Lmst

#OldManuscript

Armenia Is About To Put Its Ancient Manuscripts Online For Free

For many Armenians survivors, the easily hidden manuscripts were the only remnant of their nation that they were able to smuggle to safety.

By Amos Chapple

https://www.rferl.org/a/armenia-manuscripts-online-database-matenadaran-project-scans/33482728.html

Armenia at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=armenia

#Books #History #OldManuscript

Carved ivory binding, front cover in five sections of Echmiadzin Gospel, Virgin and Child with scenes from her life, 6th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matenadaran#/media/File:Echgospfrontcov.jpeg

Spiral into the ‘golden ratio’ – and separate the myths from the maths

Named for the Italian mathematician Leonardo Bonacci (c1170-1240), the Fibonacci sequence refers to a numerical set that, usually starting with zero and one, adds the previous two integers together to arrive at the next (0,1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc).

https://aeon.co/videos/spiral-into-the-golden-ratio-and-separate-the-myths-from-the-maths

More information about the Fibonacci sequence:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_sequence

#OldManuscript #Mathematics

A page of Fibonacci's Liber Abaci from the Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze showing (in box on right) 13 entries of the Fibonacci sequence: the indices from present to XII (months) as Latin ordinals and Roman numerals and the numbers (of rabbit pairs) as Hindu-Arabic numerals starting with 1, 2, 3, 5 and ending with 377.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_sequence#/media/File:Liber_abbaci_magliab_f124r.jpg

A better coverage can be found here:

https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/song-of-wade-lost-english-legend-decoded

#OldManuscript

A 600-year-old Chaucer mystery may finally be solved

A medieval sermon packed with 'memes' and simple spelling mistakes could explain a baffling line in 'The Canterbury Tales.'

By Andrew Paul

https://www.popsci.com/science/chaucer-canterbury-tales-mystery-solved/

Cantebury Tales at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Canterbury+Tales

#Books #OldManuscript

Ellesmere Chaucer, mssEL 26 C 9, folio 153v, Tale of Melibee with portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer.

The Ellesmere Chaucer (Huntington Library, San Marino, California, MS EL 26 C 9) is one of the most famous illuminated manuscripts of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, produced in England in the early 15th century, likely around 1400–1410.

Folio 153v contains the beginning of the Tale of Melibee.

In the upper margin, there is a finely executed portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer himself. He is depicted as a mature man in a dark hooded robe, with a forked beard, holding a rosary and gesturing as if speaking — visually reinforcing his role as the narrator and participant in the tales.

This small portrait is one of several scattered throughout the manuscript, each illustrating the different pilgrims telling their stories.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canterbury_Tales#/media/File:Ellesmere_Chaucer,_mssEL_26_C_9,_folio_153v_color_enhanced.jpg

This 2,200-Year-Old Chinese Medical Text May Be The Oldest Human Anatomy Chart In History

By Natasha Ishak

The discovery of the text written on silk sheds light on the significant advances in medicine that led to the development of acupuncture in ancient China.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/china-mawangdui-medical-manuscripts?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atinewsletter&utm_email=lnatal55@gmail.com

Ancient Medicine at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/4630

#Books #Medicine #Oldmanuscript

This is a traditional Chinese medical illustration, from a historical acupuncture manual. It shows a male figure with anatomical markings related to acupuncture meridians and points.

The man is shown bare-chested, wearing traditional loose Chinese garments.

He has a long black beard and mustache, and his hair is tied up with a blue ribbon or cloth, in a style typical of classical Chinese scholars.

He stands with a slight contrapposto twist, his left arm bent inward, and his right hand extended outward.

Ireland’s Oldest and Largest Medieval Book Shrine Goes on Public View for the First Time

By Kate Mothes

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/06/lough-kinale-book-shrine/

Ireland at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=ireland

#Books #Oldmanuscript

The Voynich Manuscript revealed: five things you probably did not know about the Medieval masterpiece

Scholars have speculated for centuries about the meaning behind the 15th-century codex and its peculiar illustrations

By Garry Shaw

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/05/05/the-voynich-manuscript-revealed-five-things-you-probably-did-not-know-about-the-medieval-masterpiece

More information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript

#books #oldmanuscript

A page from the mysterious Voynich manuscript, which is undeciphered to this day.

