The Provenance of the Swedish-Finnish Manuscript Fragment Collection

A Case Study of Early Modern Parchment Reuse

Abstract

A significant portion of the books of medieval Sweden survive as fragments. This is due to the early modern practice of reusing their leaves as soft covers for tax accounts, resulting in c. 30,000 fragments from over 10,000 parchment books preserved today. The process of reuse left discernible traces on the fragments and has long been considered key to solving the issue of their medieval provenance, which underpins most research that utilises them. Uncovering their provenance would clarify the books’ historical context and significantly increase the fragments’ value as historical sources. This article analyses the provenance of approximately one hundred manuscripts through their reuse, expanding the evidentiary base to include not only the fragments themselves, but also the tax books they covered, and the officials responsible for the process. The results suggest that the long-standing puzzle of the fragments’ provenance may, in fact, be solvable.