Medieval tale of Merlin and King Arthur found hiding as a book cover
Conservator Sally Kilby and Błażej Mikuła photograph inside the folds of a medieval manuscript that was used as the cover for another book later on. Cambridge University Library
By Ashley Strickland, CNN, 6 minute read, Published 12:44 PM EDT, Fri May 9, 2025
CNN — Researchers have found pages of a rare medieval manuscript masquerading as a cover and stitched into the binding of another book, according to experts at the Cambridge University Library in England. The fragment contains stories about Merlin and King Arthur. The two pages are from a 13th century copy of the “Suite Vulgate du Merlin.” The manuscript, handwritten by a medieval scribe in Old French, served as the sequel to the legend of King Arthur. There are just over three dozen surviving copies of the sequel today.
Part of a series known as the Lancelot-Grail cycle, the Arthurian romance was popular among aristocrats and royalty, said Dr. Irène Fabry-Tehranchi, French specialist in collections and academic liaison at Cambridge University Library. The stories were either read aloud or performed by trouvères, or poets, who traveled from court to court, she said.
Rather than risk damaging the brittle pages by removing the stitches and unfolding them, a team of researchers were able to conduct imaging and computed tomography, or CT, scans to create a 3D model of the papers and virtually unfurl them to read the story.
