Latest news with #SuiteVulgateduMerlin
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Hidden details emerge from a medieval manuscript masquerading as a book cover
Editor's note: A version of this story appeared in CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. Sometimes, a great find is hiding right beneath one's nose in the humblest of places: on paper. Indecipherable documents can languish in storage for years. Case in point: a treasure trove of lost letters written by Mary, Queen of Scots, that got a closer look in 2023. After retrieving the letters from a box of unmarked documents, three researchers were able to decode the letters to uncover more about the queen's secrets. Now, a separate new discovery adds weight to the old adage about not judging a book by its cover. When library archivists at the University of Cambridge in England inspected the cover of a 16th century property record, they realized it was made of pages repurposed from a medieval manuscript. Known as the 'Suite Vulgate du Merlin,' the rare 13th century fragments describe how a shape-shifting Merlin aided King Arthur early in his reign. Rather than risk damaging the fragile, bound pages, a team of photographers and conservators at Cambridge have virtually unfurled the pages and uncovered hidden details in the text. A new study is helping scientists unravel the fiercely debated origins of the king of the dinosaurs — and how it became a fearsome apex predator. The direct ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex arrived in North America by crossing a land bridge from Asia 70 million years ago, the latest research suggests. Mathematical models showed that the size of tyrannosaurids such as T. rex rapidly increased as global temperatures dropped. T. rex also climbed to the top of the food chain in the vacuum left by the extinction of another group of carnivorous dinos 90 million years ago. Want to make the most of your morning cup of coffee as prices rise? University of Pennsylvania scientists tested a method to brew stronger coffee using fewer beans. For thousands of years, the Haenyeo have dived off South Korea's Jeju Island to collect seafood from the ocean floor — and new evidence suggests they may have adapted for life underwater. The women free divers descend as many as 60 feet (18 meters) multiple times a day, through pregnancy and old age, with no breathing equipment and only the aid of wet suits. A new study has shown that the Haenyeo have a slower heart rate and unique genetic differences that enable them to cope with the pressures of free diving — as well as a trait that may even protect the unborn children of pregnant divers. An underwater volcano located on a geological hot spot could erupt at any time — and scientists plan to publicly livestream the explosive event when it happens. The Axial Seamount, as the volcano is known, is inflating with magma and causing earthquakes where two giant tectonic plates — the Pacific and Juan de Fuca plates — are spreading apart. Yet life thrives in this seemingly hostile environment. Marine creatures can be seen clustering around hydrothermal vents called 'snowblowers' that billow out hot water and microbes — and they bounce back from scorching within months of an eruption. Meanwhile, to mark his 99th birthday, broadcaster David Attenborough has released a new documentary called 'Ocean,' offering peeks at underwater species and revealing the threats facing what he calls 'the most important place on Earth.' These new stories are worth your time: — Uturuncu, a peak in the Central Andes mountain range, hasn't erupted for more than 250,000 years. Recent signs of activity like gas plumes suggest the 'zombie volcano' may be waking up, but experts aren't so sure. — A Soviet-era spacecraft, called Cosmos 482, that malfunctioned while on a journey to explore Venus in 1972 likely crash-landed on Earth early Saturday, according to the European Space Agency. Here's where it may have landed. — Researchers deciphered the author and title of a nearly 2,000-year-old scroll burned by the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD. Like what you've read? Oh, but there's more. Sign up here to receive in your inbox the next edition of Wonder Theory, brought to you by CNN Space and Science writers Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt and Jackie Wattles. They find wonder in planets beyond our solar system and discoveries from the ancient world.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Medieval tale of Merlin and King Arthur found hiding as a book cover
Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Researchers have found pages of a rare medieval manuscript masquerading as a cover and stitched into the binding of another book, according to experts at the Cambridge University Library in England. The fragment contains stories about Merlin and King Arthur. The two pages are from a 13th century copy of the 'Suite Vulgate du Merlin.' The manuscript, handwritten by a medieval scribe in Old French, served as the sequel to the legend of King Arthur. There are just over three dozen surviving copies of the sequel today. Part of a series known as the Lancelot-Grail cycle, the Arthurian romance was popular among aristocrats and royalty, said Dr. Irène Fabry-Tehranchi, French specialist in collections and academic liaison at Cambridge University Library. The stories were either read aloud or performed by trouvères, or poets, who traveled from court to court, she said. Rather than risk damaging the brittle pages by removing the stitches and unfolding them, a team of researchers were able to conduct imaging and computed tomography, or CT, scans to create a 3D model of the papers and virtually unfurl them to read the story. Fabry-Tehranchi, one of the first to recognize the rarity of the manuscript, said finding it 'is very much a once in a lifetime experience.' The scans revealed book-binding techniques from the distant past and hidden details of the repurposed manuscript that could shed light on its origins. 'It's not just about the text itself, but also about the material artefact,' Fabry-Tehranchi said in a statement. 'The way it was reused tells us about archival practices in 16th-century England. It's a piece of history in its own right.' Former Cambridge archivist Sian Collins first spotted the manuscript fragment in 2019 while recataloging estate records from Huntingfield Manor, owned by the Vanneck family of Heveningham, in Suffolk, England. Serving as the cover for an archival property record, the pages previously had been recorded as a 14th century story of Sir Gawain. But Collins, now the head of special collections and archives at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, noticed that the text was written in Old French, the language used by aristocracy and England's royal court after the Norman Conquest in 1066. She also saw names like Gawain and Excalibur within the text. Collins and the other researchers were able to decipher text describing the fight and ultimate victory of Gawain, his brothers and his father King Loth versus the Saxon Kings Dodalis, Moydas, Oriancés, and Brandalus. The other page shared a scene from King Arthur's court in which Merlin appears disguised as a dashing harpist, according to a translation provided by the researchers: 'While they were rejoicing in the feast, and Kay the seneschal (steward) brought the first dish to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, there arrived the most handsome man ever seen in Christian lands. He was wearing a silk tunic girded by a silk harness woven with gold and precious stones which glittered with such brightness that it illuminated the whole room.' Both scenes are part of the 'Suite Vulgate du Merlin' that was originally written in 1230, about 30 years after 'Merlin,' which tells the origin stories of Merlin and King Arthur and ends with Arthur's coronation. '(The sequel) tells us about the early reign of Arthur: he faces a rebellion of British barons who question his legitimacy and has to fight external invaders, the Saxons,' Fabry-Tehranchi said in an email. 'All along, Arthur is supported by Merlin who advises him strategically and helps him on the battlefield. Sometimes Merlin changes shape to impress and entertain his interlocutors.' The pages had been torn, folded and sewn, making it impossible to decipher the text or determine when it was written. A team of Cambridge experts came together to conduct a detailed set of analyses. After analyzing the pages, the researchers believe the manuscript, bearing telltale decorative initials in red and blue, was written between 1275 and 1315 in northern France, then later imported to England. They think it was a short version of the 'Suite Vulgate du Merlin.' Because each copy was individually written by hand by medieval scribes, a process that could take months, there are distinguishing typos, such as 'Dorilas' instead of 'Dodalis' for one of the Saxon kings' names. 'Each medieval copy of a text is unique: it presents lots of variations because the written language was much more fluid and less codified than nowadays,' Fabry-Tehranchi said. 'Grammatical and spelling rules were established much later.' But it was common to discard and repurpose old medieval manuscripts by the end of the 16th century as printing became popular and the true value of the pages became their sturdy parchment that could be used for covers, Fabry-Tehranchi said. 'It had probably become harder to decipher and understand Old French, and more up to date English versions of the Arthurian romances, such as (Sir Thomas) Malory's 'Morte D'Arthur' were now available for readers in England,' Fabry-Tehranchi said. The updated Arthurian texts were edited to be more modern and easier to read, said Dr. Laura Campbell, associate professor in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University in Durham, England, and president of the British branch of The International Arthurian Society. Campbell was not involved in the project, but has previously worked on the discovery of another manuscript known as the Bristol Merlin. 'This suggests that the style and language of these 13th-century French stories were hitting a point where they badly needed an update to appeal to new generations of readers, and this purpose was being fulfilled by in print as opposed to in manuscript form,' Campbell said. 