This online catalogue currently contains over 90,000 inventory records in the HMML collection. As a work in progress there may be errata and inaccurate entries. HMML welcomes corrections from users. E-mail your correction with the source number and the name of the field that needs correction.

You may search by shelfmark, library, city, author, title, incipit, or date. Your results will be lists of authors and texts. These will link with the manuscript catalogue record.

If you browse by city and library, you will get lists of shelfmarks, which will link with the manuscript catalogue record.

You can search on one field or all fields. Note that you may not get a match if you enter all the fields. Sometimes, the least amount of data entered in a field can yield the most information about a manuscript.

Source
The source is the HMML project number created by the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library. Use it only if you know the HMML project number. Do not use punctuation.

Shelfmark
You may enter all or part of a shelfmark. If you enter all of the shelfmark, you must enter it exactly as HMML did when creating the record. Set the city and the library and enter a portion of the shelfmark in order to find the exact manuscript you want.

The shelfmark is the one that the manuscript bore when HMML photographed it. HMML tries to keep up with changing shelfmarks. But if the shelfmark has changed and HMML was not notified, this change is not reflected in the catalogue record. Try former shelfmarks and notify HMML of any new ones.

Library
Use the drop-down menu to find the name of the library that owned the manuscript when HMML photographed it. If the manuscript changed hands since then and HMML was not notified, this is not reflected in the catalogue record.

Some libraries have unique names; other names, such as Stiftsbibliothek, can apply to more than one library. Use the city drop-down menu to narrow your search.

If the name of a library is not in the drop-down menu, HMML does not have any manuscripts from that library.

City
Use the drop-down menu to find the name of the city where the library that owns the manuscript is located.

Some cities have more than one library. Use the library drop-down menu to narrow your search.

If the city is not in the drop-down menu, HMML does not have any manuscripts from that city.

Author
Enter all or part of the author’s name. The author file in the catalogue is not yet standardized. Try entering more than one version or spelling of an author’s name for best results. For example, “Origin,” “Origenes,” and “Origines” are all in the catalogue, as are “Bernard,” “Bernardus,” and “Bernhardus.”

Title
Enter all or part of the title. This field includes exact titles as well as genres. An example of a genre would be “Sermons” or “Documents.” An example of an exact title would be “Tractatus de origine Ordinis Servorum b. Mariae Virginis…”

Try entering one or two words of the title or assigned title. Experiment with variant spellings, especially for works in the vernacular.

Incipit
Enter all or part of the incipit. This is not linked with In Principio. The incipit data is incomplete in this early version of the catalogue.

Date
Enter Arabic numerals, such as “12th century” or “13th/14th century.”

It is possible to search for an exact century. It is not possible to search for dates greater than or less than a specific date or century.

It is possible to use this field to limit search results by author or title. For example, enter “sermons” in title field and “15th century” in date field to find collections of 15th-century sermons in the catalogue.

Browsing
You may browse by city, or library, or both. Use this feature if you want to see all the manuscripts HMML has from a particular library. This will also help you find shelfmarks.

The browsing feature will bring up the entire catalogue record.

Database Protocol
The online version of the HMML catalogue is an Access database, searched by SQL protocols. Wild card or boolean searches will not provide optimal results.