Librarians stunned after opening 500-year-old Tudor manuscript and finding a half-eaten 50-year-old biscuit
LIBRARIANS opened a rare Tudor manuscript yesterday — and found a half-eaten biscuit stuck between pages.
The find stunned staff and academics at Cambridge University.
It is believed a clumsy schoolboy dropped what appears to be a chocolate chip cookie while leafing through the book more than 50 years ago.
The manuscript — which dates back almost 500 years — was given to the university by a grammar school in 1970.
The 1529 volume from the complete works of St Augustine is stored inside the university’s rare books archive, where no food, drink or even pens are allowed.
Emily Dourish, deputy keeper of rare books and early manuscripts, discovered the biscuit.
She explained to The Sun: “It was probably a schoolboy looking at the book over 50 years ago who then accidentally dropped a biscuit and it was forgotten about.”
“When we received the book, somebody will have had a brief look at it, then stored it away. Nobody has properly looked at it since.”
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“I was stunned. When we gave it to our conservationist, his jaw dropped.”
Restorers were able to remove the decaying “dry and crumbly” biccie — but it has left a greasy stain on a handwritten page.
The university’s special collections library tweeted: “For future reference, we have acid-free paper to mark your place. Please don’t use baked goods.”
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