Have you ever been cracking on with a bit of spring cleaning, perhaps going through the garage and looking at old boxes of clutter to chuck away, and stumbled on something you haven’t seen in ages?
Well, beloved York museum The Bar Convent have quite the story for you! While searching through their archives, one of their team of staff decided to open up an unassuming looking box from a back shelf, only to find one of the rarest medieval items in their whole collection!
The museum’s Special Collections Manager Dr Hannah Thomas came across an illuminated medieval scroll known as an Arma Christi, featuring the prayer poem O Vernicle — of which there are only ten other copies to be found anywhere in world.
Very few medieval devotional items (these are objects like crucifixes or scrolls that are used in religious or spiritual practices to show reverence and commitment to a divine entity) survived the Reformation in the 1540s and the outlawing of Catholicism some decades later under Elizabeth I, and the Bar Convent Arma Christi is thought to be one of the last examples ever made, dating from
around 1475.
You’re probably thinking, yes, that’s really cool that it’s so rare, but why is this discovery so important? Well, not only is this new scroll one of the best-preserved examples of its kind ever found, but it is also the only one that features “response texts” after each verse of the poem. These “responses” are written in red and demonstrate that the scroll was likely used in communal worship as well as private prayer. Communal worship is a type of prayer that is typically associated with the Catholic Church rather than the Protestantism introduced by Elizabeth I — so implies that Catholic worship continued in York later than many had imagined.
“This is an illuminated script, with hand-drawn figures and beautiful calligraphy – it is a medieval work of art in its own right. However, where it differs from the other examples that have been discovered is that this is not merely an illustrated poem or prayer created for private contemplation, but featuring response texts suggesting it was used by groups or families as they gathered together for prayers in the home,” explains
Dr Hannah.
What’s more, you could be one of the first people to see this scroll in its full glory. The full manuscript will not be revealed until it becomes the centrepiece of a major new exhibition at the Bar Covent Living Heritage Centre opening on Saturday 5 April 2025.
Plus, make sure to keep an eye out while you’re cleaning out the clutter later this month. Who knows what kind of treasures you might find!
For more information, or to book tickets for the opening of the exhibition, please visit www.barconvent.co.uk.
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