DIAS Wild Wednesday: CODICUM Synergy grant – how biochemistry and pre-modern book history found each other to break new barriers by Lars Boje Mortensen & Matthew Collins

Matthew Collins (biochemistry) and Lars Boje Mortensen (literary history) will speak about CODICUM, an ERC Synergy project which spans the humanities and the sciences. Their talk will cover books and book production before the advent of paper and print (before c. 1400 / 1450).
You will be able to see (and perhaps touch) a real medieval parchment book and several fragments of such books (courtesy of the SDU library)!
Lars will introduce pre-modern books and their significance for intellectual and literary history – particularly within the Nordic context of CODICUM. Next, Matthew will demonstrate some of the startling research possibilities that thousand year old animal skins offer through DNA analysis and protein profiles, and the new facility at SDU.
 Together, these approaches will unravel new patterns of book history, intellectual networks and surprising insights and applications of “biocodicology”.