Medieval prayer wheel presents a mystery to scholars
The directions are written on 1,035-year-old vellum: “The Order of the Diagram Written Here Teaches the Return Home.” Care to play?
Manhattan’s Les Enluminures Gallery, a dealer in medieval manuscripts, recently put a book on sale with a first page so rare that only five of its kind are known to exist. In fact, the book itself is rare, with a massive, ancient, carved-oak cover and sturdy clasps of worked copper. Dating back to ca. 980–1000, it contains just the four Gospels.
The volume appears to have been commissioned by a woman for women: an abbess in Liesborn, Germany, named Berthildis had it made for the highborn ladies who had left the medieval court for her convent.
