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157d

A surprising number of medieval scribes were women

New research estimates around 8,000 of those manuscripts could still exist today.

By Andrew Paul

https://www.popsci.com/science/medieval-women-book-scribes/

#books #oldmanuscript

This copy of 'The Canterbury Tales' was produced in the 1430s. Credit: Brigade Piron / Wikipedia Commons

The page is divided into two columns of Gothic script, written in a careful, black ink hand. The text is in Middle English, in the dialect of Geoffrey Chaucer’s original work. Margins are generous, a sign of a high-quality manuscript.

The first letter of the text or sections features large, decorative initials in blue and red, often highlighted with white detailing and gold leaf. These initials are sometimes framed or flourished with vines and patterns that extend into the margins.

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217d

#OTD in 1859.

German scholar Constantin von Tischendorf identifies portions of the mid-4th century Codex Sinaiticus (an uncial manuscript of the Greek Bible) at Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in the Khedivate of Egypt and arranges for its presentation to his patron, Tsar Alexander II of Russia at Saint Petersburg.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Sinaiticus

Tischendorf.IV.Monumenta Sacra Inedita. 1857-1870 at TIA:
https://archive.org/details/Tischendorf.iv.monumentaSacraInedita.newcollection.subscript.6vols.1857-1870/01.MonumentaSacraInedita.NCVA.FragEvangLucLibGen.v1.Tischendorf.Subsc.1857./mode/1up

#books #oldmanuscript

New Testament manuscript.

Book of Esther.

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198d

The Undecipherable Voynich Manuscript Can Be Viewed Online in Its Entirety

By Eva Baron

https://mymodernmet.com/voynich-manuscript-undecipherable/?

More information here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript

Voynich Manuscript at @internetarchive https://archive.org/details/TheVoynichManuscript

#oldmanuscript

A page from the mysterious Voynich manuscript, which is undeciphered to this day.

Page 135; f75r, from the balneological section showing apparent nymphs

Unknown author - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University.

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168d

Women Played a More Important Role in Producing Medieval Manuscripts Than Previously Thought

New research suggests that women were the scribes of at least 1.1 percent of manuscripts in the Latin West between 400 and 1500 C.E.

By Sarah Kuta

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/women-played-a-more-important-role-in-copying-medieval-manuscripts-than-previously-thought-180986294/

#oldmanuscript

This 12th-century manuscript includes a self-portrait of a female scribe named Guda. Ommundsen et al. / Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2025

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126d

The Voynich Manuscript revealed: five things you probably did not know about the Medieval masterpiece

Scholars have speculated for centuries about the meaning behind the 15th-century codex and its peculiar illustrations

By Garry Shaw

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/05/05/the-voynich-manuscript-revealed-five-things-you-probably-did-not-know-about-the-medieval-masterpiece

More information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript

#books #oldmanuscript

A page from the mysterious Voynich manuscript, which is undeciphered to this day.

Page 175; f99r, of the pharmaceutical section

Unknown author - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University.

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147d

Lost for 400 Years: Researcher Discover Hidden Copy of Shakespeare Sonnet

By University of Oxford

https://scitechdaily.com/lost-for-400-years-researcher-discover-hidden-copy-of-shakespeare-sonnet/

Full article by Leah S Veronese is available here:
https://academic.oup.com/res/advance-article/doi/10.1093/res/hgaf002/7997398?login=false

#books #literature #oldmanuscript

Shake-Speare's Sonnets, quarto published by Thomas Thorpe, London, 1609, title page

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60d

This 2,200-Year-Old Chinese Medical Text May Be The Oldest Human Anatomy Chart In History

By Natasha Ishak

The discovery of the text written on silk sheds light on the significant advances in medicine that led to the development of acupuncture in ancient China.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/china-mawangdui-medical-manuscripts?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atinewsletter&utm_email=lnatal55@gmail.com

Ancient Medicine at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/4630

#Books #Medicine #Oldmanuscript

This is a traditional Chinese medical illustration, from a historical acupuncture manual. It shows a male figure with anatomical markings related to acupuncture meridians and points.

The man is shown bare-chested, wearing traditional loose Chinese garments.

He has a long black beard and mustache, and his hair is tied up with a blue ribbon or cloth, in a style typical of classical Chinese scholars.

He stands with a slight contrapposto twist, his left arm bent inward, and his right hand extended outward.

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55d

A 600-year-old Chaucer mystery may finally be solved

A medieval sermon packed with 'memes' and simple spelling mistakes could explain a baffling line in 'The Canterbury Tales.'

By Andrew Paul

https://www.popsci.com/science/chaucer-canterbury-tales-mystery-solved/

Cantebury Tales at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Canterbury+Tales

#Books #OldManuscript

Ellesmere Chaucer, mssEL 26 C 9, folio 153v, Tale of Melibee with portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer.

The Ellesmere Chaucer (Huntington Library, San Marino, California, MS EL 26 C 9) is one of the most famous illuminated manuscripts of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, produced in England in the early 15th century, likely around 1400–1410.

Folio 153v contains the beginning of the Tale of Melibee.

In the upper margin, there is a finely executed portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer himself. He is depicted as a mature man in a dark hooded robe, with a forked beard, holding a rosary and gesturing as if speaking — visually reinforcing his role as the narrator and participant in the tales.

This small portrait is one of several scattered throughout the manuscript, each illustrating the different pilgrims telling their stories.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canterbury_Tales#/media/File:Ellesmere_Chaucer,_mssEL_26_C_9,_folio_153v_color_enhanced.jpg

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54d

Spiral into the ‘golden ratio’ – and separate the myths from the maths

Named for the Italian mathematician Leonardo Bonacci (c1170-1240), the Fibonacci sequence refers to a numerical set that, usually starting with zero and one, adds the previous two integers together to arrive at the next (0,1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc).

https://aeon.co/videos/spiral-into-the-golden-ratio-and-separate-the-myths-from-the-maths

More information about the Fibonacci sequence:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_sequence

#OldManuscript #Mathematics