📢 Call for applicants!
We are delighted to announce the SIMS-CSMC Fellowship, set up with our colleagues @sims-mss.bsky.social. It supports innovative approaches to the study of manuscripts and includes time at SIMS in Philadelphia and at CSMC in Hamburg.
Apply by 1 May 2026!
More info:
just a little guy
26.02.2026 22:12 — 👍 19 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0
For #CoffeeWithACodex on March 5, Judaica Special Collections Cataloging Librarian Louis Meiselman will bring out CAJS Rar Ms 720, Marcus Hartig's alphabetization of the Hebrew Psalms, in his 1876 manuscript.
Register here: https://bit.ly/4sjWykb
Today we're looking at a 15th c. alchemical and medical compendium containing recipes and texts from a variety of sources, with an alphabetical index to recipes at the beginning of the volume. Made in Piran, in modern-day Slovenia. (UPenn LJS 500) #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/469veg4
We are a little late for #SuberbOwl, but hopefully this is a case of better late than never. Our owl is hanging out in the bottom margin of f. 316r, Ms. Codex 724, a 13th century illuminated Bible #DrolleryDonnerstag #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/4aG04yn
SIMS / Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures Collaborative Fellowship. Take advantage of the expertise and manuscript resources at Penn Libraries and CSMC’s expertise in the Humanities, material analysis and/or Computer Science. Apply by Friday, May 1, 2026.
🔗: https://bit.ly/4aE3wec
For #CoffeeWithACodex on February 26, curator @leoba.bsky.social will bring out a selection of manuscripts from Ethiopia, including a prayer book, an illustrated protective roll, and a liturgical book. (The mss are 19th c but still #medievalsky)
Register here: https://bit.ly/3MAE2oE
Have a look at this gorgeous collection of German medical and astrological texts. It includes many illustrations of the Zodiac, and medical practices including bloodletting and uroscopy (the precursor to modern urinology) (UPenn LJS 463) #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/3zm4FHd
For #CoffeeWithACodex on February 19, curator Dot Porter will bring out Ms. Codex 201, a copy of the New Testament translated into Middle English by John Wycliffe. It was made in England in the late 14th or early 15th century. #medievalsky
Register here: https://bit.ly/4rLzF9n
This Wednesday, the DiPiKA Lecture Series on Manuscript Cultures continues with a talk by Yamuna K., who will talk about the 'Kerala School of Sanskrit Grammar and its Manuscript Legacy'. Join us online!
The talk starts at 10:30 am CET.
This Valentine's Day, we are loving this little 15th c. collection of scientific, alchemical, and medical works from Germany, mostly unattributed. It includes many marginal notes, symbols, corrections and comments in various later hands (UPenn Ms. Codex 69) #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/40s1U2a
bunnies in #bookhistory
13.02.2026 15:27 — 👍 15 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
What's up, Doc? Channeling his best Bugs, a bunny bashes the cymbals in the top margin of f. 313v, Ms. Codex 724, a 13th century illuminated Bible #DrolleryDonnerstag #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/4qhgXWu
This morning I saw, for the first time, THE MOST AMAZING NEW ACQUISITION @sims-mss.bsky.social (courtesy of the hard work of Schoenberg Curator Nick Herman). I can't tell you ANYTHING about it but please trust me, it's gonna knock your socks off.
10.02.2026 15:39 — 👍 9 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0👏👏👏👏👏👏
09.02.2026 18:01 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Last week's #CoffeeWithACodex was very fun: a selection of fragments of books of hours! #medievalsky
youtu.be/wHrUAV5g9ek
For #CoffeeWithACodex on February 12, curator @leoba.bsky.social will bring out LJS 426, a 14th century copy of the first book of Avicenna's medical encyclopedia in Arabic. #medievalsky
Register here: https://bit.ly/46m7cyr
ATBL making our Bluesky debut to say: JOIN US March 9th and support @britishlibrary.bsky.social! #medievalmanuscripts, scholarly presentations, community, & more, @nysoclib.bsky.social. Tickets are $150 and will help digitize BL #medieval manuscripts. @bldigischol.bsky.social RSVP: tinyurl.com/44
06.02.2026 14:42 — 👍 10 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 1
Today we're looking at a 14th c. copy of a purported letter from Hippocrates to Caesar. It's a short collection of medical advice in prose, comprised of recipes followed by a guide to astronomical movements. Written in Middle French! (UPenn Ms. Codex 421) #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/4rnDOQu
738! If I somehow fail to reblog a MS Codex 738 post, report me missing and send out a search party.
