Our first year anniversary was marked by a unique session that bridged the gap between the SDU Library’s ancient archives and the university’s state-of-the-art protein laboratories. Attendees were treated to a rare viewing of medieval parchment books and fragments—artefacts that serve as the primary witnesses to Nordic intellectual history. However, as the CODICUM team demonstrated, these books are more than just carriers of text; they are biological archives.

A Scientific Leap: The Power of Proteomics

A highlight of the first-year celebration was a Wild Wednesday Event hosted by the  Danish Institute for Advanced Study (DIAS) a few days after the arrival of our new Thermo Fisher Excidion system, hosted in the labs of Professor Ole Nørregaard Jensen, a world leader in mass spectrometry and Director of the national PLATO research infrastructure.

The discussion centred on the transformative potential of the new ultra-sensitive technology, typically used for breakthrough cancer research and single-cell proteomics, is now being pivoted toward cultural heritage.

"We are looking at thousand-year-old animal skins not just as pages, but as a record of the past," says Matthew Collins. Through the emerging field of biocodicology, the team uses DNA analysis and protein profiling to reveal the species of animal used, the parchment's geographic origin, and even the "molecular biography" of the book’s use over centuries. For Lars Boje Mortensen, the first year of CODICUM has validated the project’s core mission: using hard science to map the intellectual networks of the pre-modern world. By identifying the biological "fingerprints" of books across different regions, the project can track how ideas, materials, and people moved across the Nordic landscape before 1450.  "CODICUM is about more than just the physical object," adds Mortensen. "It’s about understanding the intellectual history of our region. Seeing these two worlds—the library and the mass spec lab—come together this year has been a revelation."