The Department of Manuscripts at Getty was established in 1983 with the acquisition of the collection of Peter and Irene Ludwig of Aachen, Germany. Since then, the Museum has acquired more than 160 additional works, including complete books and individual leaves. The collection largely comprises illuminated manuscripts created in Christian Europe between the ninth and 16th centuries, but also contains select examples from the eastern Mediterranean region (including Byzantium), Armenian communities, North Africa, and Ethiopia, as well as a small number of important objects representing Judaism and Islam. The department strives for a diversity of authors, artists, imagery, and types of books in order to include voices and subjects across the vast chronological and geographical extent of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Illuminated manuscripts are sensitive to light and are displayed for short periods of time in rotating exhibitions drawn from the collection at the Getty Center, as well as in large-scale national and international loan exhibitions.