04.02.2026 20:20 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0Welcome to February! Every month in 2026 we give you the gift of calendar pages from several of Penn's books of hours - illustrating the variety of books we have in our collection. Enjoy! #medievalsky
04.02.2026 18:15 — 👍 19 🔁 8 💬 0 📌 1
For #CoffeeWithACodex on February 5, curator @leoba.bsky.social will bring out a variety of fragments and leaves from books of hours, from the 15th and 16th centuries and written in France, the Netherlands, and England. #medievalsky
Register here: https://bit.ly/4swKo8S
Photo of a person paging through a manuscript resting on a table
Photo of a person paging through a manuscript sitting on a table
![Photo of a close-up of a manuscript page, with a recipe for gingerbread. Here is the recipe if you have a gallon of molasses and want to try it.
Receipt to make gingerbread
To one gallon of molases one quart of
beer one pound of butter 4 oz of ginger
see that the butter and ginger be well rubbed
in the flour. Dissolve 2 oz of salt of tarter (ed: now baking powder) or peirl ash well in the beer though one[oz?] of peirl ash is said to be Enough make this Dough as soft or softer than Cake is made and should be uset[??] Emediately after
being mixt](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3zk6bj2juah6gmu7s6t5vkqr/bafkreigro7vffssqteytwxjnlieahhjz3mnwpe2ldf2wib3w6uhkbfhhje@jpeg)
Photo of a close-up of a manuscript page, with a recipe for gingerbread. Here is the recipe if you have a gallon of molasses and want to try it. Receipt to make gingerbread To one gallon of molases one quart of beer one pound of butter 4 oz of ginger see that the butter and ginger be well rubbed in the flour. Dissolve 2 oz of salt of tarter (ed: now baking powder) or peirl ash well in the beer though one[oz?] of peirl ash is said to be Enough make this Dough as soft or softer than Cake is made and should be uset[??] Emediately after being mixt
For our first Manuscript Studies Interest Group meeting of 2026, we looked at manuscripts containing Recipes! We found an interesting recipe for gingerbread from an 18th c. book of accounts from Glastonbury, CT. A list of books we looked at is on the website. #rarebooks
🔗: https://bit.ly/3NHWNqt
What! may it be that even in heavenly place
That busy archer his sharp arrows tries?
-William Shakespeare
A dog fires a bow and arrow at a chicken in the bottom margin of f. 313v, Ms. Codex 724, a 13th century illuminated Bible #DrolleryDonnerstag #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/4qhgXWu
A little stop motion video I made of an almanac in the University of Rochester collection to try and give viewers an idea of how it functions 😊
(Video of RCL cod. a.1, a late 14th century folding almanac from England, likely Oxford)
Via salutus, vel dieta, by Guilelmus (or Guillaume) de Lanicia. The author was a minor brother from Aquitaine, and the text is a handbook for preachers that he wrote before about 1310. Our copy was written in Croatia in the mid-15th c. (UPenn Ms. Codex 88) #medievalsky
🔗: https://bit.ly/4qBJS8d
On January 29, curator @leoba.bsky.social will bring out Ms. Codex 55, a 15th c. copy of the Statutes of Vigliano d'Asti. Vigliano d'Asti is a village in the Province of Asti in the Italian region Piedmont, about 50 kilometers southeast of Turin. #medievalsky
Register here: https://bit.ly/4qee5Ki
Several books are laid out on foam book supports, in front of a large screen displaying a close-up view of one of the books.
A woman holds a book up under a camera. Behind her, a close-up of the book. It is a tunnel book, designed so it looks like we are looking up the street at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris
A light passes through a pop-up in a book that has several holes in it; a light design appears on the wall.
Two people look at books laid out on the table in front of them.
On Tuesday, our friend @emilyfbrooks.bsky.social showed us a variety of artist books from Penn's collections as part of our "Reimagining Illumination" series. "Light in Artist's Books" featured transparencies, reflections, and electric light.
🔗: https://bit.ly/4qP3TYi
love a good musical diagram!
23.01.2026 19:37 — 👍 9 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0I ADORE the music diagrams in this manuscript!
23.01.2026 18:06 — 👍 17 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0
