THE CONWAY LIBRARY

Introduction to Part 6 - Manuscripts

The Conway Library is the most significant collection of architectural photographs in the world. This collection is only available in microfiche and there are no plans to convert this into digital format due to complications concerning photographic rights. Over 800,000 images from The Conway library were captured in high quality black and white microfiche - with an exceptional tonal range - in 1987. To aid researches, the material was split into 6 parts.

Part 6 contains 860 fiche and covers a wide range of manuscripts from all over Europe.

• There are over 85,000 images of medieval manuscripts from the 8th through to the 15th centuries.

• The manuscripts come from Austria, Bohemia, Britain, Flanders, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland.

• There is a large section covering Byzantine texts (c5,500 images).

• There are Bibles and Gospels, Books of Hours, Psalters, Lives of Saints, Missals, Choir books, Chronicles, Romances, Bestiaries and Herbals.

The images were collected in order to teach the history of art, so there is an emphasis on the visual elements of the manuscripts rather than complete texts – but these pictures tell us an enormous amount about the medieval age. All pictures are carefully captioned, showing place, date, and other relevant information. These photographs have been used as a teaching resource at the Courtauld Institute for over 70 years – this microfiche edition will enable scholars throughout the world to share this benefit.

<back