Biocodicology is a discipline developed very recently to sample and analyse the proteins and DNA of medieval manuscripts.
The foundational article on the subject is:
Fiddyment, S., Teasdale, M.D., Vnouček, J. et al. So you want to do biocodicology? A field guide to the biological analysis of parchment. Herit Sci 7, 35 (2019).
https://www.nature.com/articles/s40494-019-0278-6
You may also be interested in this lecture by Professor Matthew Collins, who is one of the founders of the discipline:
And there is a short video on the technique of taking samples here:
Biocodicology Indicative Supplementary Bibliography
Bycroft, Clare, and others, ‘Patterns of Genetic Differentiation and the Footprints of Historical Migrations in the Iberian Peninsula’, Nature Communications, 10.1 (2019), p. 551, doi:10.1038/s41467-018-08272-w
Fiddyment, Sarah, and others, ‘Animal Origin of 13th-Century Uterine Vellum Revealed Using Noninvasive Peptide Fingerprinting’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112.49 (2015), pp. 15066–71, doi:10.1073/pnas.1512264112
——, and others, ‘So You Want to Do Biocodicology? A Field Guide to the Biological Analysis of Parchment’, Heritage Science, 7.1 (2019), p. 35, doi:10.1186/s40494-019-0278-6
Fors, Roger Alcàntara, and others, ‘Cattle on the Rocks: Understanding Cattle Mobility, Diet, and Seasonality in the Iberian Peninsula. The Middle Neolithic Site of Cova de Les Pixarelles (Tavertet, Osona)’, PLOS ONE, 20.1 (2025), p. e0317723, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0317723
Hendy, Jessica, and others, ‘A Guide to Ancient Protein Studies’, Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2.5 (2018), pp. 791–99, doi:10.1038/s41559-018-0510-x
‘Hiding in Plain Sight: The Biomolecular Identification of Pinniped Use in Medieval Manuscripts | Royal Society Open Science’, n.d. <https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.241090> [accessed 20 August 2025]
Larsen, René and European Commission (eds), Improved Damage Assessment of Parchment: IDAP: Assessment, Data Collection and Sharing of Knowledge (Publications Office, 2007)
‘Matthew Collins – Reading Old Manuscripts as a Biologist and Archaeologist’, Fondation Wiener – Anspach, n.d. <https://fwa.ulb.be/activites/philippe-wiener-lectures/matthew-collins-reading-old-manuscripts-as-a-biologist-and-archaeologist/?lang=en> [accessed 20 August 2025]
Phillips, Carla Rahn, and William D. Phillips, Spain’s Golden Fleece: Wool Production and the Wool Trade from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1997)
Rudy, Kathryn, ‘Dirty Books: Quantifying Patterns of Use in Medieval Manuscripts Using a Densitometer’, Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art, 2.1–2 (2010), doi:10.5092/jhna.2010.2.1.1
Ryder, Michael L., ‘Parchment—Its History, Manufacture and Composition’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 2.9 (1964), pp. 391–99, doi:10.1080/00379816009513778
Teasdale, M. D., and others, ‘Paging through History: Parchment as a Reservoir of Ancient DNA for next Generation Sequencing’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 370.1660 (2015), p. 20130379, doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0379
‘The Vienna Genesis: An Example of Late Antique Purple Parchment’, n.d. <https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/res-2021-0019/html> [accessed 20 August 2025]
‘The York Gospels: A 1000-Year Biological Palimpsest | Royal Society Open Science’, n.d. <https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.170988> [accessed 20 August 2025]
Viñas Caron, Laura Cristina, Historical Parchment As A Biomolecular Record Of Sheep Husbandry Practices In The Iberian Peninsula (GLOBE Institute, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2022)
Viñas-Caron, Laura C., and others, ‘A Biological Reading of a Palimpsest’, iScience, 26.6 (2023), doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106786
Viñas-Caron, Laura C., and others, ‘From Fleece to Thread. Interdisciplinary Evidence for the Origins of Sheep Wool’, in The Common Thread, New Approaches in Archaeology, 3 (Brepols Publishers, 2024), iii, pp. 33–60, doi:10.1484/M.NAA-EB.5.141753