Where are your other leaves? Re-discovering the Wilton Processional
Even a single page from a medieval book can hold many secrets. Sometimes there are enough clues to uncover a surprising history.
In March 2015, Heather Wacha, a PhD student in the History Department, and a member of History Corps, was assisting Special Collections in identifying a leaf that had been cut out of a medieval manuscript. Further investigation of this manuscript’s clues has since drawn together librarians, graduate students, and UNI professor Dr. Alison Altstatt. Together, they have uncovered a story spanning centuries of a manuscript that was once created, then lost, then broken by notorious book breaker Otto Ege, and is now finally, refound: The Wilton Processional.
Special Collections is very pleased to bring you episode five from the “If Books Could Talk” video series, Where are your other leaves? Re-discovering the Wilton Processional
Watch the 16 minute video below, and read Heather Wacha’s more extensive essay about this manuscript leaf on the History Corps website. https://thestudio.uiowa.edu/historycorps/exhibits/show/books/episode5
Further information: Alison Altstatt, “Re-membering the Wilton Processional,” in Notes: the Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association 72:4 (forthcoming June 2016), 690-732.
Hosts: Colleen Theisen and Heather Wacha
Guests: Michele Aichele and Alison Altstatt
Written by: Heather Wacha
Edited by: Katie Buehner
Essay: Heather Wacha