."

-

In [[publishing]] and academic contexts, a "manuscript" is the text submitted to the publisher or printer in preparation for publication, usually as a typescript prepared on a [[typewriter]], or today, a printout from a [[Personal computer|PC]], prepared in [[manuscript format]].

-

Originally, all books were in manuscript form. In China, and later other parts of East Asia, [[Woodblock printing]] was used for books from about the seventh century. The earliest dated example is the [[Diamond Sutra]] of 868. In the Islamic world and the West, all books were in manuscript until the introduction of [[movable type]] [[printing]] in about 1450. Manuscript copying of books continued for a least a century, as printing remained expensive. Private or government documents remained hand-written until the invention of the [[typewriter]] in the late nineteenth century. Because of the likelihood of errors being introduced each time a manuscript was copied, the [[textual criticism#Stemmatics|filiation]] of different version of the same text is a fundamental part of the study and criticism of all texts that have been transmitted in manuscript.

-

In [[Southeast Asia]], in the first millennium, documents of sufficiently great importance were inscribed on soft metallic sheets such as [[copperplate]], softened by refiner's fire and inscribed with a metal stylus. In the [[Philippines]], for example, as early as 900, specimen documents were not inscribed by stylus, but were punched much like the style of today's [[dot-matrix printer]]s. This type of document was rare compared to the usual leaves and bamboo staves that were inscribed. However, neither the leaves nor paper were as durable as the metal document in the hot, humid climate. In [[Burma]], the kammavaca, buddhist manuscripts, were inscribed on brass, copper or ivory sheets, and even on discarded monk robes folded and lacquered. In [[Italy]] some important [[Etruria|Etruscan]] texts were similarly inscribed on thin gold plates: similar sheets have been discovered in [[Bulgaria]]. Technically, these are all [[inscription]]s rather than manuscripts.

-

Manuscripts are not defined by their contents, which may combine writing with mathematical calculations, maps, explanatory figures or illustrations. Manuscripts may be in the form of [[scroll (parchment)|scroll]]s or in [[book]] form, or [[codex]] format. [[Illuminated manuscript]]s are enriched with pictures, border decorations, elaborately engrossed initial letters or full-page illustrations.

-

~~[[Image:Thucydides Manuscript.jpg|thumb|Tenth-century minuscule Manuscript of [[Thucydides]]'s [[History of the Peloponnesian War]]]]~~

-

~~==Manuscripts in history==~~

-

~~[[Image:Sargis Pitsak.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Armenian manuscript]]~~

-

The traditional abbreviations are '''MS''' for manuscript and '''MSS''' for manuscripts.<ref>Harper, Douglas. "[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=manuscript Manuscript]." Online Etymology Dictionary. Nov. 2001. Accessed 10-11-2007.</ref><ref>"[http://www.library.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=228 Medieval English Literary Manuscripts]." www.Library.Rochester.Edu. 22 June 2004. University of Rochester Libraries. Accessed 10-11-2007.</ref> The second ''s'' is not simply the plural; by an old convention, it doubles the last letter of the abbreviation to express the plural, just as ''pp.'' means "pages".

-

Before the invention of [[woodblock printing]] in China or by [[moveable type]] in a [[printing press]] in Europe, all written documents had to be both produced and reproduced by hand. Historically, manuscripts were produced in form of [[scroll (parchment)|scroll]]s (''volumen'' in Latin) or [[book]]s (''[[codex]]'', plural ''codices''). Manuscripts were produced on [[vellum]] and other [[parchment]]s, on [[papyrus]], and on [[paper]]. In Russia [[birch bark document]]s as old as from the 11th century have survived. In India the [[Palm leaf manuscript]], with a distinctive long rectangular shape, was used from ancient times until the 19th century. [[Paper]] spread from China via the Islamic world to Europe by the 14th century, and by the late 15th century had largely replaced parchment for many purposes.

