Sealskin at Clairvaux

A reader has very kindly forwarded to me the link to an article on The History Blog about recent research into the bindings of a group of manuscripts from the library of the abbey at Clairvaux. Based on the findings the research was then extended to other monastic collections, which showed some similar results.

Modern investigative techniques revealed that these were not deer or boar skin but in fact North Atlantic sealskin. It is suggested that some may have come as tithe  offerings - although I would comment that the Cistercians sought to avoid receiving tithes - or that the seal leather was bought through links to Hanseatic traders. The Champagne trade fairs were not that distant and still an important source of cloth and leather as well as other goods at the time the books were being copied. The history and significance of these fairs is set out by Wikipedia at Champagne fairs

This discovery gives further evidence of the trading links which extended across medieval Europe, When one visits Clairvaux today it seems very far from the sea, and exudes a curious melancholy around the remains of the abbey which is still used by the French state as a prison. In the age of St Bernard and in subsequent centuries it must have been busier and very much a hive of economic activity as well as a commanding centre of prayer and spirituality.

The article about the research into the bindings can be seen at Medieval manuscripts were bound in sealskin

The article makes the point that the monks may not have realised that the leather was sealskin and that seals do not figure very much in medieval sources. I do recall reading - but cannot find the reference at the moment  - of a story, presumably from the Evesham Abbey chronicle, of a discussion in Chapter there of how exactly the abbey was going to feed pilgrims who were expected in coming days. A young monk who had not been paying much attention to the discussion interjected that he had seen a creature swimming in the river Avon that might help. This was a seal, which ended up being used to feed the visitors….. ( sorry about that animal lovers and vegetarians ). There are occasional stories these days of seals coming inland along rivers, though whether one could reach Evesham by the Severn and the Avon I could not say - but then how did the story come about?