Bodleian MS. Selden Supra 30 open at pp. 18-19 © Courtesy of The Bodleian Library
MS. Selden Supra 30 is a copy of the Acts of the Apostles, a book of the New Testament, written in Latin. It is a small volume, measuring only 229 x 176mm (only slightly bigger than an A5 piece of paper). Prayers inscribed upon p. 70, which was originally left blank, suggest that very early in its history MS. Selden Supra 30 was owned and used by a woman, or a group of women.
This was confirmed after Jessica Hodgkinson, a PhD student at the University of Leicester, funded by the AHRC Midlands4Cities consortium, spotted traces of an inscription on the margins of page 18, never discovered before. Highresolution 3D recording revealed marginal annotations made by a woman called Eadburg, dating to 8th-century England. Read the full report by Jessica Hodgkinson on The Conveyor
Further recordings have also revealed several other instances of Eadburg’s name, alongside other early marginal additions, incised into the parchment of MS Selden Supra 30. Read the full report by John Barrett
Alongside Eadburg’s name, several intriguing drypoint drawings have also been discovered. Some are clearly human figures, though further investigation is needed to establish exactly who or what they depict. All the figures are very small. Several seem to have been made by incising a line around a thumb or finger to form the outline of the figure.
The discovery was featured on several national and international press articles, including:
- The Guardian
- BBC
- The Smithsonian Magazine
- National Geographic Historia
- ABC.es
- La Vanguardia
- Ars Technica
Top to bottom: An unedited render of the 3D surface of the bottom of page 18 with the inscription now visible. An enhanced version made through tonal remapping. A digitally annotated version. The digital annotation with the render removed.
