Strange “hairy” covers of books in medieval Europe were made from seal skin obtained from Viking descendants, a new study has found. It is rare to find medieval manuscripts in their original bindings, ...

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—A medieval art historian has won Western Michigan University's Otto Gründler Book Prize for her book on the study of absences, “lacunae” and gaps in manuscripts from the Middle Ages ...

The bibliophiles in Christopher de Hamel’s lavishly illustrated book ensured the survival of medieval texts over centuries. By Bruce Holsinger Bruce Holsinger teaches at the University of Virginia and ...

Karl Marx -- or the filmmaker Luis Buñuel -- would have found just as much to scoff at in 15th- and 16th-century Burgundy as in the modern world. It was then that, here as in other parts of Europe, ...

Oftentimes, we are preoccupied with the contents of a book rather than the book itself. The phrase, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is preached as a metaphorical reminder not to be quick to judge ...

The division of work in the Harley Psalter / William Noel -- The Cutbercht Gospels and the earliest writing center at Salzburg / Susan E. von Daum Tholl -- How fast did scribes write? Evidence from ...

Two incredible examples of medieval book art are on rare view in New York: the Metropolitan Museum of Art is hosting the hefty Winchester Bible, and the Morgan Library and Museum is celebrating the ...

In 1986, divers fished a series of ancient fragments out of a lake in a Longford County village in Ireland. The pieces were well-preserved, thanks to sediments in the lake—but they were no humble find ...

12th century French monks used animal skins to bind and cover their books. One group of books covers didn't look at all like the others. Protein fingerprint and DNA analysis revealed them to be not ...

Tuomas Heikkilä, Åslaug Ommundsen, Lars Boje Mortensen and Matthew Collins have won an ERC Synergy Grant to explore medieval book culture in the CODICUM project. The project will investigate ...

Jessica Hines does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...

So last week, a group of researchers who were studying a set of medieval books published their findings. They had been looking into the material used to make the books' covers. MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST ...