As part of my regular job as curator of illuminated manuscripts at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (from 2006–2009) I acquired a few items for the collection. A manuscript written in the vernacular from the Meuse valley, near Roermond or Venlo, with numerous prints pasted into it (and not ripped or cut out) came onto the market, and I wrote a proposal to purchase it. But my bosses wanted to know whether it was made in the Netherlands or Germany, which was a difficult question considering that the...