Letter· 1460s–1500s
132 medieval notes recycled into a book’s covers
By the Editors · As reported by medievalbooks (Erik Kwakkel), 3 May 2013
FoundLeiden, Netherlands
Tucked inside a printed volume of 1577, Bibliotheca Thysiana
Students in a book-history class at Leiden University were examining a volume printed in 1577 in the Bibliotheca Thysiana, a seventeenth-century library, when they realized its boards were made from waste paper. Moulded into the covers were 132 notes, letters and receipts from a court in the Rhine region, dating from 1461 to 1508. One, from a Count Philip in 1486, simply asks for wild roses, an everyday request that has survived only because a binder reused it.
This is our summary of a find reported in the press. For the full story, photographs and any updates, read the original report in medievalbooks (Erik Kwakkel).