University of California-Los Angeles researchers say they have created the first online virtual library of digitized medieval manuscripts.

"Searching for medieval manuscripts gets you millions of hits, most of which have nothing to do with manuscripts, and when they do, they usually feature only images of a single page rather than the entire book," said Assistant Professor Matthew Fisher. "Since finding these great projects is so tough, they're functionally invisible."

So two years ago Fisher, former UCLA Professor Christopher Baswell, two graduate students and a computer developer decided to collect links to every manuscript from the eighth to the 15th century that had been fully digitized by any library, archive, institute or private owner anywhere in the world.

Last December the researchers officially opened the Catalogue of Digitized Medieval Manuscripts that links to nearly 1,000 manuscripts by 193 authors in 20 languages from 59 libraries around the world.

During its first three weeks of operation, Fisher said the site had nearly 5,000 visitors from Australia, England, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Canada and the United States.

"We'll never replace the joy of sitting down with an 800-year-old book," said Fisher, "but we will bring the wonder of these manuscripts to people who might never experience them otherwise."

The e-catalogue is available at http://manuscripts.cmrs.ucla.edu.