Manuscript

Any handwritten book is called a manuscript. The oldest manuscripts we possess were discovered in Egypt and date back more than 3000 years BC. The writing, hieratic or demotic hieroglyphs, is traced on strips of linen cloth, or on papyrus.

The Vatican Virgil appears to be the oldest manuscript on which characters in the Latin language are traced. In the Middle Ages, manuscripts were very carefully crafted and adorned with beautiful miniatures.

^{Contribution by Bertrand Galimard Flavigny}