-

~~When Greek or Latin works were published, numerous professional copies were made simultaneously by scribes in a [[scriptorium]], each making a single copy from an original that was declaimed aloud.~~

-

The oldest written manuscripts have been preserved by the perfect dryness of their Middle Eastern resting places, whether placed within [[sarcophagus|sarcophagi]] in Egyptian tombs, or reused as [[mummy]]-wrappings, discarded in the [[midden]]s of [[Oxyrhynchus]] or secreted for safe-keeping in jars and buried ([[Nag Hammadi library]]) or stored in dry caves ([[Dead Sea scrolls]]). Manuscripts in [[Tocharian languages]], written on palm leaves, survived in desert burials in the [[Tarim Basin]] of Central Asia. Volcanic ash preserved some of the Greek library of the [[Villa of the Papyri]] in [[Herculaneum]].

-

Ironically, the manuscripts that were being most carefully preserved in the libraries of [[Classical antiquity|Antiquity]] are virtually all lost. Papyrus has a life of at most a century or two in relatively moist Italian or Greek conditions; only those works copied onto parchment, usually after the general conversion to Christianity, have survived, and by no means all of those.

-

The study of the writing, or "hand" in surviving manuscripts is termed [[palaeography]]. In the [[Western world]], from the [[Classical antiquity|classical period]] through the early centuries of the [[Christian era]], manuscripts were written without spaces between the words ([[scriptio continua]]), which makes them especially hard for the untrained to read. Extant copies of these early manuscripts written in [[Greek language|Greek]] or [[Latin]] and usually dating from the 4th century to the 8th century, are classified according to their use of either all [[majuscule|upper case]] or all [[Lower case|lower case letter]]s. [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] manuscripts, such as the [[Dead Sea scrolls]] make no such differentiation. Manuscripts using all upper case letters are called '''[[majuscule]]''', those using all lower case are called '''[[Lower case|minuscule]]'''. Usually, the majuscule scripts such as [[uncial]] are written with much more care. The scribe lifted his pen between each stroke, producing an unmistakable effect of regularity and formality. On the other hand, while minuscule scripts can be written with pen-lift, they may also be [[cursive]], that is, use little pen-lift.

-

~~==Manuscripts today==~~

-

In the context of [[library science]], a manuscript is defined as any hand-written item in the collections of a [[library]] or an [[archive]]; for example, a library's collection of the [[Letter (message)|letter]]s or a [[diary]] that some historical personage wrote. Such manuscript collections are described in [[finding aids]], similar to an index or table of contents to the collection, in accordance with national and international content standards such as [[Describing Archives: A Content Standard|DACS]] and [[ISAD(G)]].

-

~~In other contexts, however, the use of the term "manuscript" no longer necessarily means something that is hand-written. By analogy a "[[typescript]]" has been produced on a typewriter.~~

-

In book, magazine, and music publishing, a manuscript is an original copy of a work written by an [[author]] or [[composer]], which generally follows standardized typographic and formatting rules. (The staff paper commonly used for handwritten music is, for this reason, often called "manuscript paper.") In film and theatre, a manuscript, or ''script'' for short, is an author's or [[dramatist]]'s text, used by a [[theater company]] or [[film crew]] during the production of the work's [[performance]] or [[film]]ing. More specifically, a motion picture manuscript is called a [[screenplay]]; a television manuscript, a [[teleplay]]; a manuscript for the theater, a [[stage play]]; and a manuscript for audio-only performance is often called a [[radio drama|radio play]], even when the recorded performance is disseminated via non-radio means.

-

~~In [[insurance]], a manuscript policy is one that is negotiated between the insurer and the policyholder, as opposed to an off-the-shelf form supplied by the insurer.~~

-

~~==Major US Repositories of Medieval Manuscripts==~~

-

* [[Pierpont Morgan]] = 1,300 (including papyri)

-

* [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]], Yale = 1,100

-

* [[Houghton Library]], Harvard = 850

-

* [[Princeton University]] library = 500

-

* [[Huntington Library]] = 400

-

* [[Newberry Library]] = 260

-

* [[Cornell University Library]] = 150

-

~~==Manuscripts by authors==~~

-

An average manuscript page in 12 point [[Times Roman]] will contain about 23 lines of type per page and about 13 words per line, or 300 words per manuscript page. Thus if a contract between an author and publisher specifies the manuscript to be of, 500 pages, for example; it generally means 150,000 words.{{Fact|date=December 2008}}

