The Collection of Mediaeval Manuscript Fragments
The National Library’s collection of mediaeval parchment fragments (Fragmenta membranea) consists mainly of Latin literature used in masses and other ecclesiastical ceremonies of the Catholic Church. The collection of some 10,000 parchment fragments includes, in addition to pages of mass manuscripts, hymns and canonical hours as well as fragments of legal and philosophical texts.
When the manuscripts of the Catholic Church became redundant at the beginning of the 16th century, the pages of these manuscripts began to be used as covers for the taxation scrolls of the King’s bailiff. The separation of the manuscript fragments from the bailiff’s scrolls was initiated in the Archives of the Senate of Finland (presently the National Archives) in the 1850s. Later the fragments were donated to the collections of the National Library, then known as the Helsinki University Library. The organisation and cataloguing of the parchment fragments was launched by the musicologist Toivo Haapanen in the 1910s.
Catalogues of the Fragmenta Membranea Collection
- Haapanen, Toivo (1922). Verzeichnis der mittelalterlichen Handschriftenfragmente in der Universitätsbibliothek zu Helsingfors. I. Missalia. Helsingin yliopiston kirjaston julkaisuja; 4. Helsinki.
- Haapanen, Toivo (1925). Verzeichnis der mittelalterlichen Handschriftenfragmente in der Universitätsbibliothek zu Helsingfors. II. Gradualia; Lectionaria missae. Helsingin yliopiston kirjaston julkaisuja; 7. Helsinki.
- Haapanen, Toivo(1932). Verzeichnis der Mittelalterlichen Handschriftenfragmente in der Universitätsbibliothek zu Helsingfors. III. Breviaria. Helsingin yliopiston kirjaston julkaisuja; 16. Helsinki.
- Haapanen, Toivo (1924). Die Neumenfragmente der Universitätsbibliothek Helsingfors: eine Studie zur ältesten nordischen Musikgeschichte. Helsingin yliopiston kirjaston julkaisuja; 5. Helsinki.
- Taitto, Ilkka (2001). Catalogue of medieval manuscript fragments in the Helsinki University Library: fragmenta membranea. IV. Antiphonaria 1: Text. Helsingin yliopiston kirjaston julkaisuja; 67. Helsinki.
- Taitto, Ilkka (2001). Catalogue of medieval manuscript fragments in the Helsinki University Library: fragmenta membranea. IV. Antiphonaria 2: Plates. Helsingin yliopiston kirjaston julkaisuja; 68. Helsinki.
