Parchment Sequencing

This study shows one of the very few examples in the emerging field of biocodicology showing how metagenomics can help answer fundamental questions relevant to the global understanding of ancient manuscripts. The information obtained is relevant in different fields such as microbial ecology, manufacturing history, philology and conservation. Two Slavonic manuscripts more than 1000 years old were investigated by metagenomics. For the first time a careful and deep analysis of endogenous DNA, as well as the microbiomes of their surfaces including all domains of life plus viruses helped to elucidate not only interesting details about the manufacture of these valuable objects, but also their state of preservation as well as to foresee their risk of deterioration.