'This is something that I think is really important about the Arthurian legend — it has such appeal and longevity because it's a timeless story that's open to being constantly updated and adapted to suit the tastes of its readers.' Researchers captured the documents across wavelengths of light, including ultraviolet and infrared, to improve the readability of the text and uncover hidden details, as well as annotations in the margins. The team carried out CT scanning with an X-ray scanner to virtually peer through the parchment layers and create a 3D model of the manuscript fragment, revealing how the pages had been stitched together to form a cover. The CT scans showed there was likely once a leather band around the book to hold it all in place, which rubbed off some of the text. Twisted straps of parchment, called tackets, along with thread reinforced the binding. 'A series of specialised photographic equipment such as a probe lens as well as simple accessories such as mirrors were used to photograph otherwise inaccessible parts of the manuscript,' said Amélie Deblauwe, a photographer at Cambridge University Library's Cultural Heritage Imaging Laboratory. The research team digitally assembled hundreds of images to create a virtual copy of the pages. 'The creation of these digital outputs including the virtual unfolding, traditional photography, and (multispectral imaging) all contribute to the preservation of the manuscript in its reused form, while revealing as much of the original contents as possible,' Deblauwe said. The researchers believe the methodology they developed for this project can be applied to other fragile manuscripts, especially those repurposed for other uses over time, to provide a nondestructive type of analysis. The team plans to share the methodology in an upcoming research paper.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Researchers Discovered a Rare 13th-Century Manuscript. It Was Hiding in Plain Sight All Along.
A fragment of a 13th century piece of French prose was discovered, having been used as the binding for pages of a 16th-century property record in the University of Cambridge library. The fragment was a portion of a manuscript, Suite Vulgate du Merlin—fewer than 40 examples of which have survived. The team was able to 'virtually unfold' the fragment without damaging the artifact itself. This story is a collaboration with As the great astronomer Carl Sagan once said: 'If I finish a book a week, I will read only a few thousand books in my lifetime, about a tenth of a percent of the contents of the greatest libraries of our time.' And that is not even considering the books that may, apparently, be hiding inside the binding of other books. That's something Cambridge University Library had to contend with in 2019, when they found that a property record from Huntingfield Manor in Suffolk was bound together by an even older manuscript, previously undiscovered. Now the book which became binding has been identified, and it's safe to say it's a bit more of a page-turner than the pages it once bound together. In a recently published article, the University of Cambridge announced that the uncovered manuscript has been deciphered, digitized, and determined to be a fragment of the prose work Suite Vulgate du Merlin. Described by Cambridge as a 'French-language sequel to the legend of King Arthur,' this work was part of a larger story cycle written in approximately 1230-1240 known as the Lancelot-Grail cycle. While most may not be reading Suite Vulgate du Merlin today, it's more a part of our understanding of Arthurian legend than we might realize. As noted in Romance Rewritten: The Evolution of Middle English Romance, this particular work was likely one of the major sources utilized by Sir Thomas Mallory in writing his 1485 Le Morte d'Arthur—the most famous and influential English-language telling of the King Arthur story. 'There are less than 40 surviving manuscripts of the Suite Vulgate du Merlin,' Cambridge notes, 'with each one unique since they were individually handwritten by medieval scribes.' This specific fragment, written in Old French, contained two stories from the latter portion of the Suite Vulgate. The first depicts the Battle of Cambénic, where the famed Arthurian figure Sir Gawain (written here as Gauvain)—wielding Excalibur atop his horse, Gringalet—does battle with the Saxon Kings Dodalis, Moydas, Oriancés, and Brandalus. This particular manuscript, it was noted, spelled Dodalis' name as Doralis. The second episode described Merlin arriving at King Arthur's court during the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, disguised through his magic as a harpist. In their article, Cambridge published an excerpt of their translation: 'While they were rejoicing in the feast, and Kay the seneschal brought the first dish to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, there arrived the most handsome man ever seen in Christian lands. He was wearing a silk tunic girded by a silk harness woven with gold and precious stones which glittered with such brightness that it illuminated the whole room.' But translating the fragment was more than just a challenge of linguistics. 'Traditional methods of conservation might have involved physically removing the binding to unfold the fragment,' they note, 'but this risked causing irreparable damage.' 