Fragments of a rare manuscript about Merlin dating back to 1300 have been discovered and digitized as part of a groundbreaking three-year project at Cambridge University Library.
A fragile fragment of a 13th-century manuscript hidden in plain sight in the binding of a 16th-century archival journal was discovered in Cambridge and determined to contain rare medieval stories
about Merlin and
King Arthur.
A manuscript first discovered in a Cambridge University library in 2019 has now been identified as part of the Suite Vulgate du Merlin (The Vulgate of Merlin), a French-language continuation of the legend of King Arthur. The story was part of the Lancelot Grail cycle, which became a medieval bestseller, but few have survived to the present day.
Just under forty manuscripts of Merlin's Vulgate have survived, and each is unique because it was handwritten by medieval scribes.
The latest find has been identified as having been written between 1275 and 1315. The manuscript survived the centuries after it was revised in the 1500s and used as a cover for the property record of the Huntingfield estate in Suffolk, owned by the Wannek family of Heveningham.
This meant that the amazing find had been folded, torn and even sewn into the binding of the book, making it virtually impossible for Cambridge experts to access it, read it or confirm its provenance.
Getting started with the manuscript
The discovery was followed by the launch of a ground-breaking collaborative project that showcased the work of the University Library's Cultural Heritage Visualization Laboratory (CHIL), and combined historical science with cutting-edge digital technology to unlock the manuscript's long-held secrets without damaging the unique document.
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Dr. Irene Fabry-Teranchi, a French specialist in collections and academic relations at Cambridge University Library, was among those who first realized the significance of the find.
"It was first thought to be a 14th-century story about Sir Gawain, but further study revealed that it is part of the Old French Vulgate of Merlin, a different and extremely important Arthurian text," she says. Because all manuscripts of the time were copied by hand, each one is different and reflects the changes made by medieval scribes.
This manuscript is believed to belong to a short version of Merlin's Vulgate, and minor errors - such as the mistaken use of the name "Dorilas" instead of "Dodalis" - will help Dr. Fabry-Teranchi and her colleague Natalie Coble of the French public institution of higher education, Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, trace its lineage among the surviving manuscripts.
The carefully executed capital letters, highlighted in red and blue, provided additional clues to the manuscript's provenance and allowed us to determine that it was created between the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.
The text is written in Old French, the language of the court and aristocracy in medieval England after the Norman Conquest, and this fragment belongs to the genre of Arthurian romances, which were intended for a noble audience, including women.
Manuscript contents
The fragment recounts two key episodes from the end of Merlin's Vulgate suite. The first part recounts the victory of the Christians over the Saxons at the Battle of Cambenica. It recounts the struggle of Gawain (with his sword Excalibur, horse Gringalet and supernatural powers), his brothers and his father King Lot against the Saxon kings Dodalis, Moidas, Orianse and Brandalus.
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The second passage is a more courtly scene, played out at the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, when Merlin appears in Arthur's court disguised as a harpist, a moment that emphasizes his magical abilities and importance as an advisor to the king.
"While they were enjoying the feast, and Seneschal Kay was serving the first course to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, the most handsome man ever seen in the Christian lands arrived. He was dressed in a silk tunic, girt with a silk harness woven with gold and precious stones, which glittered so brightly that it illuminated the whole room," a translation of a fragment of the manuscript of Suite Vulgate du Merlin.
Working with the manuscript
This find kicked off an extensive conservation and research project supported by the University Library with funding from Cambridge Digital Humanities.
The condition of the fragment presented a serious problem. It was fragile, with tears and creases that made it difficult to handle. Traditional restoration methods might have involved physically removing the binding to unfold the fragment, but this risked irreparable damage.
Instead, the team decided to leave the fragment in place, preserving it as an example of a 16th-century archival binding and using the latest technology to virtually unwrap and digitize it. "It's not just the text itself, but the material artifact. The way it has been reused tells us something about archival practice in sixteenth-century England. It is a piece of history in itself," as Dr. Fabry-Teranchi explains the importance of preserving the fragment in its original form.