Page 175; f99r, of the pharmaceutical section

Unknown author - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Lost for 400 Years: Researcher Discover Hidden Copy of Shakespeare Sonnet

By University of Oxford

https://scitechdaily.com/lost-for-400-years-researcher-discover-hidden-copy-of-shakespeare-sonnet/

Full article by Leah S Veronese is available here:
https://academic.oup.com/res/advance-article/doi/10.1093/res/hgaf002/7997398?login=false

#books #literature #oldmanuscript

Shake-Speare's Sonnets, quarto published by Thomas Thorpe, London, 1609, title page

A surprising number of medieval scribes were women

New research estimates around 8,000 of those manuscripts could still exist today.

By Andrew Paul

https://www.popsci.com/science/medieval-women-book-scribes/

#books #oldmanuscript

This copy of 'The Canterbury Tales' was produced in the 1430s. Credit: Brigade Piron / Wikipedia Commons

The page is divided into two columns of Gothic script, written in a careful, black ink hand. The text is in Middle English, in the dialect of Geoffrey Chaucer’s original work. Margins are generous, a sign of a high-quality manuscript.

The first letter of the text or sections features large, decorative initials in blue and red, often highlighted with white detailing and gold leaf. These initials are sometimes framed or flourished with vines and patterns that extend into the margins.

A Lost Bit of the Story of Merlin and Arthur Has Been Found at Cambridge

By Molly Templeton

https://reactormag.com/a-lost-bit-of-the-story-of-merlin-and-arthur-has-been-found-at-cambridge/

You can explore the manuscript for yourself at Cambridge Digital Libraries:
https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/merlinfragment/1

Books about Merlin at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=merlin&submit_search=Search

#books #oldmanuscript

Illustration from page 16 of The Boy's King Arthur: "And when they came to the sword that the hand held, King Arthur took it up."

N. C. Wyeth - The Boy's King Arthur: Sir Thomas Malory's History of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, Edited for Boys by Sidney Lanier (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1922).

Women Played a More Important Role in Producing Medieval Manuscripts Than Previously Thought

New research suggests that women were the scribes of at least 1.1 percent of manuscripts in the Latin West between 400 and 1500 C.E.

By Sarah Kuta

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/women-played-a-more-important-role-in-copying-medieval-manuscripts-than-previously-thought-180986294/

#oldmanuscript

This 12th-century manuscript includes a self-portrait of a female scribe named Guda. Ommundsen et al. / Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2025

Researchers Unearth The Oldest Illustrated Book Ever Found, An Egyptian Map Of The Underworld

The book contained incantations for the deceased so that she could ward off evil spirits and demons in her journey toward the underworld.

By Natasha Ishak

https://allthatsinteresting.com/book-of-two-ways

Original article (free access) here:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0307513319856848?journalCode=egaa

#bookillustration #oldmanuscript

Fragments from a Book of Two Ways discovered on the coffin of a woman named Ankh inside the necropolis of Deir el-Bersha.

A New Copy of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116: A Cavalier Cover Version

The poem is a copy of Henry Lawes’ song-setting which adds six new lines to the poem. The song-setting can also be found in NYPL Drexel MS 4257, although there are significant variations between the two copies.

