SoHP Manuscripts and molecules
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Date
February 10, 2026
Location
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Area
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Manuscripts and molecules: a new project to analyze the parchments of the earliest English and Irish books, ca. 600-900 C.E.
The Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels exemplify the distinctive “Insular” handwriting and decoration developed between ca. 600 and 900 CE in books made in England and Ireland—and in English and Irish missionaries’ monasteries in Europe. Scholars have studied the scripts, magnificent artwork, and texts of these “Insular” manuscripts more than what they were physically made from, especially the skins used for the pages.
Prof. Story explores how these materials reveal hidden information about where manuscripts were made, how they travelled, and what they tell us about early medieval book production and animal husbandry. Using new methods such as biocodicology and ancient DNA analysis, she shows how a manuscript can be read not only as text and art, but also as biological evidence—once part of an ancient herd of cows or a flock of sheep.Key Speaker: Joanna Story
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Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard
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Knowledge of the human past has entered a revolutionary age of discovery as specialists from the natural sciences, the social sciences, and humanities use new evidence and new techniques to transform our understanding of human history.
Thanks to its resources, Harvard University is uniquely situated to lead the nation and the world in developing the science of the human past. We believe that an Initiative for the Science of the Human Past will make tomorrow’s students think of Harvard as the place to remake our understanding of the human past, and to discover the past’s powerful and enduring environmental, cultural, biological, and material impact on the human present and future. We propose to initiate a human and institutional group of inquiry without precedent at Harvard or indeed, in the world.