The KB preserves more than a thousand medieval manuscripts. It is difficult to say exactly how many there are: that depends on what we call 'medieval' and what we consider a 'handwriting' to be. It makes quite a difference whether we let the Middle Ages continue until, for example, 1501 or 1551. We also have the problem that such old books are usually undated: how do we know what 'medieval' is? Is every handwritten piece a manuscript? Are charters and letters also manuscripts? And do we count a hundred fragments of manuscripts as remains of as many manuscripts? What about books composed of several handwritten units? Do we count them all separately?

To cut a long story short: we estimate the number of medieval manuscripts in the KB at about 1500. Not all of these have been digitized yet, but they will certainly all be dealt with at some point. We start here, at The Memory, with the first selection.