Recorded from NC State’s GES Colloquium, this podcast examines how biotechnologies take shape in the world: microbiome engineering in built environments, gene editing and gene drives, forest and agricultural genomics, data governance and equity, risk and regulation, sci-art, and public engagement in practice.

The Ark and the Archive: Genetics, Manuscripts, and the Emerging Field of Biocodicology

Nelson 4305 + Zoom | What can genetics tell us about old books? This talk explores how next-generation sequencing and other biomolecular tools are opening exciting new frontiers in medieval manuscript studies.

Medieval parchment manuscripts have long been studied as repositories of textual and historical information, but they are equally remarkable as repositories of biological data. Biocodicology, or the study of books through the lens of the biological information they contain, is an emerging interdisciplinary field that brings together humanists, scientists, veterinarians, and conservation scientists to ask new questions of old cultural heritage artifacts. This talk introduces the field and traces its development, from early experiments confirming DNA survival in parchment to current collaborative work employing next-generation sequencing, palaeoproteomics, and microbiome analysis.

Drawing on nearly two decades of research into the genetic analysis of medieval manuscripts, I will discuss the considerable potential of biocodicological methods for addressing long standing humanistic questions, including localizing and dating manuscripts, reconstructing dispersed leaves from books, tracing the medieval parchment trade, and resolving debates about individual books, while also opening entirely new lines of inquiry into animal husbandry, breed development, and the history of human-animal interaction. The talk concludes by reflecting on both the opportunities and challenges in conducting this work.

Related links:

• Evaluating non-destructive sampling methods of parchment for genomic sequencing – Diaz, L.D., Scheible, M., Stinson, T.L. et al. npj Herit. Sci. , 2025
• The development of non-destructive sampling methods of parchment skins for genetic species identification – Scheible, M., Stinson, T. L. , et al. Plos One , 2024
• Download seminar poster

Timothy Stinson, PhD

Associate Professor at North Carolina State University | Profile

Timothy Stinson is Associate Professor of English and a University Faculty Scholar at North Carolina State University, where his research focuses on Middle English poetry, codicology, history of the book, and digital humanities. He is a leader in applying digital technologies to medieval studies, serving as co-founder and co-director of the Medieval Electronic Scholarly Alliance, director of the Society for Early English and Norse Electronic Texts, co-director of the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, and is editor of The Siege of Jerusalem Electronic Archive.

Stinson has pioneered the use of DNA analysis to study medieval manuscripts, collaborating with colleagues in the biological sciences to analyze genetic material found in parchment. This innovative work has garnered international press coverage in outlets including the BBC’s The World Today, National Geographic, Science, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

His work has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Council on Information and Library Resources, and the Bibliographical Society of America. He has published in leading journals including Speculum, The Chaucer Review, Manuscript Studies, and The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America.

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The Genetic Engineering and Society (GES) Colloquium is a seminar series that brings in speakers to present and stimulate discussion on a variety of topics related to existing and proposed biotechnologies and their place within broader societal changes.

GES Colloquium is taught by Dr. Zack Brown, and the seminars serve as a great opportunity for our students to build their networks and grow as professionals. To support their efforts, we encourage you to join our in-person seminars, which will now take place in Nelson 4305.

Remember, we regularly post colloquium seminars as videos on Panopto and on our GES Lectures podcast, allowing you to revisit or catch up on these recordings at your convenience.

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