Wright Library Scarecrow Row

Thank you for visiting our Scarecrow Row display!
When we started to plan our mummy, our research revealed that there was a mummy wrapped in a book known as the famous linen book of Zagreb (Liber linteus Zagrabiensis) that turned out to be a manuscript with the longest preserved text in the Etruscan language and the only perserved example of a linen book in the entire classical world.

It can be found at a museum in Zagreb. Here's a description from the museum's webpage

"The museum possesses a small, but in this region unique collection of Etruscan material. The best known and certainly the most valuable item is the famous linen book of Zagreb (Liber linteus Zagrabiensis), a manuscript with the longest preserved text in the Etruscan language, and simultaneously the only preserved example of a linen book in the entire classical world. The book is something like a liturgical calendar, with dates cited and religious precepts relating to sacrifices offered to individual deities. According to some interpretations, the text would have been written in Italy, the native land of the Etruscans, but some consider that it was written in Egypt, the country where it was purchased in the 19th century. In a period when the manuscript no longer served its original liturgical purpose, the "book" was cut into strips, several of which served an unknown embalmer as wrappings for the mummified body of the deceased (
the Zagreb Mummy)." 

You can always learn about the world at Wright Library through our various digital and print collections of books, magazines, movies, music, and research databases

 


Source URL: https://www.wrightlibrary.org/scarecrow2018