Six centuries of secularism
When the first ‘how-to’ books began to explain the way the world worked, they paved the way for science and secularism
by William Eamon
Secularism at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/21793
old_manuscripts
How Close Did We Come to Losing Beowulf Forever?
Robert Bartlett on a Vital Work of the Western Canon That Barely Survived Multiple Disasters
Beowulf at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=Beowulf
![The first folio of the heroic epic poem Beowulf, written primarily in the West Saxon dialect of Old English. Part of the Cotton MS Vitellius A XV manuscript currently located within the British Library. This is a digital photographic copy of the folio. Text shown according to https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43521/beowulf-old-english-version:
WE GARDE na in geardagum, þeodcyninga, [129] þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas. Then the feast was found, he asked for it, grew under the clouds, the gods, until each of those sitting around him heard the sound of the horn, gomban gyldan. That was a good king. After that, he was remembered, walking in the fields, the good one sent to the king; the fire on the king who had long been dead. His life, the ruler of the people, the lord of the world, was taken away; Beowulf was quick to spring forth, Scyld's son, into the lands of the dead. Thus shall men go forth to good deeds, from pious gifts to their fathers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf#/media/File:Beowulf_Cotton_MS_Vitellius_A_XV_f._132r.jpg](/proxy/post_attachment/877668/0a09586373.jpg "The first folio of the heroic epic poem Beowulf, written primarily in the West Saxon dialect of Old English. Part of the Cotton MS Vitellius A XV manuscript currently located within the British Library. This is a digital photographic copy of the folio. Text shown according to https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43521/beowulf-old-english-version:
WE GARDE na in geardagum, þeodcyninga, [129] þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas. Then the feast was found, he asked for it, grew under the clouds, the gods, until each of those sitting around him heard the sound of the horn, gomban gyldan. That was a good king. After that, he was remembered, walking in the fields, the good one sent to the king; the fire on the king who had long been dead. His life, the ruler of the people, the lord of the world, was taken away; Beowulf was quick to spring forth, Scyld's son, into the lands of the dead. Thus shall men go forth to good deeds, from pious gifts to their fathers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf#/media/File:Beowulf_Cotton_MS_Vitellius_A_XV_f._132r.jpg")
New research may rewrite origins of the Book of Kells, says academic
Author challenges assumption monks on Iona created manuscript, instead positing its origins are Pictish
By Dalya Alberge
Tutivillus Is Watching You
For medieval scribes, mistakes couldn’t be easily shrugged off, as Tutivillus, the stickler demon, was always looking over their shoulders.
By: Amelia Soth
https://daily.jstor.org/tutivillus-is-watching-you/
Medieval manuscripts at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=medieval+manuscripts
Break out the calculators: November 23 is Fibonacci Sequence Day
The cornerstone of modern math wouldn’t be possible without the Hindu-Arabic numerical system.
by Andrew Paul
https://www.popsci.com/science/fibonacci-sequence-day-2025/
Fibonacci at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=fibonacci
Scientists found the key to accurate Maya eclipse tables
Eclipse tables in the Dresden Codex were based on lunar tables and adjusted for slippage over time.
by Jennifer Ouellette
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/11/study-how-the-maya-created-such-accurate-eclipse-tables/
Original article:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adt9039
X-rays from SLAC's synchrotron reveal star maps in a centuries-old manuscript
Pages from the Codex Climaci Rescriptus palimpsest from the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, were brought to the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource to recover erased astronomical text, especially fragments from Hipparchus' star catalog.
Hipparchus at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Hipparchus
Was the Bayeux Tapestry Made for a Monastic Dining Hall?
A new study offers a fresh way of thinking about one of the most famous works of medieval art by asking a deceptively simple question: where was the Bayeux Tapestry originally meant to be seen?
https://www.medievalists.net/2025/12/bayeux-tapestry-monastic-dining-hall/
Original article:
https://academic.oup.com/histres/advance-article/doi/10.1093/hisres/htaf029/8377922?login=false
5 Dazzling Medieval Manuscripts That Have Outlasted Empires
These manuscripts stand out for their artistry, craftsmanship, and historical significance.
by Tim Brinkhof
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/illuminated-medieval-manuscripts-to-know-2710634
Old manuscripts at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=old+manuscripts
Over 32,000 medieval manuscripts transcribed in four months using AI
Medievalists can now access automated transcriptions of 32,763 digitised medieval manuscripts, produced in just four months as part of a project called CoMMA—a large-scale corpus designed to make manuscript texts searchable and analysable at a scale that would be impossible to tackle by hand.
