Hairy Skin Covering Medieval Texts Traveled Quite a Ways

A set of medieval manuscripts detailing real and imagined creatures was bound in the skin of a slippery animal that hailed far from the books' creators, according to new research that reveals an extensive medieval trade network. Bestiaries, a type of animal encyclopedia, were popular in medieval Europe and often covered in the shorn skins of goats, calves, deer, or pigs, per the New York Times. But the covers of 19 manuscripts formerly housed at France's Clairvaux Abbey and dating from 1140 to 1275 are distinctly furry, covered in a hair no one could identify.

To solve the mystery, researchers took samples from the flesh side of the covers of the 19 hairy books, plus 13 similar ones dated to the same time period and housed at associated abbeys in France, England, and Belgium, per Live Science. The ancient DNA that was obtained revealed the covers did not come from local animals, but instead harbor, harp, and bearded seals originating from an area including Scandinavia, Denmark, Scotland, and either Greenland or Iceland, according to the study published Wednesday in Royal Society Open Science.

Exactly how the skins got to the monasteries is unclear. But researchers believe Norse traders were harvesting seal pelts and sending them to Europe along trading routes in the Middle Ages. Indeed, records suggest the Norse used sealskins to pay tithes to the Catholic church in the 13th century, per Live Science. The study's lead author, book conservator Élodie Lévêque, tells the outlet it's unlikely the bindings "would have existed without the availability of sealskins from Norse sources."

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The Cistercian monks may have been especially fond of the white fur of seal pups because it would've matched their undyed vestments, per the Times. "In medieval Europe, you don't really have anything that's pure white," study co-author Matthew Collins, a bioarchaeologist, tells the outlet. Though the covers are now discolored, the original sight "must have been quite magical." Interestingly, the monks might not have known what was in their hands, either. There was no French word for seal at the time, Lévêque explains. (More discoveries stories.)