The Vulgate Merlin Sequel
However, upon further examination, they realized that it was, in fact, a very significant Arthurian text, the Vulgate Merlin sequel of the old French. The first part of the story is a recollection of the Christian victory at the Battle of Cambenic against the Saxons. The next scene is about Merlin disguised as a harpist and appearing in Arthur’s court during the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
Now that this method of translating and preserving text has proven effective, the archivists hope the same can be used in other projects involving delicate artifacts. While the Merlin and King Arthur sequel story was once very popular, it eventually fell out of public favour. This is why the fragments were used to create binding for another book. This was a common practice in those days, meaning that there could be many more rare and valuable texts still lying hidden in old book bindings. According to one of the researchers, Fabry-Tehranchi, “This project was not just about unlocking one text—it was about developing a methodology that can be used for other manuscripts”.
The researchers do not know who the creator of this specific version is, though. Based on the stylistic evidence, it seems to have been written in a northern French dialect by an unknown scribe. While the stories of Merlin and King Arthur are English and Celtic legends, they were written in Old French due to the Norman Conquest. However, Old French was no longer popular in England by the 16th century, and there was a general shift to English. This may explain why the fragmented story was used as recycled binding in the first place. It had lost its appeal and ended up as part of another artifact.
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