Solving the mystery of an unusual medieval text

Rare 14th-century texts historian Rowan Dorin found in Stanford's Green Library show an enthusiastic exchange of knowledge between medieval people, going against the belief that the Middle Ages was an ignorant time. When historian Rowan Dorin first stepped onto the Stanford campus in early 2017, he made it a habit to visit Green Library every week to dig through its collection of medieval documents and objects. Rowan W. Dorin, assistant professor of history, with the miscataloged parchments whose mystery he is working to solve. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero) After a few months, Dorin, an assistant professor of history specializing in medieval Europe, discovered something out of the ordinary. Three leaves of ancient parchment were labeled as a Hebrew translation of text about grammar, but its margins had Latin words like fish, capers and dill. "It looked like some sort of food dictionary," said Dorin about his first impression of the documents. "There didn't seem to be anything grammatical about it." The miscataloged texts turned out to be written in Arabic using Hebrew letters, with Latin and old Spanish notes on the edges.