All the King's Treasures

New Ways of Looking at Old Objects

Before and during the pandemic, students were able to work on a number of projects that involved fresh ways of looking at collections and resulted in new insights into the ways in which these objects were used and seen in the past. —Eric Pumroy, Seymour Adelman Director of Special Collections

For her graduate assistantship in Special Collections, Kaylee Verkruisen (history of art) worked on a transcription and translation of the jewel roll of Edward I—an inventory of the king’s gold, silver, gem-set objects, and richly bound books that was made in 1301, when Edward was nearly 30 years into his long, tumultuous reign.

During her master’s research at the University of Toronto, Verkruisen worked with the last will and testament of Blanche of Navarre, Queen of France. While similar in some ways, that document was written in a relatively accessible old French dialect. The jewel roll’s medieval Latin (with its admixture of English words) proved more challenging.

As Verkruisen began reading and transcribing, she was also developing her paleographic skills. As she repeatedly examined every line of the 720-year-old parchment document, she had to identify specific letters, learn abbreviations, piece together common combinations and whole words, and assemble partial sentences and phrases.

Ongoing translation reveals a variety of valuable objects in the 13 boxes inventoried. One contained an assortment of rings with rubies, sapphires, and diamonds; another stored precious metal vessels; and others held numerous manuscripts, including a book of Scottish legends.

Barely four pages of text, the jewel roll would not have been an exhaustive catalog of the king’s treasures. But the organization of the roll, the information about how and where various precious items were stored, and the treasure itself all have potential for further study, and Verkruisen’s work will provide a grounding for that work. Her transcription will be added to the online description of this unique record.

The jewel roll is in the collection of early manuscripts and printed books Howard Lehman Goodhart donated to BMC in 1951. Digitized for the Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis Project, the jewel roll can be found at bibliophilly.library.upenn.edu/.