I was happy to see the Antiques column in Friday's New York Times discuss what those of us in manuscript studies in the U.S. commonly refer to as "Ege fragments."
Otto Ege (pronounced "EGG-ee"), who spent much of his career at the Cleveland Institute of Art, broke up medieval manuscripts to sell individual leaves, including some 50 manuscripts used to create 40 boxed "samplers" containing individual leaves. The boxes were then sold, mostly to colleges and universities in North America, to teach students about palaeography.
Several scholars have been working on digitally reconstructing the manuscripts Ege broke apart to create his boxes, and Yale University last month announced the purchase of Ege's papers and other manuscript-related materials from his heirs.
Those of us in Ohio are well acquainted with Ege boxes, and while the practice is certainly frowned upon today, the way Ege created his boxes does allow us to put the manuscripts back together — at least with those boxes whose location is known today. With Yale planning to publish Ege's papers — including bindings from the disassembled manuscripts — we should be able to learn more about the sources for the Ege fragments.