Inside the wooden upper-board of one of the Bodleian Library’s 12th century manuscript hides what is perhaps a guilty secret. A mysterious pattern of lines, etched in to its surface.

Seit Kurzem liegen nun auch diejenigen Handschriften für die Digitalisierung im Rahmen des Polonsky-Digitalisierungsprojekts „Handschriften aus dem deutschen Sprachraum / Manuscripts from German-Speaking Lands" bereit, die aus einer der sechs klösterlichen Hauptprovenienzen in die Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel gelangten: die Bücher aus dem hochmittelalterlichen Benediktinerinnenkloster Lamspringe bei Hildesheim.

Here is a book. It is large and old. Should I open it? Choir Breviary: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS.

-- The ‘Laudian Acts’, MS. Laud Gr. 35, is one of the Bodleian Library’s oldest books. It’s one of those that have travelled the furthest.

We often think of medieval codices as elaborate and flawless works of art. Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 630b Helmst.

Natascha Domeisen’s ‘The importance of being (im)perfect’ brings up a key aspect of understanding parchment. This is a subject that has increasingly interested me, as a conservator, in recent years.

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Laud Lat. 102, a Gospel book written in the early 800s, is one of the oldest manuscripts to be included in the Polonsky German project.

Analysing glosses is like a treasure hunt, particularly when exploring vernacular languages. Glosses are words translating or explaining a main text, typically written in between lines or in the margins.

Close your eyes for a moment and picture a manuscript. Depending on your origin and background, this image will look quite different.

This article was first published on the Oxford Medieval Studies blog under the title Reaching out with Manuscripts What do you get when you put together an excited group of medieval manuscript specialists and ask them to discuss blogging and teaching with digitized manuscripts?