About Codicum

CODICUM is a groundbreaking research project funded by the European Research Council (Synergy Grant 2024) that investigates the significance of the medieval manuscript book in shaping Northern Europe between c. 1000 and 1500. We focus on a unique collection of over 50,000 parchment book fragments found in five Nordic countries - Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland. These fragments represent a remarkable survival of what once were complete books, and offer a unique insight into everyday literary culture, lost to most of Europe. Our work seeks to understand how the texts within these books disseminated across the region, how they were used, and how they reflected the different communities and networks involved in their production and consumption. The project seeks to contribute to and re-evaluate European book history using these collections.

Previous scholarship on Nordic manuscript fragments has primarily focused on individual collections or specific texts. CODICUM builds upon this century-long tradition by uniting all major Nordic collections, applying new scientific methods (bio-codicology), and developing new digital humanities approaches to visualize lost books. It also uses concepts from the social sciences to understand medieval networks, thus expanding the current level of knowledge with respect to medieval book production and textual practices. This approach represents a significant step forward in European fragment research, allowing us to explore medieval manuscript culture with unprecedented detail and a truly European scope.

Research Questions:

1. How were the northernmost areas of Europe included in different intellectual and educational networks extending across Europe, and how did these networks evolve, interact, and overlap, geographically and chronologically? In the making of a new book culture, how were the practical and the intellectual requirements organized and coordinated?
2. How does incorporating the Nordic region in the ‘map’ of medieval parchment change conventional understandings of medieval book production? To what extent do books produced in the northernmost parts of Europe show adaptations of techniques, materials, format or other features owing to climatic conditions and/or limiting resources (e.g. lime, salt)?
3. How can this unique, cross-national archive help us put to the test the new category of ‘textual heritage’ in the unoccupied space between tangible and intangible heritage? What impact could we have on both literary history and on heritage thinking in general, if we can show that ‘textual heritage’ will redefine – in contrast to national and institutional curating practice – who ‘owns’ the texts transmitted by the fragments?

Research Objectives:

1. Expand the perspective of European book history c. 1000-1500 through the Nordic collections of book fragments, which contain a wealth of material related to everyday literary culture (e.g. liturgy) that is less well documented in other parts of Europe.
2. Illuminate the relationship between the transmitted manuscript material and the overlapping international networks linking Northern Europe c. 1000-1500, investigating the role played by texts and manuscripts in integrating the Nordic region into a European intellectual culture.
3. Explore the dynamics of literary culture within the Nordic region by studying the dissemination and development of selected texts, and practical literary know-how between literate communities and writing centers; the Northern take on European literate culture.
4. Reconnect fragments to each other across collections and ‘reassemble’ medieval books through a combination of old and new fragment identifications, and visualizing the ‘reassembled’ books in a virtual library.
5. Explore the craftsmanship associated with book production and provide reference material for Scandinavian parchment, through biomolecular and visual analysis – giving rise to a more fine-grained image of book production, imported books and Nordic characteristics.
6. Develop methodologies and best practices through applying multidisciplinarity on an unprecedented scale. This will take place in close cooperation with the relevant holding institutions with a particular focus on in-house conservators, whose funding within CODICUM champions their unique skills and knowledge of the materials. This highlights our view of institutions as active partners rather than passive repositories of material.
7. Increase the awareness of fragments and accessibility of Nordic fragments for a wider community of scholars, thereby advancing medieval studies on a European scale.

Holding Institutions

National Archives of Norway, Norway

National Library, Norway

University of Bergen library, Norway

National Archives, Sweden

Royal Library, Sweden

Lund University Library, Sweden

National Archives, Denmark

Royal Library, Denmark

Arnamagnæan Institute, Denmark

SDU, Odense, Denmark

National and University Library, Iceland

Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, Iceland

National library of Finland, Finland.

The Nordic Context

The Nordic countries hold a unique treasure trove of manuscript fragments, mainly due to the practice of reusing medieval parchment as binding material for early modern account books. The remarkable preservation of these fragments provides an exceptionally detailed insight into the medieval book culture of Northern Europe and their connections to other parts of the continent. The high volume of everyday liturgical books also represents a major opportunity for scholarship.

Open Science

We are committed to Open Science practices. This includes open access publications, where all research results and data are made available through open access platforms in adherence to FAIR principles, ensuring the longevity and maximum impact of the project’s findings.

Page updated

Report abuse