Magical Medieval Story Found In Library

A woman in glasses wearing a pink shirt holds an old piece of paper with writing on it. She stands in a lab with computers and a big machine behind her. She is being careful with the old paper.

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Top Photo: Scientist with manuscript Image: cam.ac.uk

Sometimes the best treasures are hidden in plain sight. That proved to be the case when scientists discovered a rare lost story from the Middle Ages about King Arthur and the wizard, Merlin—and it was being used as a book cover!

Back in 2019, Dr. Irène Fabry-Tehranchi discovered an old book that listed property records from the 1500s. The book looked even older, and the cover was made from parchment.

Dr. Fabry-Tehranchi discovered that the writing was a French tale, known as the “Suite Vulgate du Merlin.” Scientists learned that the book cover was created sometime between 1275 and 1315! What makes the book even more special is that it is one of fewer than 40 written copies of this story, and each copy is different because they were all created by hand.

While the story was of great interest, scientists were worried about removing the parchment cover from the book as it was old, fragile, and stitched into the book. Removing the cover would also ruin the book it was covering, which itself was an interesting piece of history.

“It’s not just about the text itself, but also about the material artifact,” said Dr. Fabry-Tehranchi. “The way it was reused tells us about archival practices in 16th-century England. It’s a piece of history in its own right.”

So what’s a scientist to do? Come up with a creative solution, of course!

Scientists working at the Cambridge University Library carefully “unfolded” the book cover digitally. They took high-quality photos using light of different wavelengths and used a scanner to take 3D X-ray images. All of these different images allowed them to see details in the cover and to see how it was folded and sewn into the book. They were able to put the digital pieces together like a puzzle, allowing them to create a digital image of what the cover would look like if it were unfolded. This digital image allows viewers to rotate, zoom and examine the text—and this is available to everyone at the Cambridge Digital Library!