SIGLUM has been founded to carry out comprehensive research into manuscripts. It aims to promote the study of manuscripts and the development of different manuscript cultures through the ages. Our group was set up by a team of philologists in 2020 but it soon attracted other scholars, including historians, art historians, conservators, chemists, experts on the history of the book and paper production, linguists, literary critics, cultural experts, musicologists, archivists and librarians. Our research projects embrace manuscripts from different geographical and cultural regions and include both, early sources as well as contemporary handwritten documents. We share the passion for manuscripts and we recognize the need to study them in their manifold aspects and in an integrated way – as carriers of texts, works of art, monuments of culture, heritage of the past and material objects. The manuscripts we study come from various collections, such as Warsaw University Library, the National Library in Warsaw, departmental libraries and many other archives in Poland and abroad.

SIGLUM is an inclusive group, open to new people, projects and areas of research. We would like the manuscript studies to be a vital part of the academic universe. We hope that everyone who has thus far worked independently will join us so that SIGLUM can become a prominent research unit at the University of Warsaw. If you want to join us let us know by sending an email to contact.siglum@uw.edu.pl.