The fragments of medieval text have all been hidden in plain sight, reused centuries ago as covers for early modern notebooks.
Found within the collections of the Island Archives and among the records held in His Majesty’s Greffier’s strongroom, they had been repurposed as bindings for administrative records relating to the island’s feudal holdings and have been quietly preserved for centuries by the act of reuse.
‘The whole process began about two years ago when I was asked to track down a 16th century copy of Edward III’s 1331 Extente of Guernsey and I noticed that the shelfmark contained reference to a vellum cover with Latin text that had been removed from the notebook in a previous round of conservation.
‘I checked this cover and was astonished to find that it was clearly a reused bifolium from a medieval manuscript,’ said Island Archives archival assistant Callum Tostevin-Hall.
‘The aim of the study day is to expand our knowledge of production, how they came to be here, who was reading them, and how they became broken up.’
Some of the fragments have come to light for the first time, while others had been noted by Guernsey archivists in the past, though their rarity and the significance of what they represent is only now being fully understood through academic study.
When viewed together, the 17 fragments form a collection of real importance.
Until now, there has been virtually no evidence for libraries, collections of books or literary culture on Guernsey during the medieval period.
The fragments provide the first real evidence of the books that were present on the island and the texts that were in circulation here.
‘The hope is that seeing this makes Guernsey proud of it’s medieval past,’ said Dr David Rundle of the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent.
‘A lot of research will be done, and we expect that some of the questions we have will be answered at the study day.
‘Hopefully people who come to our talk [held last night] will go and look in their attics and see if they have something.’
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