Video Fridays: Forgotten Medieval Manuscripts
Image © The British Library
Bas-de page miniature of King Arthur riding to mass, with Camelot depicted as an Italian city, from Guiron le Courtois. Made in Italy, ca. 1352-1362.
Last month I read this really intriguing article titled “How Much Medieval Literature Has Been Lost Over the Centuries,” which led me to six-minute video from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the journal Science about how much medieval literature has been lost over the past 500+ years. A group of scholars has applied an ecological theory -- the “unseen species model” -- to try to determine the survival rate of medieval manuscripts. The estimate is about 9 percent overall; English literature is even lower.
![Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–253) Homilia in Genesim, Homiliae in Exodum, in Latin, translation by Rufinus, decorated manuscript on parchment [Austria, Lambach Abbey? c. 1150–1175]. Estimate: $150,000-$200,000.](/sites/default/files/styles/category_card/public/media-images/2026-06/origen.jpeg?itok=0V_4_Lt2)
