Lévêque Élodie, Teasdale Matthew D, Fiddyment Sarah, Bro-Jørgensen Maiken Hemme, Spindler Luke, Macleod Ruairidh, Bougard François, Tange Olsen Morten, Collins Matthew
HiCSA, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France.
Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes, Paris, Île-de-France, France.
R Soc Open Sci. 2025 Apr 9;12(4):241090. doi: 10.1098/rsos.241090. eCollection 2025 Apr.
The survival of medieval manuscripts in their original bindings remains a rare occurrence. Taking advantage of the diversity of bindings in Cistercian libraries such as Clairvaux and its daughter abbeys during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, this study focuses on the biocodicological analysis of medieval manuscript bindings, with particular emphasis on the use of sealskins. Using innovative methods such as electrostatic zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (eZooMS) and ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis, this research identifies the animal species and origin of the leather used in these bindings as predominantly pinniped (seal) species. In particular, the collagen-based eZooMS technique facilitated the classification of seven chemises into the pinniped clade, although species identification remained elusive, except in one additional case where a bearded seal () was definitively identified. aDNA analysis was instrumental in verifying the origin of the sealskins, with four samples identified as harbour seals and a single sample as a harp seal and sourced to (contemporary) populations in Scandinavia, Scotland and Iceland or Greenland. This geographical inference supports the notion of a robust medieval trade network that went well beyond local sourcing, linking the Cistercians to wider economic circuits that included fur trade with the Norse. The study, therefore, highlights the use of an unexpected skin (seal) from an unexpected source (the northwestern Atlantic). The widespread use of sealskins in Cistercian libraries such as Clairvaux and its daughter abbeys during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries hints at broader trade networks that brought, for example, walrus ivory from the far north into continental Europe. This integration of the biological sciences into the study of historical manuscripts not only provides a clearer picture of the material culture of medieval Europe, but also illustrates the extensive trade networks that Cistercian monasteries were part of, challenging previous assumptions about local resource use in manuscript production.
中世纪手稿以其原始装订形式留存下来的情况仍然很少见。利用12世纪和13世纪熙笃会图书馆（如克莱尔沃及其附属修道院）装订形式的多样性，本研究聚焦于中世纪手稿装订的生物编目学分析，尤其强调海豹皮的使用。通过使用创新方法，如质谱静电动物考古学（eZooMS）和古DNA（aDNA）分析，本研究确定了这些装订所用皮革的动物种类和来源，主要为鳍足类（海豹）物种。特别是，基于胶原蛋白的eZooMS技术有助于将七件书皮归类到鳍足类分支，不过除了另外一个明确鉴定出髯海豹的案例外，物种鉴定仍然难以确定。aDNA分析有助于验证海豹皮的来源，四个样本被鉴定为港海豹，一个样本为竖琴海豹，其来源为斯堪的纳维亚、苏格兰以及冰岛或格陵兰的（当代）种群。这种地理推断支持了这样一种观点，即强大的中世纪贸易网络远远超出了本地采购范围，将熙笃会与更广泛的经济圈联系起来，其中包括与北欧人的皮毛贸易。因此，这项研究突出了使用来自意想不到的来源（大西洋西北部）的意想不到的皮革（海豹皮）。12世纪和13世纪，海豹皮在克莱尔沃及其附属修道院等熙笃会图书馆中的广泛使用暗示了更广泛的贸易网络，例如，这些网络将极北地区的海象牙带入了欧洲大陆。将生物科学融入历史手稿研究，不仅能更清晰地呈现中世纪欧洲的物质文化，还能说明熙笃会修道院所属的广泛贸易网络，挑战了此前对手稿制作中本地资源使用的假设。
