Artificial Flowers: Ora, Labora, et Flore

UW Madison recently acquired a small and intriguing manuscript produced in the eighteenth century by Benedictine nuns at the St Godelieve Abbey in Bruges, Belgium. Across 30 handwritten leaves, and inserts of handpainted designs, as well as loose scraps of paper of various sizes, the manuscript gives written instructions in French and Dutch for how to dye textiles and create artificial flowers.