HMML Hill Museum & Manuscript Library

10/12/2026

HMML microfilm scanning and active partner photography produced nearly equal numbers of images this past fiscal year (FY2026), totaling almost two million primary/unique images.

Scanning exceeded photography this year due to a project spearheaded by Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman (curator of Western European manuscripts and Special Collections), who traveled to Austria in 2025 to reconnect with HMML’s early partners. Partners have since granted permission to scan entire microfilm collections, giving these legacy analog projects a worldwide online presence. Learn more: hmml.org/stories/hmml-a-library-of-relationships

Digital Collections and Imaging statistics from FY2026 (July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026):

916,018 primary digital images created by HMML preservation partners worldwide, representing 5,534 manuscripts and art objects (38.9 terabytes of data).

1,000,172 primary digital images created by the scanning of microfilms at HMML in Collegeville, Minnesota.

50 rare books in HMML’s Special Collections photographed and made available online (vhmml.org).

13,000+ manuscripts added to the Reading Room image server.

10/10/2026

Fragmented Beauty—an exhibition on manuscript fragments, spanning over 1,500 years.

View online: hmml.org/programs/exhibitions/fragmented-beauty

Pictured: a Latin manuscript fragment used as binding waste, 12th/13th century. The fragment contains an as yet unidentified Latin text, described as the "Distinctiones verborum latinorum." Collection of HMML, Collegeville, Minnesota. (HMML 00658: https://www.vhmml.org/readingRoom/view/520714)

10/08/2026

Cataloging is complete for the manuscript collection of the StiftsMuseum Xanten in Xanten, Germany, where the StiftsArchiv is now housed.

This archive is where HMML microfilmed 338 manuscripts and archival records in 1983, capturing images of documents dated as far back as 1119, when the archive belonged to the community of canons living at the prestigious Stift Sankt Viktor in Xanten.

A large part of the collection includes more than 5,000 records documenting the collegiate foundation’s spiritual, legal, and economic presence in the Lower Rhine region. Also preserved are manuscripts that belonged to canons of Stift Xanten as well as to churches and parishes of the surrounding region, which arrived to the archive during the Napoleonic era due to consolidation efforts run by occupying French officials.

HMML photographed a number of objects with color microfilm, especially liturgical texts such as an elaborately decorated 15th-century missal (HMML 38582), and a large series of maps of landholdings along the Rhine, including many by the prolific cartographer Johann Bücker (HMML 38753 007).

Learn more: hmml.org/collections/news/metadata-for-338-manuscripts-from-stiftsmuseum-xanten-in-xanten-germany-is-now-available-in-reading-room

Pictured: a 1718 map of the course of the Rhine near Bislich, including the landholdings of Kloster Fürstenberg, by the cartographer Johann Bücker. Collection of Stift Xanten. (HMML 38753 007)

10/06/2026

In the six decades since HMML's founding, HMML staff have always worked to build bridges with libraries and with scholars.

Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman (curator of Western European manuscripts & Special Collections at HMML) visited several of HMML’s earliest partner libraries last autumn—in a quest to gather more information about these foundational projects and to seek ways of enhancing and furthering collaboration.

Of the more than 70 repositories where HMML worked between 1965 and 1973, Dr. Heintzelman was able to meet with staff from 25 libraries, located in or near five major cities in Austria: Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Graz, and Vienna.

Learn more: hmml.org/stories/hmml-a-library-of-relationships

“It used to seem very easy to describe HMML and its mission...”

10/03/2026

On Saturday, October 17 (4–5 p.m. CT), join HMML at Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to explore a range of books damaged by moisture, mold, bugs, misuse, and daily use.

Learn from Dr. Catherine Walsh (HMML director of cataloging and library services) and Dr. Matthew Heintzelman (HMML curator of Western European manuscripts & Special Collections) about how books are being protected and cared for in their current state.

Details about this free, in-person event can be found at hmml.org/programs/events

This program is in conjunction with MCBA’s workshop Book Repair: Broken Cloth & Paperback Books with teaching artist Rachel Payne.

Pictured: a damaged print book from the 16th century, containing the text of "Das grosse Leben Christi" (Mainz, 1758). Collection of HMML, Collegeville, Minnesota.

09/30/2026

Three new features were recently added to vHMML.org, the website that hosts HMML Reading Room and Museum, which provide free online access to more than 267,000 manuscripts and works of art:

* Open in new Tab button on search results
* Quick View option on the search results screen
* Image Compare option

Learn more: hmml.org/collections/news/new-features-added-to-vhmml-reading-room

New features added to vHMML Reading Room page

09/28/2026

Leaves of a palm-leaf manuscript containing Naḷacarita āṭṭakkatha, a famous Kathakaḷi play by Kerala author Uṇṇāyivāriyar about the love story of Nala and Damayantī.

