Seventeen medieval manuscript fragments have been discovered, providing new insights into the literary and intellectual life on the island of Guernsey during the Middle Ages. Dating from the 12th to the 15th centuries, these fragments offer evidence of diverse reading tastes, including an extract from a play, an Ovid poem, passages from the Bible, and a travel text.
Until now, little was known about medieval Guernsey's literary culture. The fragments indicate that Guernsey's medieval citizens had broad literary interests and read for pleasure in French, rather than English, suggesting where their intellectual interests lay at the time.
The fragments were preserved after being cut up and recycled into practical bindings for rent books and other administrative records during the 16th and 17th centuries. They are currently held in the public collections of the Island Archives and His Majesty’s greffier’s strongroom.
The discovery was made by Island Archives staff working with Dr David Rundle, a manuscript expert at the University of Kent, and Prof Tamara Atkin, a book historian at the University of Oxford. Callum Tostevin-Hall, an archives assistant at Island Archives, initiated the project after noticing a reference to a vellum cover with Latin text.