A Very Old Choir Book

The local university has a research center with old documents and items. One of the collections is a library of old and rare books. A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting and was lucky to see two Spanish choir books from the 1500s.

I didn't have my camera with me so the pics are kinda lousy, but I hope you can see how amazing these books were. The one in the picture is a Catholic mass illuminated manuscript written in Latin from 1504.

This "S" was beautiful. The detail was so small and intricate.The pages are parchment, and the book was bound with hemp strings into a large leather cover.

The library is a hands-on kind of place, so I got to actually touch the book and turn its pages. There were many other books in the library. Hopefully soon I can stop in again and see some more.