The lost book of psalms of a princess-refugee was found after 1000 years - by scientists

Archaeologists have discovered fragments of a lost manuscript that is nearly 1000 years old. It is believed to have possibly belonged to a princess who fled England following its conquest by the Normans in the 11th century.

A study published in the journal Anglo-Saxon England reveals that researcher Thijs Pork identified 21 fragments of the manuscript, which were unearthed in an archive in the city of Alkmaar in the Netherlands.

The discovery of the manuscript fragments was serendipitous, according to Pork, who is an associate professor of medieval English. Staff at the Alkmaar Regional Archives sent him images of the fragments they came across while examining bindings in their collection, one of which included a fragment of the book.

The fragments discovered in the Alkmaar archive originate from a manuscript in Latin, with additional annotations in Old English. These annotations, known as "glosses," were commonly used in medieval texts to elucidate foreign or obscure words.

The researchers sought to answer the question, "How did a Dutch bookbinder in 1600 acquire an 11th-century manuscript from England?" They concluded that during the mid-sixteenth century, a significant number of manuscripts from England were sent to Europe in bulk following the confiscation of property belonging to English monasteries. These manuscripts were then repurposed by bookbinders and soap makers. One theory suggests that the 11th-century manuscript was among these repurposed materials.

However, Pork proposed a different hypothesis: the manuscript is the long-lost psalter of the English princess Gunhild, who fled after the Norman invasions that commenced in 1066. Gunhild was the sister of King Harold Godwinson of England, who perished in the Battle of Hastings. The princess passed away in 1087, and since then, any trace of the psalter has vanished. All efforts to locate it have proven futile.

Following her demise, the Calvinists seized the books and established a library, selling off the ones they deemed unnecessary. It is plausible that the Psalter was among those sold.

"It is likely that the Psalter ended up in the workshop of a Leiden bookbinder in 1600, and the fragments now discovered in Alkmaar may have been part of her personal copy of the Psalms," Pork said.