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Includes exquisite photographs of the wood and wax booklet bound in leather with floral embossing.

Archaeologists working for the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association (LWL) had a good feeling when they excavated five medieval latrines in the German city of Paderborn. Even so, what they uncovered from the dank chambers astonished them: an 800-year-old, pocket-size notebook containing ten pages in near-perfect condition.

The booklet is made of wood and wax and bound in a leather cover embossed with lilies, which signified purity in the medieval era, Richard Whiddington reports for Artnet . The binding was tight enough to protect the inner pages from the surrounding contaminants over the centuries. When LWL conservators opened it up, they found legible writing.…