More about the medieval sealskin bindings at Clairvaux

The Artnet website has a report about the identification of sealskin as the binding of a number of manuscripts from Clairvaux, about which I wrote in Sealskin at Clairvaux

This new article adds further details from the research, partly about the origin of the sealskin, but also about its choice by the Cistercians. The argument is that although the bindings are now brown this is a result of aging, and that originally they would have been white or light grey. This would correspond to the white or off-white monastic habits of the Cistercians.

The article can be seen at These Medieval Texts Were Bound With an Unlikely Animal Hide