“Found: A Greasy Leftover Snack Inside a Rare Book—Whether a Cookie or a Fruit Bun, the ‘Offending Object’ Has Been Discarded”, 2020-03-11 (; backlinks; similar):
Emily Dourish, deputy keeper of Rare Books and Early Manuscripts at the Cambridge University Library, was recently making rounds through the collection when she made a most unusual discovery. Wedged inside a Renaissance-era volume of Saint Augustine’s complete works sat a flat, decaying, dry, partially eaten snack—likely a cookie, or “some kind of fruit bun”, though Dourish admits that the treat was well past easy identification.
…It’s not the first time that Dourish or her colleagues have found foreign objects inside their rare books. Over the years, they’ve encountered flower petals, unexpected annotations, bits of medieval manuscripts within actual book bindings, and even an unknown poem by the Dutch scholar Erasmus. One particularly notable example was a key found by Dourish’s colleague in a medieval manuscript, which left a rusty impression even after its removal…Sometimes, you find a plant inside a 15th-century German Bible…or wax drippings in 16th-century Spanish prayer books.