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An interdisciplinary team of curators, restorers and imaging specialists from across the University of Cambridge, including departments such as Archives and Modern Manuscripts, Restoration and Heritage, Collections and Academic Relations, worked with the CHIL lab to analyze and digitize the fragment.
The methods used by Amelie Deblauw, Blazej Mikula, and Macej Pawlikowski of CHIL, supported by Jennifer Murray of the Library's Restoration Department, allowed them to virtually unwrap the fragment and access hidden parts of the text.
Maciej Pawlikowski, Head of the Cultural Heritage Imaging Laboratory (CHIL) at Cambridge University Library, says: "This project was an amazing opportunity to use every possible advanced imaging technique in our photographic arsenal. And each of them shed light on something very important. The result was a set of unique digital objects that put the original piece into a whole new context and changed the way we think about it."
To accomplish this, the team applied a variety of research methods.
Multispectral imaging (MSI)
This technique used at CHIL involves capturing the fragment in different wavelength ranges of light, from ultraviolet to infrared. The high-resolution images obtained with MSI allowed the team to improve the readability of the text.
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Images processed with geospatial software revealed details not visible to the naked eye. The piece was heavily rubbed and worn from use as a cover, but MSI helped identify text and highlight annotations in the margins.
Computerized tomography (CT scan)
Using equipment and expertise from the university's Department of Zoology, the team used a powerful X-ray scanner, typically used to scan fossils or skeletons, to virtually penetrate through the layers of parchment and uncover hidden structures in the binding.
This allowed us to create a 3D model of the fragment and its binding and to study the structure of the binding without physically dismantling it. The scans showed how the fragment was sewn into the cover, allowing us to understand the technique of 16th century archival binding. The CT scan relies on the difference in density of the material. In this case, both materials were of the same density.
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The pages were stapled together using thin strips of the same or similar parchment. The team found sufficient gap between the pages and the stitching to fix this separation.
3D modeling
Industrial scanning techniques have produced highly detailed virtual models of the fragment, allowing researchers to study its folds, stitching and creases in great detail.
Virtual deployment
The text of the fragment was not arranged in a straight sequence; parts of it were hidden under folds or sewn into the binding.
Using mirrors, prisms, magnets and other tools, the team at CHIL carefully photographed every area of the fragment. Hundreds of images were then painstakingly digitally assembled, like a jigsaw puzzle, to create a coherent image of the text.
By manipulating digital images, the team was able to simulate what the document might look like if it were physically opened.
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Dr. Fabry-Teranchi described the process as "solving a puzzle." "If this had been done 30 years ago, the fragment would probably have been cut, unwrapped and flattened. But today, by preserving it in situ, we gain crucial insight into 16th-century archival practice, as well as access to medieval history itself," she says.
A model for the future
In addition to revealing Merlin's story in this fragment, the project has set a new standard for the preservation and digitization of medieval fragments.
"This project was not just about uncovering a single text, but also about developing a methodology that can be used for other manuscripts. Libraries and archives around the world face similar challenges in dealing with fragile fragments embedded in bindings, and our approach provides a model for non-invasive access and study," the team of scientists describes their work.
The discovery has already sparked the interest of researchers and restorers, including staff at the UK's National Archives, who want to explore how these techniques can be applied to their own collections. The team hopes the project will inspire further research into medieval manuscripts hidden in unexpected places.
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The story of King Arthur and Merlin has been told and retold for centuries, but thanks to modern technology, scholars continue to uncover
new chapters. The digital results of the project are now available to the public online through the Cambridge Digital Library.
This means that for the first time, researchers and the general public can study the fragment in unprecedented detail. The digital edition includes high-resolution images, multispectral scans, and 3D models that allow viewers to rotate, zoom, and examine the text as if they were holding the manuscript itself.