'It's not just about the text itself, but also about the material artifact,' Irène Fabry-Tehranchi, a French specialist in collections and academic liaison at Cambridge University Library, said. 'The way it was reused tells us about archival practices in 16th-century England. It's a piece of history in its own right.' Having ultimately decided to leave it be, the university then had to find a way to 'virtually unfold and digitise' the fragment without removing it. This process required a multidisciplinary team from across numerous departments, but through an arduous sequence of efforts—including multispectral imaging, computed tomography (CT) scanning, and 3D imaging—experts were able to manipulate this digital replica of the fragment in order to 'simulate what the document might look like if it were physically opened.' Both the discovery of the fragment and the manner in which it was deciphered could serve as inspiration for medieval research in the future. It reminds researchers to look for these lost works in places they might not expect, and demonstrates how to save the stories they contain from the ravages of time—without ruining the pages that hold them. It may not be a spell from Merlin, but it's a type of magic all its own. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Rare Arthurian Sequel Featuring Merlin Found Binding Medieval Record
A piece of parchment wrapped around a 16th century volume of property records has turned out to be a treasure beyond archivists' wildest dreams. Folded, stitched, torn, and worn, the hand-written manuscript is a fragment of the Suite Vulgate du Merlin, a rare French sequel to the British tales of King Arthur and his court, penned between 1275 and 1315 CE. There are fewer than 40 copies of the once wildly popular manuscript that have survived to this day, each a little different from the others, making this discovery the find of a lifetime. "It was first thought to be a 14th century story about Sir Gawain," explains archivist Irene Fabry-Tehranchi of the University of Cambridge in the UK, "but further examination revealed it to be part of the Old French Vulgate Merlin sequel, a different and extremely significant Arthurian text." The manuscript had actually been hiding in plain sight for quite some years in the collection of the Cambridge University Library, overlooked as a piece of parchment binding a book of property records from Huntingfield Manor in Suffolk, a house later owned by the Vanneck family of Heveningham. It was identified as something unusual by an eagle-eyed archivist in 2019, but because of how it had been repurposed, its contents were impossible to read. Removing and unfolding the manuscript would have damaged its fragile parchment, potentially rendering it unreadable. It would also have damaged the property record, which is a valuable book in its own right. "It's not just about the text itself, but also about the material artifact," Fabry-Tehranchi says. "The way it was reused tells us about archival practices in 16th-century England. It's a piece of history in its own right." Science, however, has become much, much better at peering into old, fragile, damaged written works. Imaging tools have been used to reconstruct the contents of scrolls charred by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. Archivists have even managed to reconstruct the sodden brick of the Faddan More Psalter, found in an Irish peat bog. This mystery scrap of parchment, crabbed with Old French, recycled into the binding of someone's personal records, was a challenge… but not, given human ingenuity and tenacity, an insurmountable one. Rather than tear the manuscript from the record, the researchers applied a variety of imaging techniques to digitally unfold and see through the paper to read the writing thereon. Multi-spectral imaging captured every aspect of the parchment in multiple wavelengths, from infrared to ultraviolet, to reveal the text, even where it had been worn beyond legibility in visible light. CT scanning used X-rays to provide a 3D model of the fragment. This not only aided its digital unfolding, it revealed the intricate details of the techniques used to bind it into another book. That 3D model was then studied in exhaustive detail, using tools such as prisms and mirrors to photograph the manuscript from every possible angle to reveal the parts of it that had been tucked out of reach. "This project was a fabulous opportunity to employ all possible advanced imaging techniques from our photographic arsenal," says head of Cultural Heritage Imaging Laboratory Maciej Pawlikowski of Cambridge University Library. "And each of them brought something very important to light. This resulted in the creation of a set of unique digital objects which placed the original fragment in a whole new context and has transformed our understanding of it." Human minds then provided the translation skills to read the manuscript, revealing two episodes from the Suite Vulgate du Merlin. In one, the knight Gauvain (Gawain), wielding the sword Excalibur, and sitting astride his horse Gringalet (Gringolet), led his fellow knights to victory against the Saxon kings Dodalis, Moydas, Oriancés, and Brandalus. Dodalis, notably, was miswritten as "Dorilas", giving the researchers a clue to trace where the document fits with the other