This copy, written in Malayalam, was made in 1913 CE by Govindan Mele Kundakkāṭṭŭ Pālakkāṭṭiri from Maṇṇūr (Kerala, India).

View the full manuscript in HMML Reading Room (DKA 013 00001): vhmml.org/readingRoom/view/176399

The manuscript is located in the Smitha Vengery Collection housed at the Vaṭakke Maṭham Brahmasvam (Thrissur, India) and was digitized and cataloged by the Digital Preservation of Kerala Archives Project (DiPiKA).

DiPiKA focuses on digitizing and cataloging private collections of Hindu palm-leaf and paper manuscripts located in Kerala, India. HMML Reading Room (vhmml.org) will host images and cataloging produced jointly by the Vadakke Madham Brahmaswam in Thrissur, India; the École française d’Extrême-Orient in Paris and Pondicherry; and the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures at the University of Hamburg, Germany.

09/25/2026

A new guide is available for HMML's photographic collections of Ethiopian manuscripts, accessible online and in-person at HMML in Collegeville, Minnesota. The guide includes information on repositories, digitized and cataloged manuscripts, and how to view the manuscripts.

Access the guide: hmml.org/assets/pdf/HMML_Ethiopian_Manuscript_Collection_Guide.pdf

Learn more about HMML's partnerships in Ethiopia: hmml.org/about/global-operations/ethiopia

Pictured:

(1): A 13th-century Gospel manuscript, in the collection of Ḥayq Esṭifānos Monastery, Wallo Province, Ethiopia. View in Reading Room (EMML 1832): vhmml.org/readingRoom/view/203663

(2): A 19th-century "Life of Takla Alfā," in the collection of Dimā Giyorgis Monastery, Goğğām Province, Ethiopia. View in Reading Room (EMDA 00322): vhmml.org/readingRoom/view/533826

(3): Three crosses in a 19th-century scroll of spiritual healing, in the collection of Luther Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota. View in Reading Room (LSEM 00005): vhmml.org/readingRoom/view/519067

(4): A 17th-century commentary on Ibn al-Ḥājib's grammar "al-Kāfiyah," in the collection of Sherif Harar City Museum, Harar, Ethiopia. View in Reading Room (EMIP 01735): vhmml.org/readingRoom/view/527463

09/22/2026

Incredible work by Haneen al-Amssi (executive director of the Eyes on Heritage Foundation) and her team of specialists and volunteers who are applying a first-aid response to the library of the Great Omari Mosque in the city of Gaza. Read more in an article from The Palestine Chronicle (September 21, 2026): https://www.palestinechronicle.com/saving-gazas-memory-young-women-recover-thousands-of-books-from-israeli-ruins/

In February 2020, digitization of the manuscript library of the Great Omari Mosque began through a partnership between the library, HMML, and the Endangered Archives Programme of the British Library. This work was completed in 2022 and extended into a project to digitize the collection of Eyes on Heritage, a library of manuscripts, documents, and rare books collected in the Gaza Strip by the historian Dr. Abdul-Latif Abu Hashem.

A few weeks ago, Dr. Abdul Latif Abu Hashem and Haneen Al-Amasi were named laureates of the 2026 UNESCO/Jikji Memory of the World Prize for their work to safeguard Gaza’s manuscript heritage: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/palestinian-documentary-heritage-professionals-receive-2026-unesco/jikji-memory-world-prize

To date, HMML has received images of 36 manuscripts in the Eyes on Heritage collection; these images are cataloged and viewable in HMML Reading Room (vhmml.org). Details: hmml.org/collections/repositories/gaza/eyes-on-heritage

In the collection of the Great Omari Mosque, 211 manuscripts were photographed; these, too, are cataloged and viewable in HMML Reading Room (vhmml.org). Details: hmml.org/collections/repositories/gaza/al-j%C4%81mi%CA%BB-al-%CA%BBumar%C4%AB-al-kab%C4%ABr--gaza-

Learn more about both digitization projects in a story authored in July 2023 by Dr. Celeste Gianni, cataloger Arabic manuscripts at HMML: hmml.org/stories/where-were-working-gaza

Young Palestinian women are rescuing thousands of historic books from Gaza’s ruins, preserving a cultural inheritance threatened with permanent destruction.