Fragments of the Medieval World Exhibition

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• Throughout the Festival, 8am to 10pm
• Free Admission
  No booking required
• Samuel Storey Family Exhibition Gallery, Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York (map)
• Wheelchair accessible

Event details

 
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Many key documents for the medieval period survive as small fragments or as orphaned items with no wider context. Reasons for their destruction vary from the English Reformation and the breakup of large estates, to the effects of natural disasters and past administrative carelessness. Their story is one of chance survival and of changes in attitudes to what they say and show, following lives spent obscured and in hiding.

Join us for a new exhibition by the Borthwick Institute for Archives which tells the story of these forgotten items, tracing their life as bound devotional texts to their destruction and survival, and their new life and uses in the 21st century. Not only are they of interest as records of what they say, but also as objects for the study of old handwriting and documentary production, and in some cases, as works of art in their own right.

The exhibition includes medieval music, illuminated manuscripts and administrative material dating back to the 12th century, the majority of which is on display for the first time.

About the Borthwick Institute for Archives‌

The archive collections housed at the Borthwick Institute for Archives are among the largest and most varied of any university in the UK. For more information, visit the Borthwick Archives webpages.