Bringing together medieval manuscripts is always a good thing, and recently the University of Chicago brought two fascinating volumes back together. The first is a courtly romance (Le Roman de la Rose) and the other is a treatise on medieval society that uses the game of chess as its framework (Le Jeu des "checs moralis"). The two volumes were bound together, perhaps soon after they were created (ca. 1365), and stayed together for over 500 years. In 1907, they were divided into two volumes and sent their separate ways. By bringing them back together, The University of Chicago Library hopes to make it possible for scholars to study the two manuscripts together to learn about their shared origin and production history. Visitors to the site can view each manuscript in its entirety, and they can also look over a brief essay which gives a bit of context about their history. Additionally, visitors should not miss the piece titled "A Tale of Two Manuscripts Reunited", which offers some background on how the two manuscripts were brought back together in one place.
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