Extraction of 16th Century Calender Fragments

The extraction of the calendar fragments requires a careful dissolvement of the old bookbinder’s glue and a meticulous detachment of each calendar leaf. For documentation, each leaf is being photographed by the conservator of Odense City Museums. The 1580 book has an outer cover of parchment made from a reused and possibly medieval manuscript leaf. The inside of this parchment, containing writing, is being photographed as well. The calendar fragments are made from paper with woodcut illustrations. A well preserved title leaf makes it possible to easily identify the fragments, whereas other fragments may require extensive use of Big Data and other forms of analysis in order to be identified. Usually, the university library prefers not to remove the fragments from their “fragment carriers”. In order to read fragments that are only partially visible or invisible, x-ray technology may be deployed at the Cultural Heritage & Archaeometric Research Team, SDU. Upon finding medieval manuscript fragments in the university library’s special collections, scholars at the Centre for Medieval Literature are consulted. In most cases, digital pictures of the finds will circulate in the international community of medieval scholars. Thousands of 16th and 17th Century books are stored in the University Library of Southern Denmark. One out of five of these books is expected to contain medieval manuscript fragments or fragments of rare prints, e.g. incunabula.