Textile fragment

Coptic Egypt, 3rd–4th century

The wolf. Whose home is the wilderness; some studies of wild animal life. Illustrated by Charles Copeland. 1907.

(In the medieval bestiary, the hedgehog's story usually involved it rolling around and collecting fallen fruit on its quills to bring home to its children - fruit kebabs to go!)

1. Metz, Bibliothèque municipale, 1588 f. 72v https://www.flickr.com/photos/bmmetz/12497461423/in/album-72157640916985905/

2. Verdun, Bibl.mun., ms 0107, f. 008 https://bvmm.irht.cnrs.fr/iiif/9684/canvas/canvas-1283591/view

3. Morgan Library, MS M.81 (The Worksop Bestiary), f. 10v http://ica.themorgan.org/manuscript/page/3/77019

Sometimes your parchment is imperfect, but you use it anyway. This leaf, from a 13th century verse paraphrase of the Bible written in France, has a large hole that was caused during the processing of the animal skin. Part of the hole was sewn up using thick thread, and then the scribe just wrote around it. (UPenn Ms. Codex 747)

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