Collections, Compilations, and Convolutes of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscript Fragments in North America before ca. 1900
Scott Gwara
Using evidence drawn from S. de Ricci and W. J. Wilson’s Census of Medieval Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States Canada, American auction records, private library catalogues, public exhibition manuscript fragments surviving institutional libraries, this article documents nineteenth-century collections medieval North America before ca. 1900. Surprisingly few can be identified, most them have disappeared. The constituents are found multiple two universities (New York University Cornell University), one Learned Society (Massachusetts Historical Society). fragment reflect collecting genres documented England same period, including albums discrete fragments, grangerized books, individual miniatures or “cuttings” (sometimes framed). A distinction is between undecorated text illuminated ones, explained by aesthetic scholarly motivations. An interest often binding waste, 1880s.
Fragmentology