Manuscript

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.[1] 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.[2]

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.

Terminology
The word "manuscript" derives from the Latin: manūscriptum (from manus, hand and
scriptum from scribere, to write).[3] The study of the writing (the "hand") in surviving
manuscripts is termed palaeography (or paleography). The traditional abbreviations are MS Christ Pantocrator seated in a
for manuscript and MSS for manuscripts,[4][5] while the forms MS., ms or ms. for singular, capital "U" in an illuminated
and MSS., mss or mss. for plural (with or without the full stop, all uppercase or all manuscript from the Badische
lowercase) are also accepted.[6][7][8][9] The second s is not simply the plural; by an old Landesbibliothek, Germany (from
c. 1220).
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), a scroll, or bound differently or consist of
loose pages. Illuminated manuscripts are enriched with pictures, border decorations,
elaborately embossed initial letters or full-page illustrations.

Parts
Cover
Flyleaf (blank sheet)
Colophon (publication information)
incipit (the first few words of the text)
decoration; illustrations
dimensions Image of two facing pages of the
illuminated manuscript of "Isagoge",
Shelfmark or Signature in holding library (as opposed to printed Catalog number)
fols. 42b and 43a. On the top of the
works/compositions included in same ms left hand page is an illuminated
codicological elements: letter "D" – initial of "De urinarum
differencia negocium" (The matter of
deletions method: erasure? overstrike? dots above letters?
the differences of urines). Inside the
headers/footers
letter is a picture of a master on
page format/layout: columns? text and surrounding commentary/additions/glosses? bench pointing at a raised flask
interpolations (passage not written by the original author) while lecturing on the "Book on
owners' marginal notations/corrections urines" of Theophilus. The right
owner signatures hand page is only shown in part. On
its very bottom is an illuminated
dedication/inscription
letter "U" – initial of "Urina ergo est
censor signatures colamentum sanguinis" (Urine is the
collation (quires) (binding order) filtrate of the blood). Inside the letter
foliation is a picture of a master holding up a
page numeration flask while explaining the diagnostic
significance of urine to a student or
binding
a patient. HMD Collection, MS E 78.
manuscripts bound together in a single volume:
convolute: volume containing different manuscripts
fascicle: individual manuscript, part of a convolute

Materials
paper
parchment
papyrus to preserve text