Treasures of the Harvard Law School Library | Medieval Manuscripts

The Harvard Law School Library has over 200 handwritten medieval manuscripts, including the largest collection of early English legal manuscripts outside the United Kingdom. This video offers a brief glimpse of these beautiful volumes and the work that goes into caring for them and making them available to the world.
Part of a series highlighting various collections of the Harvard Law School Library for the HLS Bicentennial.
Camera/Editing: Lorin Granger

[@letteringdaily]

Loved it! Thank you so much for sharing this. I really hope that one day i'll have the opportunity to visit the library in person and hold a piece of history in my very own hands.

[@meralguzey..ph.d538]

Amazing❤

[@n.d8001]

1325 and no gloves on while turning the pages? ??

[@mysticdragon2101]

Depending on the artifact being handled, sometimes gloves are needed and sometimes they are not. In the case of old books, parchment, and other materials of a similar kind, the use of gloves actually hinders the dexterity of the hands which may lead to further damage. As long as your hands are clean of oils, dirt, etc., handling an old book without gloves is the proper and preferred procedure. It is the practice used by the Royal Society (which houses innumerable amounts of old literature), and I suspect it is also the case here.

[@PrestonHazard]

@@mysticdragon2101 For sure? I have a number of 16th century documents in my private collection and I’ve never handled them without gloves (To be fair I try my best to never handle them unless cleaning their cases). Can I truly handle my linen paper documents? I’ve always wanted to touch them lol

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

@@PrestonHazard As said by the reply, it really depends on the material. Cloth gloves are not suitable for any paper that is fragile due to mechanical wear or its inks are easily rubbed off. Same as bare hands are not suitable for paper that is fragile due to acid oxidation...

[@parkersartifacts1615]

This is so cool!

[@andreaallen6255]

I love this

[@a.n.z.2084]

Thanks for uploading this video.

[@jeremiahcastro9700]

How is it that the texts of virtually every medieval manuscript looks pretty much flawless but those of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint, etc. have an actual look of Antiquity whereas these medieval texts barely show any da,age or wear on the images and writings???

[@zne21m37]

Should be in England this collection

[@USA50_]

❤️

[@SoobhyaSoobyaVlogerDelhiVloger]

In sabhi books ko computrised kiy gaaye

[@sharegreats2157]

Aha, now I know where all the missing extremely valuable European books and manuscripts are - in the USA! ;-))

[@SoobhyaSoobyaVlogerDelhiVloger]

Ye sabhi libibad books ko computrised Kiya gaaye

[@jaytaylor9232]

Rather at odds with something which is arguably English national treasure being held in the States and handled without gloves. Akin to holding a rare contemporary copy of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the Untied States in Liverpool and flicking through it with little care.

[@EternalShadow1667]

I’m sure they’re taking great care of it but still….yeah….I get what you mean. It just isn’t pleasant to see them handling such incredibly rare survivors with their bare hands. They kinda seem to have the attitude of “rare book” instead of “historic artefact”.

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

It's Parchment, they can resist rubbing more. Cloth gloves only makes sense if the book in question was degraded due to acid oxidation, and Parchment does not suffer such...

[@Divyachandan86]

The Heaven

[@vmcla]

None of the books displayed for us were identified by date, title or origin. Instead, we a book’s number and the rancid cliche of “holing a piece of history in my hand.” This type of meaningless reflection adds nothing to scholarship or the understanding of medieval text.

[@fdchcfrxkb9817]

الدي مخطوطه عبريه نادره

[@paulobatistasantos4222]

they should have use gloves .

[@sagidasyed6314]

Tbh probably the most boring books on earth

[@vitorb.macarthy348]

No, most of them are about English laws, it aweosme to see the evolution of the laws...

[@sagidasyed6314]

@@vitorb.macarthy348 yes, especially when back then you could stab a man on Thursdays with a chicken 😂😂