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Concept
Manuscript
Summary
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has come to be understood to further include any written, typed, or word-processed copy of an author's work, as distinguished from the rendition as a printed version of the same.
Before the arrival of prints, all documents and books were manuscripts. Manuscripts are not defined by their contents, which may combine writing with mathematical calculations, maps, music notation, explanatory figures, or illustrations.
The word "manuscript" derives from the manūscriptum (from manus, hand and scriptum from scribere, to write). The study of the writing (the "hand") in surviving manuscripts is termed palaeography (or paleography). The traditional abbreviations are MS for manuscript and MSS for manuscripts, while the forms MS., ms or ms. for singular, and MSS., mss or mss. for plural (with or without the full stop, all uppercase or all lowercase) are also accepted. The second s is not simply the plural; by an old convention, a doubling of the last letter of the abbreviation expresses the plural, just as pp. means "pages".
A manuscript may be a codex (i.e. bound as a book) or a scroll. Illuminated manuscripts are enriched with pictures, border decorations, elaborately embossed initial letters or full-page illustrations.
Cover
Flyleaf (blank sheet)
Colophon (publication information)
incipit (the first few words of the text)
decoration; illustrations
dimensions
Shelfmark or Signature in holding library (as opposed to printed Catalog number)
works/compositions included in same ms
codicological elements:
deletions method: erasure? overstrike? dots above letters?
headers/footers
page format/layout: columns? text and surrounding commentary/additions/glosses?
interpolations (passage not written by the original author)
owners' marginal notations/corrections
owner signatures
dedication/inscription
censor signatures
collation (quires) (binding order)
foliation
page numeration
binding
manuscripts bound together in a single volume:
convolute: volume containing different manuscripts
fascicle: individual manuscript, part of a convolute
paper
parchment
papyrus to preserve text
ink
writing implement used
pencil to help with the writing process
pastedown (blank paper for inside cover)
script (one or more)
dating
line fillers
rubrication (red ink text)
ruled lines
catchwords
historical elements of the ms: blood, wine etc.
Official source
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