By Leah S Veronese

https://academic.oup.com/res/advance-article/doi/10.1093/res/hgaf002/7997398?login=false

#books #literature #oldmanuscript

Sonnet 116 in the 1609 Quarto of Shakespeare's sonnets

The poet begins by stating he does not object to the "marriage of true minds", but maintains that love is not true if it changes with time; true love should be constant, regardless of difficulties. In the seventh line, the poet makes a nautical reference, alluding to love being much like the north star is to sailors. True love is, like the polar star, "ever-fixed". Love is "not Time's fool", though physical beauty is altered by it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_116

*1775* Poland / Constitution entitled: "Tax on tea traders".
Central Archives of Historical Records

Unit type: Act documentation
Signature: 1/354/0/2.1/3094
Date/Period of creation: 1775
Dates: 1775 - 1775
Upload: Sikorski Arkadiusz htTPS://arQ.PL/
#Document #HistoricalDocument #OldManuscript #Archival #Archive #AncientText #HistoricalRecord #Manuscript #OldPaper #HistoricalArchive #AntiqueDocument #ArchivalResearch #HistoricalManuscript #OldRecord #DocumentaryEvidence #HistoricalText

So much for that Voynich manuscript “solution”
Librarians would have "rebutted it in a heartbeat," says medieval scholar.

Annalee Newitz – 10/09/2017

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/09/experts-are-extremely-dubious-about-the-voynich-solution/

thanks @Axomamma

#oldmanuscript

A page from the mysterious medieval Voynich Manuscript, which is probably a health manual for women. The latest claim to "decode" it is being debunked by scholars. Credit: Beinecke Library

The Undecipherable Voynich Manuscript Can Be Viewed Online in Its Entirety

By Eva Baron

https://mymodernmet.com/voynich-manuscript-undecipherable/?

More information here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript

Voynich Manuscript at @internetarchive https://archive.org/details/TheVoynichManuscript

#oldmanuscript

A page from the mysterious Voynich manuscript, which is undeciphered to this day.

Page 135; f75r, from the balneological section showing apparent nymphs

Unknown author - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University.

The Mystery of the World’s Oldest Writing System Remained Unsolved Until Four Competitive Scholars Raced to Decipher It

In the 1850s, cuneiform was just a series of baffling scratches on clay, waiting to spill the secrets of the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia

By Joshua Hammer

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/mystery-worlds-oldest-writing-system-remained-unsolved-until-four-scholars-raced-decipher-it-180985954/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&lctg=93133550

Austen Henry Layard at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/40288

#history #oldmanuscript

Austen Henry Layard - Mitte 1860

Maull & Polyblank, London - Algernon Graves

"Mr. Hormuzd Rassam vide Layard's Nineveh", a portrait study of Hormuzd Rassam.

#OTD in 1859.

German scholar Constantin von Tischendorf identifies portions of the mid-4th century Codex Sinaiticus (an uncial manuscript of the Greek Bible) at Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in the Khedivate of Egypt and arranges for its presentation to his patron, Tsar Alexander II of Russia at Saint Petersburg.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Sinaiticus

Tischendorf.IV.Monumenta Sacra Inedita. 1857-1870 at TIA:
https://archive.org/details/Tischendorf.iv.monumentaSacraInedita.newcollection.subscript.6vols.1857-1870/01.MonumentaSacraInedita.NCVA.FragEvangLucLibGen.v1.Tischendorf.Subsc.1857./mode/1up

#books #oldmanuscript

New Testament manuscript.

Book of Esther.

Ancient Indian texts reveal the liberating power of metaphysics

Indian metaphysics presented a philosophical route to a higher level of existence beyond limits of space and time

by Jessica Frazier

https://psyche.co/ideas/ancient-indian-texts-reveal-the-liberating-power-of-metaphysics?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=0c3092fff2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_12_7&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-d88b59c7bc-72664972

Books on this subject at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=metaphysics&submit_search=Search

#books #oldmanuscript #metaphysics

Diagrams of the Universe: The Two-and-a-Half Continents, the Universe in the Shape of a Person, and the Seven Levels of Hell, Gujarat, India, 1613. Courtesy the Cleveland Museum of Art

#OTD in 1872.

Assyriologist George Smith presents the first translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh to a meeting of the Society of Biblical Archaeology in London. In 1875 and 1876 he published fuller translations, the latter of which was published as The Chaldaean Account of Genesis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh

The Chaldean account of Genesis at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60559

#assyriology #oldmanuscript