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, ...

In medieval Europe, scribes often wrapped their books in the hairy hides of animals like deer or boar to act as protective coverings. But in some cases, they used sealskin, much to the surprise of ...

The division of work in the Harley Psalter / William Noel -- The Cutbercht Gospels and the earliest writing center at Salzburg / Susan E. von Daum Tholl -- How fast did scribes write? Evidence from ...

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 ...

As featured on April 21, 2026, the collection includes 20 short tales that have been translated into English to reach an ...

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 ...

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 ...