-

~~==Footnotes==~~

-

~~==See also==~~

-

*[[Asemic writing]]

-

*[[Codex]] - technical term for a book with pages

-

*[[Historical document]]

-

*[[List of Hiberno-Saxon illustrated manuscripts]]

-

*[[List of manuscripts]]

-

*[[Manuscript culture]]

-

*[[Manuscript format]] - how modern publishers expect a manuscript to be submitted

-

*[[Manuscript processing]]

-

*[[Media preservation]]

-

*[[Palimpsest]]

-

*[[Papyrus]]

-

*[[Preservation: Library and Archival Science]]

-

*[[Scriptorium]]

-

*[[Scroll]]

-

*[[Textual criticism]]

-

~~==External links==~~

-

*[http://prodigi.bl.uk/illcat/glossary.asp British Library Glossary of manuscript terms, mostly relating to Western medieval manuscripts]

-

*[http://www.hss.ed.ac.uk/chb/ Centre for the History of the Book, University of Edinburgh]

-

*[http://chinesecodicology.blogspot.com/ Chinese Codicology]

-

*[http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/ Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]

-

*The [[Sarasvati Mahal Library]], has the [http://www.sarasvatimahallibrary.tn.nic.in/ richest collection of manuscripts in Sanskrit, Tamil, Marathi and Telugu]

-

*[http://www.schoyencollection.com/contents.htm The Schøyen Collection - the world's largest private collection of manuscripts of all types, with many descriptions and images]

-

*{{CathEncy|wstitle=Manuscripts}}

-

~~[[Category:Manuscripts|*]]~~

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[Image:Codex Bruchsal 1 68r.jpg|thumb|right|[[Christ Pantocrator]] seated in a capital "U" in an [[illuminated manuscript]] from the Badische Landesbibliothek, Germany.]]
-A '''manuscript''' is a recording of information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way. The term may also be used for information that is hand-recorded in other ways than writing, for example [[inscription]]s that are chiselled upon a hard material or scratched (the original meaning of ''[[graffiti]]'') as with a knife point in plaster or with a [[stylus]] on a waxed tablet, (the way Romans made notes), or are in [[Cuneiform script|cuneiform writing]], impressed with a pointed stylus in a flat tablet of unbaked clay. The word ''manuscript'' is derived from the [[Latin language|Latin]] ''manu scriptum'', literally "written by hand."
-In [[publishing]] and academic contexts, a  "manuscript" is the text submitted to the publisher or printer in preparation for publication, usually as a typescript prepared on a [[typewriter]], or today, a printout from a [[Personal computer|PC]], prepared in [[manuscript format]].
-Originally, all books were in manuscript form.  In China, and later other parts of East Asia, [[Woodblock printing]] was used for books from about the seventh century. The earliest dated example is the [[Diamond Sutra]] of 868. In the Islamic world and the West, all books were in manuscript until the introduction of [[movable type]] [[printing]] in about 1450.  Manuscript copying of books continued for a least a century, as printing remained expensive. Private or government documents remained hand-written until the invention of the [[typewriter]] in the late nineteenth century. Because of the likelihood of errors being introduced each time a manuscript was copied, the [[textual criticism#Stemmatics|filiation]] of different version of the same text is a fundamental part of the study and criticism of all texts that have been transmitted in manuscript.
-In [[Southeast Asia]], in the first millennium, documents of sufficiently great importance were inscribed on soft metallic sheets such as [[copperplate]], softened by refiner's fire and inscribed with a metal stylus. In the [[Philippines]], for example, as early as 900, specimen documents were not inscribed by stylus, but were punched much like the style of today's [[dot-matrix printer]]s. This type of document was rare compared to the usual leaves and bamboo staves that were inscribed. However, neither the leaves nor paper were as durable as the metal document in the hot, humid climate. In [[Burma]], the kammavaca, buddhist manuscripts, were inscribed on brass, copper or ivory sheets, and even on discarded monk robes folded and lacquered. In [[Italy]] some important [[Etruria|Etruscan]] texts were similarly inscribed on thin gold plates: similar sheets have been discovered in [[Bulgaria]]. Technically, these are all [[inscription]]s rather than manuscripts.
-Manuscripts are not defined by their contents, which may combine writing with mathematical calculations, maps, explanatory figures or illustrations. Manuscripts may be in the form of [[scroll (parchment)|scroll]]s or in [[book]] form, or [[codex]] format. [[Illuminated manuscript]]s are enriched with pictures, border decorations, elaborately engrossed initial letters or full-page illustrations.
-[[Image:Thucydides Manuscript.jpg|thumb|Tenth-century minuscule Manuscript of [[Thucydides]]'s [[History of the Peloponnesian War]]]]
-==Manuscripts in history==
-[[Image:Sargis Pitsak.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Armenian manuscript]]
-The traditional abbreviations are '''MS''' for manuscript and '''MSS''' for manuscripts.<ref>Harper, Douglas. "[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=manuscript Manuscript]." Online Etymology Dictionary. Nov. 2001. Accessed 10-11-2007.</ref><ref>"[http://www.library.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=228 Medieval English Literary Manuscripts]." www.Library.Rochester.Edu. 22 June 2004. University of Rochester Libraries. Accessed 10-11-2007.</ref> The second ''s'' is not simply the plural; by an old convention, it doubles the last letter of the abbreviation to express the plural, just as ''pp.'' means "pages".
-Before the invention of [[woodblock printing]] in China or by [[moveable type]] in a [[printing press]] in Europe, all written documents had to be both produced and reproduced by hand. Historically, manuscripts were produced in form of [[scroll (parchment)|scroll]]s (''volumen'' in Latin) or [[book]]s (''[[codex]]'', plural ''codices'').  Manuscripts were produced on [[vellum]] and other [[parchment]]s, on [[papyrus]], and on [[paper]]. In Russia [[birch bark document]]s as old as from the 11th century have survived. In India the [[Palm leaf manuscript]], with a distinctive long rectangular shape, was used from ancient times until the 19th century.  [[Paper]] spread from China via the Islamic world to Europe by the 14th century, and by the late 15th century had largely replaced parchment for many purposes.
-When Greek or Latin works were published, numerous professional copies were made simultaneously by scribes in a [[scriptorium]], each making a single copy from an original that was declaimed aloud.
-The oldest written manuscripts have been preserved by the perfect dryness of their Middle Eastern resting places, whether placed within [[sarcophagus|sarcophagi]] in Egyptian tombs, or reused as [[mummy]]-wrappings, discarded in the [[midden]]s of [[Oxyrhynchus]] or secreted for safe-keeping in jars and buried ([[Nag Hammadi library]]) or stored in dry caves ([[Dead Sea scrolls]]).  Manuscripts in [[Tocharian languages]], written on palm leaves, survived in desert burials in the [[Tarim Basin]] of Central Asia. Volcanic ash preserved some of the Greek library of the [[Villa of the Papyri]] in [[Herculaneum]].
