Recycled fragments of hand-written books found in bindings

KERKRADE – A number of pages cut from handwritten medieval books have resurfaced in the binding of fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth century printed books. Bookbinders reused these pages to solidify the binding of new books because they considered the handwritten volumes to be outdated and redundant. Far from being redundant now, book historians consider the discovery in the library of the former monastery as very important for the history of book publishing. Experts will be checking more books for such hidden treasures. The fragments were originally part of volumes produced as far back as the twelfth century and written in Latin and Hebrew. The abbey itself dates from the early days of the 1100s.