Seventeen medieval manuscript fragments identified in Guernsey are offering new evidence of the island’s literary and intellectual life, a period for which almost no comparable material had previously survived.
The fragments were found in the collections of Guernsey’s Island Archives and among records kept in His Majesty’s Greffier’s Strongroom. Centuries ago, pieces of medieval parchment were reused as covers and bindings for early modern notebooks containing administrative records connected with the island’s feudal holdings. That reuse helped preserve the fragments, even as their original manuscripts disappeared.
The material was identified through work by the Island Archives team, manuscript specialist David Rundle of the University of Kent’s Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, and book historian Tamara Atkin of the University of Oxford. Some fragments had been recognized by Guernsey archivists previously, while others were identified more recently. Their significance became clearer when the pieces were studied as a group.
The collection represents the first direct evidence of the books available on medieval Guernsey and the texts circulating among its readers. Most of the fragments are in Latin, but six are in French. The researchers say this suggests that when island residents read vernacular works in the late medieval period, French was more prominent than English. Several fragments come from widely copied works, including the Anglo-Norman “Lumere as lais.”
One particularly unusual fragment belongs to “L’Estoire de Griseldis,” a dramatic poem thought to have been written by Philippe de Mézières around 1395. The work retells the story of Griselda, which had earlier appeared in Giovanni Boccaccio’s “Decameron.” The Guernsey version is known from only one other manuscript and two 16th-century printed editions.
According to the researchers, the fragment shows for the first time that the play circulated beyond the French royal court circles where it most likely began. It may help explain how the story reached a broader audience in the 16th century, while also providing evidence of what texts were read on Guernsey and how they traveled.
Archival assistant Callum Tostevin-Hall discovered one fragment while tracing a 16th-century copy of Guernsey’s 1331 “Extente.” He noticed a reference to a vellum cover and found that it had once been part of a medieval manuscript. Researchers believe further fragments may still be present in archival collections. Island Archives is scheduled to host an academic study day about the discoveries on September 10, 2026.
