Cambridge University
It was written around 1230, and was 400 years hidden on the cover of a book. Now it was finally deciphered.
The 700th anniversary fragment from Vulgate of Merlin, An ancient French manuscript so rare that there are less than 40 copies in the world by a Cambridge University Library archivist.
For over 400 years, the manuscript remained hidden, used as the cover of another book. Even after being discovered, It remained years without the investigators being able to decipher it.
It was just now, with the technology help, that it was possible to digitally capture the most inaccessible parts without damaging the document. It was finally possible to decipher the document.
“It was not correctly inventory“Says Irene Fabry-Tehranchithe French Library expert, to. “No one had even registered in French.”
The text was written around 1230, but the fragment found is a copy of about 1300. “We do not know who wrote the text,” says Fabry-Tehranchi. “We thought it was probably a collaboration.”
History is a sequel to a previous text, dated 1200, in which Merlin is born as a clairvoyant prodigy and launches a spell to facilitate the birth of King Arthur.
“Suite Vulgate du Merlin tells us about the beginning of Arthur’s reign, of his relationship with the Knights of the Round Távola and his heroic struggle against the Saxons. It shows Arthur from a positive perspective – he is a young hero who marries Guinevere, invents the round taval and has a good relationship with Merlin, his counselor, ”explains the expert.
It will have been written on a northern dialect of France, probably by a scribe. “These are Celtic and English legends, which circulated orally in the British islands. But the language used when they are written is the ancient Frenchman because of the Norman conquest,” says Fabry-Tehranchi.
Through multispectral imaging (MSI), Computerized tomography and 3D modeling The experts were also able to understand how the document was folded and sewed in the book. “The specialized image techniques that were used in the Merlin fragment revealed details that would not be visible to the naked eye,” says the head of the analysis laboratory, Amélie Deblauwe, who used a multispectral chamber which costs almost 120 thousand euros.
It was even possible to realize that The center of the parchment was clearer than the tips, Probably because it was tied with a leather strip. “It was an astonishing time for me,” says Deblauwe. “It was a little noticeable in the color image, but it became really evident in MSI.”
“We never thought we could get such a good quality image of the binding structure,” concludes Fabry-Tehranchi, who suspects that there may still be other similar documents to discover. “It’s amazing.”
