Erik Kwakkel

Medieval CSI

What I like about studying old books from medieval times is that they sometimes get you very close to the historical users of the objects. Notes jotted down in the margins may suggest readers disagreed with the text, while bookmarks show what chapters they favoured. This image from a 12th-century manuscript is remarkable because it generates a particularly close connection to the past: it clearly shows a reader’s thumb print, which is extremely rare in medieval books. The fingerprint invites us to undertake a CSI-style investigation. The black colour of the ink, as well as the silvery shine it has, indicates this is printing ink, likely from the age when printing had just started in Europe. Why did this early printer not wipe off his hands before thumbing through the book? Did he not respect the object, which must have looked very old-fashioned to him? I love it how all of these questions are generated by a casual gesture of an individual some 500 years ago, who thumbed through the book with dirty hands.

Pic (my own): Leiden, University Library, MS BPL 127 A (12th century). This blog shows other examples of getting up close and personal with medieval readers.