surviving manuscripts. The second episode involves Merlin appearing in disguise as a blind, magnificently clad harpist before Arthur, Guenevere, and their assembled court at the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. He advises Arthur to bear a standard into battle; that standard becomes a fire-breathing dragon that wins the day for our hero. It's fantastic stuff, but the implications go far beyond one manuscript. "This project was not just about unlocking one text – it was about developing a methodology that can be used for other manuscripts," Fabry-Tehranchi says. "Libraries and archives around the world face similar challenges with fragile fragments embedded in bindings, and our approach provides a model for non-invasive access and study." You can read more about the manuscript on the Cambridge Digital Library website. Pornography's Prevalence Could Have a Dire Impact on Our Brain, Studies Show This Simple Trick Could Help You Hear Better in a Noisy Room First Denisovan Fossil Discovered in Taiwan Reveals Secrets of Our Ancient Relatives
Fox News
13-04-2025
- Science
- Fox News
Experts shocked by ancient King Arthur manuscript found tucked inside book: 'Survived the centuries'
Historians recently unveiled a rare 13th-century document depicting the tales of King Arthur and Merlin – and its survival is considered a miracle. The discovery was announced by the University of Cambridge on March 25. The manuscript is part of the Suite Vulgate du Merlin, a French-language rendering of the story of King Arthur. Arthur has been depicted as a legendary Briton king for several centuries, though his existence has been doubted by most historians. In 2019, the fragile manuscript was discovered in an unlikely place in a Cambridge library – tucked in as the binding for an old book. "The manuscript had survived the centuries after being recycled and repurposed in the 1500s as the cover for a property record from Huntingfield Manor in Suffolk, owned by the Vanneck family of Heveningham," the university's statement noted. "It meant the remarkable discovery was folded, torn and even stitched into the binding of the book - making it almost impossible for Cambridge experts to access it, read it or confirm its origins," the university said in a news release. Thanks to modern technology – including multi-spectral imaging, computed tomography and 3D modeling – experts were able to scan and create a virtual image of the manuscript without risking any damage to it. "Using mirrors, prisms, magnets and other tools, the team at CHIL [Cultural Heritage Imaging Laboratory] carefully photographed each section of the fragment," the university said. "The hundreds of resulting images were then painstakingly reassembled digitally, much like a jigsaw, to create a coherent image of the text." "By manipulating the digital images, the team could simulate what the document might look like if it were physically opened." Each copy of the Suite Vulgate du Merlin was unique, as they were individually handwritten by medieval scribes, and fewer than 40 copies are known to exist. The Cambridge copy was written between 1275 and 1315. "The text is written in Old French, the language of the court and aristocracy in medieval England following the Norman Conquest," the news release said. "This particular fragment belongs to the genre of Arthurian romances [that] were intended for a noble audience, including women." The university added that the manuscript "tells two key episodes from the end of the Suite Vulgate du Merlin." "The first part recounts the victory of the Christians against the Saxons at the Battle of Cambénic," the statement reads. "It tells of the fight of Gauvain (with his sword Excalibur, his horse Gringalet and his supernatural powers), his brothers, and his father King Loth, against the Saxon Kings Dodalis, Moydas, Oriancés and Brandalus." It went on, "The second passage presents a more courtly scene, set on the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, with Merlin appearing at Arthur's court disguised as a harpist – a moment that highlights his magical abilities and his importance as an advisor to the king." The University of Cambridge even included a translated passage from the book – which painted a vivid scene of life in medieval England. "While they were rejoicing in the feast, and Kay the seneschal brought the first dish to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, there arrived the most handsome man ever seen in Christian lands," the passage read. "He was wearing a silk tunic girded by a silk harness woven with gold and precious stones which glittered with such brightness that it illuminated the whole room." The fragile document even contains small errors – such as calling the Saxon king Dodalis "Dorilas" – but those errors will only help specialists trace the manuscript's lineage. "As every manuscript of the period was copied by hand, it means each one is distinctive and reflects the variations introduced by medieval scribes," the British university said. "The way the manuscript has been carefully executed, with decorated initials in red and blue, gave further clues to its origins and helped indicate that it was produced between the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century."
