Morganmobile: Telling Fragments

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Hidden in the gutter (the fold between facing pages) of this printed Aesop are fragments of a much older hand-written book. The little strips are too narrow to allow the text to be identified, but the style of the handwriting suggests the manuscript is from southern Germany in the ninth century. By the 1480s, the 600-year-old manuscript was considered useless and cut up to reinforce the binding of this new book.

Aesop, Vita et Fabulae [Augsburg: Anton Sorg, not before 1483]. Purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902. PML 153.