The material on the covers of books from a French abbey was too hairy to have come from calves or other local mammals. Researchers identified its more distant origin. By Jack Tamisiea Medieval scribes ...

Strange “hairy” covers of books in medieval Europe were made from seal skin obtained from Viking descendants, a new study has found. It is rare to find medieval manuscripts in their original bindings, ...

12th century French monks used animal skins to bind and cover their books. One group of books covers didn't look at all like the others. Protein fingerprint and DNA analysis revealed them to be not ...

Editor’s Note: Keeping you in the know, Culture Queue is an ongoing series of recommendations for timely books to read, films to watch and podcasts and music to listen to. So you want to live like you ...

The bibliophiles in Christopher de Hamel’s lavishly illustrated book ensured the survival of medieval texts over centuries. By Bruce Holsinger Bruce Holsinger teaches at the University of Virginia and ...

Science is helping researchers judge books by their covers — and revealing surprising beneficiaries of medieval trading routes in the process. Dozens of rare, fur-covered volumes from 12th and 13th ...

Two incredible examples of medieval book art are on rare view in New York: the Metropolitan Museum of Art is hosting the hefty Winchester Bible, and the Morgan Library and Museum is celebrating the ...

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—A medieval art historian has won Western Michigan University's Otto Gründler Book Prize for her book on the study of absences, “lacunae” and gaps in manuscripts from the Middle Ages ...

Oftentimes, we are preoccupied with the contents of a book rather than the book itself. The phrase, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is preached as a metaphorical reminder not to be quick to judge ...

King Arthur’s lasting renown is one for the books. But a statistical spotlight now shines on medieval European literature’s round table of lost and forgotten stories. An international team used a ...

So last week, a group of researchers who were studying a set of medieval books published their findings. They had been looking into the material used to make the books' covers. MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST ...