ASMR at the museum | Turning the pages of a medieval choirbook | V&A

// Listen with headphones for best experience //
Join curator Catherine Yvard inside the National Art Library as she introduces us to a medieval choirbook from the 15th century. This particular object is an illuminated manuscript - a handwritten book which has been illustrated in gold, silver and rich colours that make the page shimmer.
Sound designer and performance-maker Julie Rose Bower has documented Catherine's delicate examination process using ambisonic sound, letting us get closer to the object than ever before.
Watch as Catherine examines the book in preparation for a display, and turns the pages. She tells us how the manuscript would have been used, shows us the exquisite illustrations, tells us about the parchment that it is made from, and how notation was scraped away with a knife when the liturgy changed.
Examination steps:
Looking at the illustrations - The Feast of the Assumption: 01:04
Looking at the illustrations - masks: 01:57
How the pages are numbered - foliation: 03:24
Examining burn damage and holes: 04:11
Turning the pages: 06:14
How was parchment made?: 06:17
Looking at the illustrations - The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary: 09:09
Examining lettering: 09:44
Scraping away of notation and changes to the text: 11:33
Ink damage: 14:00
Closing and opening the book: 14:52
See the choirbook in our Fragmented Illuminations: Medieval and Renaissance Manuscript Cuttings display, until 8 May 2022: www.vam.ac.uk/...
Find out more about the object in Explore the Collections: collections.va...
Find out more about the National Art Library: www.vam.ac.uk/...