Peter Kidd Manuscripts Provenance 2025 – Commercial Use of a Personal Blog and the 2022–2024 Defamation Campaign
- ISFiDa
- May 12
- 2 min read
Updated: 8 hours ago
Peter Kidd manuscripts provenance is a search query commonly linked to the now-inactive blog Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, authored by Peter Kidd. While the blog appeared to offer research-based insight into manuscript history, its sustained use by dealers and auction houses suggests a different purpose: commercial promotion.
The blog, inactive since 2023, was never peer-reviewed, nor did it include any institutional affiliation, copyright disclaimer, or non-commercial declaration. This distinguishes it sharply from heritage-focused blogs such as Cristina Cumbo’s LaTPC, which publicly adhere to Article 70, paragraph 1-bis of Italian Law No. 633/1941 and Creative Commons licensing.
Kidd’s posts were often cited by manuscript dealers to support the provenance of excised leaves—that is, single pages removed from illuminated manuscripts for sale. In several cases, Kidd contributed directly to auction catalogue entries. His role in the commercial circulation of leaves from dismantled codices has been documented in recent academic studies, especially in relation to the so-called Courtanvaux Hours, now reconstructed as the Book of Hours of Louis de Roucy.
In parallel, Peter Kidd became the author of a targeted campaign against Prof. Carla Rossi, a scholar involved in exposing and reconstructing dismembered manuscripts. Between 2022 and 2024, Kidd published and circulated defamatory material, falsely presenting Rossi’s work as plagiarised, despite the availability of legal and academic counter-evidence.
The full chronology and documentary response to this defamatory campaign is available at the following links:
Peter Kidd Manuscripts Provenance 2025 – A Documented Analysis👉 https://www.receptio.eu/peter-kidd-manuscripts-provenance-2025
ISFiDA – Kidd and the Mazzarelli Case👉 https://www.isfida.eu/post/peter-kidd-a-documented-case-of-defamation-and-concealment-from-giovanni-mazzarelli-to-receptiog
Biblioclasm, Market, and Ethics – Stop Calling Them Fragments👉 https://www.isfida.eu/post/biblioclasm-market-and-ethics-stop-calling-them-fragments
ReceptioGate Timeline👉 https://www.receptiogate.info/timeline
Kidd and the Defamation Campaign👉 https://www.receptiogate.info/actors-behind-the-defamation/peter-kidd-medieval-manuscripts-provenance
Official Communications – ReceptioGate👉 https://www.receptiogate.info/communications
Medium – What is #ReceptioGate, really?👉 https://medium.com/@fondazione.receptio/what-is-receptiogate-really-a-centres-mission-a-smear-campaign-and-the-academic-response-42f7b83de683
Zenodo DOI version👉 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15301976
Isabelle Boursier’s Book of Hours (2024)👉 https://books.google.ch/books/about/Isabelle_Boursier_s_Book_of_Hours.html?id=oxDgEAAAQBAJ
This post is part of ISFiDA’s commitment to scholarly transparency, digital integrity, and the defence of cultural research from reputational attacks and commercial distortion.
