The Manuscript Society Criteria for Describing Manuscripts and Documents
The Society’s Criteria contains a handy list of abbreviations and a glossary of terms commonly used in dealer catalogs and other descriptions of autographs and manuscripts. The 11-page guide is now available and can be downloaded without charge to serve the needs of both collectors and dealers.
A committee of The Manuscript Society headed by Norman Boas consulted widely with dealers, collectors, manuscript curators, and archivists in establishing the guidelines for describing manuscript autographs and documents.
When you click on the link below, your Web browser will automatically download the PDF source file. You can then save the file, print it out, or do both in your Web browser.
Manuscript Society Criteria.pdf
Collecting Resources
Resources to assist the collector can be scattered around the internet, found in libraries, and shared by fellow collectors. Auctions, Values, Provenance, are all constantly sought. Below are two resources used by many of the society members as they search, study and collect.
Rare Book Hub
https://www.rarebookhub.com/
Who Uses the Rare Book Hub? As noted on the Rare Book Hub website: “The Rare Book Hub is a resource for information pertaining to rare, antiquarian, and collectible books and related ephemeral material – manuscripts, letters, maps, posters, broadsides, photographs, and prints (works on paper). It is based on the principle that knowledge is power….”