A biocodicological analysis of the medieval library and archive from Orval Abbey, Belgium
Nicolas Ruffini-Ronzani|Jean-François Nieus|Silvia Soncin|Simon Hickinbotham|Marc Dieu|Julie Bouhy|Cathérine Charles|Chiara Ruzzier|Thomas Falmagne|Xavier Hermand|Matthew J. Collins|Olivier Deparis
Biocodicological analysis of parchments from manuscript books and archives offers unprecedented insight into the materiality medieval literacy. Using ZooMS for animal species identification, we explored almost entire library all preserved single leaf charters a Cistercian monastery (Orval Abbey, Belgium). Systematic non-invasive sampling parchment collagen was performed on every charter first bifolium quire 118 codicological units composing (1490 samples in total). Within genuine production Orval scriptorium (26 units), balanced use calfskin (47.1%) sheepskin (48.5%) observed, whereas less frequent (24.3%) externally produced acquired by (92 units). Calfskin preferably used higher quality manuscripts while tends to be standard choice ‘ordinary’ book production. This finding is consistent with thirteenth-century accounts Beaulieu Abbey (England) where supply more limited its price higher. Our study reveals that making archival documents does not follow same pattern as books. Although five earliest are made calfskin, 1230s onwards, written sheepskin.
Royal Society Open Science|IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome)|Apollo (University of Cambridge)|Apollo (University of Cambridge)|PubMed Central