The York Gospels: a one thousand year biological palimpsest

Abstract

26Medieval manuscripts, carefully curated and conserved, represent not only an irreplaceable documentary 27 record but also a remarkable reservoir of biological information. Palaeographic and codicological 28 investigation can often locate and date these documents with remarkable precision. The York Gospels 29 (York Minster Ms. Add. 1) is one such codex, one of only a small collection of pre-conquest Gospel 30 books to have survived the Reformation. By extending the non-invasive triboelectric (eraser-based) 31 sampling technique eZooMS, to include the analysis of DNA we report a cost effective and simple-to-use 32 biomolecular sampling technique. We apply this combined methodology to document for the first time a 33 rich palimpsest of biological information contained within the York Gospels, which has accumulated over 34 the 1,000 year lifespan of this cherished object that remains an active participant in the life of York 35Minster. This biological data provides insights into the decisions made in the selection of materials, the 36 construction of the codex and the use history of the object.

A guide to ancient protein studies

“…However, archaeological and palaeontological samples are irreplaceable, and have high cultural value. Therefore, preceding the inception of research projects, researchers must consider whether destructive sampling is necessary, whether alternative non-destructive methodologies [54][55][56] could be employed, and/or what techniques can be utilized to reduce the sample size necessary for analysis 57 . Further research is also needed to explore the integration of multiple biomolecular analyses from minimally-sized samples.…”

Data From “A Biocodicological Analysis of the Medieval Library and Archive From Orval Abbey, Belgium”

“…(1) OVERVIEW CONTEXT Zooarchaeological Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) has been widely applied to archaeological contexts and materials of cultural interest [1,2,4,5]. In particular, the application of ZooMS on parchment, being the most common writing support in Medieval times, has been successfully used to investigate questions about its production, local economies, the use of the manuscripts and their conservation [3,5,6,11,12]. The study of parchment from a biological perspective has become so widespread that the name "Biocodicology" has been recently proposed to refer to the discipline [7].…”