https://www.medievalists.net/2026/01/32000-medieval-manuscripts-transcribed-using-ai/
Original paper:
https://inria.hal.science/hal-05299220
The CoMMA website:
https://comma.inria.fr/homepage
Previously Unknown Medieval Chronicle Discovered
A newly discovered chronicle from the early eighth century is giving medieval historians a rare new window onto the political shocks and religious debates that reshaped the eastern Mediterranean in the decades before and after the rise of Islam.
https://www.medievalists.net/2026/02/previously-unknown-medieval-chronicle-discovered/
More articles about Maronite Chronicle of 713:
https://medievalworlds.net/0xc1aa5572_0x004102d6.pdf
New Project Explores the Craft of Writing in the Medieval Nordic World
A major Nordic research effort is taking a fresh look at the earliest written culture in medieval Finland—by studying not only what documents say, but what they are made of.
Paleography at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=paleography
Thirty previously unpublished verses by Empedocles discovered on a papyrus from Cairo
by University de Liege
edited by Stephanie Baum, reviewed by Robert Egan
https://phys.org/news/2026-04-previously-unpublished-verses-empedocles-papyrus.html
Empedocles at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Empedocles
Lost copy of seventh-century poem in Old English discovered at Rome library
Dublin scholars find 1,200-year-old manuscript of Caedmon’s Hymn composed by Northumbrian cattle herder
by Rory Carroll
Caedmon's Hymn by Caedmon as an audio file at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19677
As a ‘book scientist’ I work with microscopes, imaging technologies and AI to preserve ancient texts
by Christina Dinh Nguyen
Old manuscripts at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=old+manuscripts
Japanese researchers look at 800-year-old books and trees for signs of extreme solar events
On Feb. 21, 1204, Japanese poet Fujiwara no Teika described in his diary a bizarre phenomenon: the northern Kyoto skies suddenly burning red at night.
by By Tomoko Otake
Full article here:
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/pjab/102/4/102_pjab.102.011/_article
Solar cycle at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=solar+cycle
The Bayeux Tapestry tells only the winner’s story – but the other side can be found in old English texts
The story of the losers is full of meaningful silences and William of Normandy’s terror.
by Catherine Clarke
Bayeux tapestry at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/4445
Galileo’s handwritten notes found in ancient astronomy text
Discovery sheds new light on how famed astronomer came to lead a scientific revolution
By Joshua Sokol
https://www.science.org/content/article/galileo-s-handwritten-notes-found-ancient-astronomy-text
Galileo at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1629
Edited 119d ago
Leonardo’s ‘Codex Atlanticus’ Is Complete for the First Time in 400 Years
The Galileo Museum's Leonardotheka 2.0 reunites the artist's landmark manuscript with the 550 pages a 16th-century sculptor cut from it.
by Vittoria Benzine
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/leonardotheka-da-vinci-codex-2779022
Books by Galileo at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/39014
Edited 93d ago
We read an entire scroll — without ever opening it
PHerc. 1667, sealed since the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, has been virtually unwrapped and read from beginning to end.
https://scrollprize.org/firstscroll
More information about the Herculaneum Papyrus Scrolls project:
https://www2.cs.uky.edu/dri/herculaneum-papyrus-scrolls/
Writing As Spiritual Practice: Inside the World of Medieval Scribes
Joel Halldorf on the Monks Who Helped Preserve Generations of Cultural Heritage
https://lithub.com/writing-as-spiritual-practice-inside-the-world-of-medieval-scribes/
A student's history of education at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60113
As wars destroyed schools and libraries across Italy, one Roman official began copying ancient books and helped save centuries of knowledge from disappearing
The Letters of Cassiodorus at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18590
Up to 60% of medieval texts and 95% of manuscripts have vanished, study finds
by Dario Radley
Many stories from the Middle Ages never reached the present. A new study suggests the loss was far greater than scholars once thought. Researchers estimate that up to 60% of medieval literary works and more than 95% of the manuscripts that once carried them have disappeared over time.
https://archaeologymag.com/2026/07/medieval-texts-and-manuscripts-have-vanished/
Original article:
https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/5/7/pgag207/8724046?login=false
Ars Notoria and the Promise of Instant Knowledge
By Anne Lawrence-Mathers via @publicdomainrev
Manuscript fragments hiding in plain sight shed light on medieval Guernsey’s literary life
Researchers say texts from 12th to 15th centuries ‘hint at a culture which has not even been imagined’
by Dalya Alberge
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/23/manuscript-fragments-discovery-medieval-guernsey
Books about Medieval Manuscripts at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/4087
