A rare manuscript dating back to the 13th century related to the legend of King Arthur has been discovered at the University of Cambridge. Experts believe that the document’s preservation until today is a significant discovery.

On March 25th, the University of Cambridge made a public announcement about an important historical document regarding the legend of King Arthur.

The manuscript in question belongs to an old French version of the King Arthur stories known as ‘Suite Vulgate du Merlin’.

It was mentioned that the documents were coincidentally found in 2019 in a library in Cambridge, being used as a part of an old book’s cover.

According to the university’s statement, the manuscript was cut, folded, sewn, and largely damaged to be preserved in the bindings of property records from the 1500s.

However, through modern technologies, scientists managed to digitally organize the content of the piece without causing harm. Through multi-band imaging, computed tomography, and 3D modeling techniques, the texts were scanned and pieced together like a digital ‘puzzle’. Thus, the detailed content of the documents was brought to light.

The experts leading the research stated that the manuscript was written between 1275 and 1315 and was a part of the Arthurian legends catering to the noble class of that time.

University officials emphasized the uniqueness of each manuscript due to their hand-copying nature and highlighted the importance of such details in research on the origins of the documents. The manuscript, now under protection at the Cambridge University Library, will be made accessible to researchers after being digitized.