ManuscriptDB
106 famous manuscripts and ancient texts, from the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Book of Kells and the Gutenberg Bible. Origins, languages, holding institutions, and the stories of survival behind each one.
Key Manuscripts
Dead Sea Scrolls
Around 981 manuscripts found in 11 caves near Qumran between 1947 and 1956, dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE....
Book of Kells
The supreme masterpiece of Western calligraphy, an illuminated gospel book made around 800 by monks of Iona or Kells. Its dense pa...
Codex Gigas
The Devil's Bible, the largest surviving medieval manuscript, 92 cm tall and weighing 75 pounds, made in early 13th century Bohemi...
Rosetta Stone Decree
A granodiorite stela carved in 196 BCE with a priestly decree honoring Ptolemy V in hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek scripts. Foun...
Gutenberg Bible
The first major book printed in Europe with movable metal type, completed in Mainz around 1455 by Johannes Gutenberg in an edition...
Voynich Manuscript
A 240 page codex written in an unknown script that has defeated every cryptographer since its modern discovery in 1912 by Wilfrid ...
Codex Sinaiticus
One of the two oldest complete Greek Bibles, written around 330 to 360 CE on parchment in uncial script. Found at St Catherine Mon...
Diamond Sutra
The world's earliest dated printed book, a Buddhist scroll produced by woodblock on 5 May 868 and found in the sealed Library Cave...
Epic of Gilgamesh Tablets
The Standard Babylonian version of Gilgamesh, engraved on 12 clay tablets around 1300 to 1000 BCE and copied for the library of As...
First Folio Shakespeare
Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies, published in 1623 by his friends Heminges and Condell. Without it, 18...