Eight parchment pages bound in furry sealskin recently donated to the National Library of Norway may be the oldest book in Norway. For decades the book was at the Hagenes farm in Bergen, passed down through the generations, until the family decided to give it to the National Library earlier this year. According to family lore, the manuscript originated in a monastery in Western Norway.

Library conservators examined the book for condition issues, and quickly realized that it was unique. It is a book of religious songs that dates at least to the 13th century and may be even older. Norway was fully Christianized by 1200, with cathedrals, parish churches and monasteries. They had strong ties to Christian hierarchies and communities elsewhere in Europe.

There used to more pages, but only eight survive to the present. Pages are made of calf skin, which was frequently used to make parchment, but the sealskin is much rarer binding. Even rarer is for there to be surviving fur on the skin. Samples of the binding and parchment have been taken for protein and DNA analysis to confirm the animal origins.

“With DNA we can determine the age of the materials, which seal species was used for the cover, and where the animal that became the parchment lived,” says [conservator Chiara] Palandri.

Some seals swim far, others stay in one area. If the cover is from a specific seal species and the calf turns out to have grown up in Norway, then the origin becomes clear.

Library conservators reached out to experts in other countries for input. A French binding expert pointed to the sealskin as evidence that the book was produced in a Nordic country if not in Norway itself.
The way the Latin in written also points to the book having been locally made. The Latin script has a rustic, simple quality. This was not the elegant hand of someone making books for the elite, but for practical usage.

The songs in the book are sequences, songs that were sung to celebrate a particular saint or feast/holy days on the ecclesiastical calendar. They would be sung by a cantor or the priest during mass.

Norway embraced the Reformation, becoming Protestant by 1537. Old Latin books were no longer deemed of value, and with the advent of the printing press, manuscripts were cannibalized to use their parchments as premium bindings for printed volumes.

“A lot of our oldest cultural heritage has not been preserved,” says [head of the Visual Media and Conservation section at the National Library Arthur] Tennøe.

That makes the little book that has now arrived at the National Library all the more valuable.

“We have so few writings from this period, and our research often relies on fragments of manuscripts. When we heard that several handwritten pages had come in, still in their original binding, it was unbelievable. This will greatly expand our knowledge base,” says [University of Bergen professor of medieval Latin Åslaug ]Ommundsen.

She especially appreciates that it appears to be a book meant for use.

“Early modern book collectors were usually interested in luxurious works with gold, beautiful illustrations, or rare texts. This book feels incredibly authentic. It’s the kind of thing a priest or cantor would carry to use in church,” says Ommundsen.

“A simple practical book like this would not always catch a collector’s eye. That’s why there aren’t many of them from this period, not even in the rest of Europe,” she says.