-Ironically, the manuscripts that were being most carefully preserved in the libraries of [[Classical antiquity|Antiquity]] are virtually all lost.  Papyrus has a life of at most a century or two in relatively moist Italian or Greek conditions; only those works copied onto parchment, usually after the general conversion to Christianity, have survived, and by no means all of those.
-The study of the writing, or "hand" in surviving manuscripts is termed [[palaeography]]. In the [[Western world]], from the [[Classical antiquity|classical period]] through the early centuries of the [[Christian era]], manuscripts were written without spaces between the words ([[scriptio continua]]), which makes them especially hard for the untrained to read. Extant copies of these early manuscripts written in [[Greek language|Greek]] or [[Latin]] and usually dating from the 4th century to the 8th century, are classified according to their use of either all [[majuscule|upper case]] or all [[Lower case|lower case letter]]s. [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] manuscripts, such as the [[Dead Sea scrolls]] make no such differentiation. Manuscripts using all upper case letters are called '''[[majuscule]]''', those using all lower case are called '''[[Lower case|minuscule]]'''. Usually, the majuscule scripts such as [[uncial]] are written with much more care. The scribe lifted his pen between each stroke, producing an unmistakable effect of regularity and formality. On the other hand, while minuscule scripts can be written with pen-lift, they may also be [[cursive]], that is, use little pen-lift.
-==Manuscripts today==
-In the context of [[library science]], a manuscript is defined as any hand-written item in the collections of a [[library]] or an [[archive]]; for example, a library's collection of the [[Letter (message)|letter]]s or a [[diary]] that some historical personage wrote.  Such  manuscript collections are described in [[finding aids]], similar to an index or table of contents to the collection, in accordance with national and international content standards such as [[Describing Archives: A Content Standard|DACS]] and [[ISAD(G)]].
-In other contexts, however, the use of the term "manuscript" no longer necessarily means something that is hand-written. By analogy a "[[typescript]]" has been produced on a typewriter.
-In book, magazine, and music publishing, a manuscript is an original copy of a work written by an [[author]] or [[composer]], which generally follows standardized typographic and formatting rules. (The staff paper commonly used for handwritten music is, for this reason, often called "manuscript paper.") In film and theatre, a manuscript, or ''script'' for short, is an author's or [[dramatist]]'s text, used by a [[theater company]] or [[film crew]] during the production of the work's [[performance]] or [[film]]ing. More specifically, a motion picture manuscript is called a [[screenplay]]; a television manuscript, a [[teleplay]]; a manuscript for the theater, a [[stage play]]; and a manuscript for audio-only performance is often called a [[radio drama|radio play]], even when the recorded performance is disseminated via non-radio means.
-In [[insurance]], a manuscript policy is one that is negotiated between the insurer and the policyholder, as opposed to an off-the-shelf form supplied by the insurer.
-==Major US Repositories of Medieval Manuscripts==
-* [[Pierpont Morgan]] = 1,300 (including papyri)
-* [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]], Yale = 1,100
-* [[Houghton Library]], Harvard = 850
-* [[Princeton University]] library = 500
-* [[Huntington Library]] = 400
-* [[Newberry Library]] = 260
-* [[Cornell University Library]] = 150
-==Manuscripts by authors==
-An average manuscript page in 12 point [[Times Roman]] will contain about 23 lines of type per page and about 13 words per line, or 300 words per manuscript page. Thus if a contract between an author and publisher specifies the manuscript to be of, 500 pages, for example; it generally means 150,000 words.{{Fact|date=December 2008}}
-==Footnotes==
-==See also==
-*[[Asemic writing]]
-*[[Codex]] - technical term for a book with pages
-*[[Historical document]]
-*[[List of Hiberno-Saxon illustrated manuscripts]]
-*[[List of manuscripts]]
-*[[Manuscript culture]]
-*[[Manuscript format]] - how modern publishers expect a manuscript to be submitted
-*[[Manuscript processing]]
-*[[Media preservation]]
-*[[Palimpsest]]
-*[[Papyrus]]
-*[[Preservation: Library and Archival Science]]
-*[[Scriptorium]]
-*[[Scroll]]
-*[[Textual criticism]]
-==External links==
-*[http://prodigi.bl.uk/illcat/glossary.asp British Library Glossary of manuscript terms, mostly relating to Western medieval manuscripts]
-*[http://www.hss.ed.ac.uk/chb/ Centre for the History of the Book, University of Edinburgh]
-*[http://chinesecodicology.blogspot.com/ Chinese Codicology]
-*[http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/ Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]
-*The [[Sarasvati Mahal Library]], has the [http://www.sarasvatimahallibrary.tn.nic.in/ richest collection of manuscripts in Sanskrit, Tamil, Marathi and Telugu]
-*[http://www.schoyencollection.com/contents.htm The Schøyen Collection - the world's largest private collection of manuscripts of all types, with many descriptions and images]
-*{{CathEncy|wstitle=Manuscripts}}
-[[Category:Manuscripts|*]]