The Immortal Fragments exhibition has opened at the Ohio State University Rare Book and Manuscript Library (USA). Shown here are illuminated pages from various medieval manuscripts that were scattered throughout the state of Ohio. Today, the library contains over 530 handwritten artifacts created in Western Europe in 1000-1500. and in different ways got to the USA.
Most of the manuscripts have been preserved in the form of fragments, among them there are pages deliberately cut from books. During the 20th century, several booksellers bought and divided scientific treatises, illustrated Bibles, and works of fiction for financial gain. For example, Otto Ege (1888–1951), a teacher and dealer in old editions, believed that anyone could have access to original manuscripts. This thought was reason enough to scatter the pages of 50 illuminated books all over Ohio, forming their own mixed collections of manuscripts. Later, University of Saskatchewan professor Peter Stoyscheff set out to find collections sold out by a bookseller for digital reconstruction of books.
At the exhibition "Immortal Fragments" you can see more than 100 manuscripts, including several books of hours, collections of sermons, the Bible of the XIII century; there are also luxuriously designed bindings without pages. Particular attention is paid to the Hornby-Cockerell Bible, which once belonged to the bookseller Bruce Ferrini (1949–2010). Ferrini, like Otto Ege, divided the book into parts and resold the fragments. Now the library has 197 of the 440 manuscripts included in the Bible.
