High-Tech Imaging Allows Researchers to Read Handwritten Medieval Arthurian Tales Hidden in the Binding of a Property Record

High-Tech Imaging Allows Researchers to Read Handwritten Medieval Arthurian Tales Hidden in the Binding of a Property Record

The stories are part of a French sequel to Arthurian legend, and its binding was repurposed in the 16th century

A Lost Manuscript About Merlin And King Arthur Was Discovered At Cambridge

A medieval scribe copied stories about a knight and a wizard into a manuscript around 750 years ago. The knight was named Sir Gawain, and the wizard was called Merlin. They were two fictional characters from Arthurian legend, the tales of Britain’s King Arthur and his Round Table. When the binding of the manuscript was repurposed to hold a Tudor-period register of property deeds in the 16th century, the Arthurian story became lost for centuries.…

Thanks to non-invasive observation techniques, historians have uncovered a hidden fragment of the Suite Vulgate de Merlin, integrated into the binding of an act of property belonging to an aristocratic family of the sixteenth century. Written in old French, the passage reveals two major episodes of the conclusion of this Arthurian narrative, bringing an unprecedented light on the last hours of King Arthur's reign. The legends of Merlin and King …