This catalogue and project were developed, compiled, and written by Krista Milne (Leiden University) with funding from a Dutch Research Council (NWO) Veni Grant. The project lead would like to express her sincere gratitude to NWO for this funding.
This catalogue and exhibit are aimed at shedding light on what sorts of medieval manuscripts were lost during the war, and at explaining how these losses happened—with the hope of helping to prevent similar losses in the future.
The data in this catalogue were gathered, researched and supplemented by Dr. Krista Milne between 2020 and 2024. The data were drawn from pre-war catalogues, microfilm, images, and sources, which were supplemented by research using more recent sources (the sources appear beside manuscript entries). Given the nature and scope of this project, some information is not available for some manuscripts.
The website for the catalogue of lost manuscripts was created by Krista Milne, using Python, CSS and html. Part of the CSS for this project is drawn from the CSS created for the related exhibit.
Comments on this catalogue and suggestions (or additional findings) can be shared by contacting the PI on this project.
The project lead would also like to thank those who offered their kind support and shared their expertise during her work on this project. These include Hanno Wijsman and Jérémy Delmulle (both at the IRHT), Rob Goedemans (Leiden), Ben Companjen, and Peter Verhaar (both at the Leiden CDS). The project lead would also like to thank the kind archivists, librarians, and staff whose assistance enabled the primary research that went into this investigation, including the staff and librarians of the London Metropolitan Archives, the National Archives in Kew, the British Library, the Bibliothèques-Médiathèques de Metz, the Bibliotheek van Zeeland, Leiden University Library, and the Herbert Art Museum and Gallery in Coventry.