Dirty Books 2.1: Quantifying Patterns of Use in Digitized Medieval Manuscripts Using a Pixel Meter: Case Studies

This article presents a series of case studies applying digital densitometry to 12 fully digitized late-medieval books of hours in order to examine patterns of use-wear across folios. Building on a previously established proof of concept (Dirty Books 2.0), it treats the digital pixel meter as an operational tool and explores how quantitative measurements taken from the digital object can support historical interpretation. By correlating peaks and valleys in area graphs with manuscript contents, the case studies reveal recurring devotional behaviors, including preferences for images, indulgenced texts, particular saints, and specific times of day. The article demonstrates the potential of computational approaches for manuscript studies while also identifying the limits of manual analysis, thereby motivating future work at greater scale.