Codices Latini Antiquiores

The complete title of the work is Codices Latini Antiquiores: A Paleographical Guide to Latin Manuscripts Prior to the Ninth Century.

Paleography is the foundational principle of the project: every entry is accompanied by a photograph of the manuscript in black and white, at a 1:1 scale, along with a description of its contents, its state of preservation, the kind of writing used, and the possible date and geographical origin.

Two similar projects have appeared: the first one for documentary texts from antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, under the title Chartae Latinae Antiquiores (ChLA).

(Roger Aubrey Baskerville) Mynors (1903–1989), professor of Latin at Oxford University and editor, coauthored the last volumes.

He subsequently embarked on a comparable catalogue of ninth-century continental manuscripts which remained unfinished at his death; two volumes have since appeared, covering libraries alphabetically from Aachen to Paderborn.

Before the mid 4th century, only fragmentary scraps of literary texts and ancient classics survive; afterwards, until 800, most works are of a theological character.