Orval abbey manuscripts

Thanks to the financial support of the Fondation Roi Baudouin, scientific researches are carried out on parchment manuscripts and charters of the Orval abbey. Tiny amounts of collagen were collected using a non-invasive sampling method from more than a thousand of folios (a selection of 68 codices dating from 12th -13th c.) and analyzed by proteomic techniques in order to identify the animal species in each folio. The analyses are performed in collaboration with the BioArCh laboratory of the university of York, UK. This is the first time such a systematic study is undertaken at the scale of a Cistercian scriptorium. The goal of the project is to shed a new light on the work of a Cistercian scriptorium through possible correlations between animal species distribution among parchments and their presumed place of production.

The Orval abbey is located in the south of Belgium where a community of Cistercian monks is still in activity nowadays. The presence of a religious community on the site is attested since 1070. After the canons asked attachment to the Order of Cistercians, seven monks arrived at Orval on March 9th 1132.

The history of the Orval scriptorium is well documented. The scriptorium was active in the 13th century mainly. A local production for parchment codices (books) and charters is attested. A  complete catalog of Orval manuscripts (conserved at the Luxembourg national library) was issued in 2017. Orval charters are conserved at the State Archives in Arlon (Belgium).

Among Orval library manuscripts, 68 books were selected for the study, among which 20 books contain codicological units attributed to the Orval scriptorium. Proteomic analyses are performed at MaSUN and in collaboration with BioArch laboratory.

 

Parchment book (Orval abbey collection, Luxembourg national library)