The material on the covers of books from a French abbey was too hairy to have come from calves or other local mammals.

New research from the University of Cambridge sheds light on the use of seal products across Europe during the middle ages, ...

Historians were surprised when analyses revealed Catholic monks used pinniped hides for the protective outer layer on some ...

The monks curated a vast manuscript and book collection at the Library of Clairvaux Abbey, a site in Champagne, France, founded in 1115. The group of 12th- and 13th-century works expanded to more than ...

A trove of books written by medieval-era French monks were bound with bizarre “hairy” covers from far-away animals — shedding ...

the white color faded, researchers said. Other than the color, the reason why the monks chose to bind their books in seal skin remains a mystery. “We have no written records to explain why monks ...

Strange “hairy” covers of books in medieval Europe were made from seal skin obtained from Viking ... and “perhaps Barents-White Sea region”. The findings suggest the Cistercians were ...