Special Collections News
April 28, 2008
9th Century Carolingian Manuscript Discovery
McCormick Library staff member Sigrid Perry consulted Robert E. Lerner Professor of History and Peter B. Ritzma Professor in the Humanities about the vellum manuscript binding on a 16th century book from the library’s Johann Schulze collection, which was purchased by Northwestern in 1869. He agreed that the leaf displaying fragments of two psalms which was used to bind the book was written in an early Latin medieval script. He sent a digital image of the leaf to three expert paleographers, including two in Germany. Independently, all three scholars agreed that the manuscript leaf was a good example of texts written in the second quarter of the ninth century. In other words, it probably originated in the reign of Charlemagne’s son Louis the Pious, or perhaps even in the reign of Charlemagne (d. 814) himself. In fact, they believed the script to have been produced at the island monastery of Reichenau on the Lake of Constance in southwestern Germany because certain letters were formed in a style distinct to the monks of that scriptorium. One scholar asked if the text which was bound with the manuscript was printed in Basel since many of the manuscripts from this monastery were used by 16th century Basel printers. The book was indeed printed there. After the invention of moveable type in 1450, printing books on paper became the practice, and old manuscripts were often cut apart to be used as binding materials. Some medieval texts are known only by the compilation of such fragments from various bindings.
How rare is a twelve hundred year old manuscript binding? Only a few libraries in North America have fragments of manuscripts this old, and the one here is in good condition, well-protected in a custom-made box. Modern handwriting really began in Charlemagne’s era, known as the Carolingian period, and clear, legible scripts developed from this alphabet. The discovery that we have a sample of handwriting from the dawn of modern European civilization has generated excitement among library staff, faculty and students.
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