The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries is pleased to announce its new semi-annual journal Manuscript Studies. This journal aims to bring together scholarship from around the world and across disciplines related to the study of pre-modern manuscript books and documents.

We are actively seeking submissions for 2017 and beyond. The journal is open to contributions that rely on both traditional methodologies of manuscript study and those that explore the potential of new ones. We seek articles that engage in a larger conversation on manuscript culture and its continued relevance in today’s world and highlight the value of manuscript evidence in understanding our shared cultural and intellectual heritage. Studies that incorporate digital methodologies to further understanding of the physical and conceptual structures of the manuscript book are encouraged. A separate section, entitled Annotations, features research in progress and digital project reports. Book,  digital project, and exhibition reviews will also be included. For more information, go to http://mss.pennpress.org.

The following articles will be featured in first issue, to be published April 2016. For subscription information, please visit the website.

·        Christopher Blackwell, Christine Roughan, and Neel Smith, Citation and Alignment: Scholarship Outside and Inside the Codex

·        Benjamin J. Fleming, The Materiality of South Asian Manuscripts from the University of Pennsylvania MS. coll. 390 and the Rāmamālā Library in Bangladesh

·        Evyn Kropf, Will that Surrogate Do?: Reflections on Material Manuscript Literacy in the Digital Environment from Islamic Manuscripts at the University of Michigan Library

·        Nigel Ramsay, Towards a Universal Catalogue of Early Manuscripts: Seymour de Ricci’s Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada

·        Linda H. Chance and Julie Nelson Davis, The Handwritten and the Printed: Issues of Format and Medium in Japanese Premodern Books

·        Timothy L. Stinson, (In)Completeness in Middle English Literature: The Case of the Cook’s Tale and the Tale of Gamelyn

·        Y. Tzvi Langermann, Transcription, Translation, and Annotation: Observations on Three Medieval Islamicate Medical Texts in UPenn MS Codex 1649