[dmortin]

> but unless you're deeply, deeply into repetitive religious tracts of 600 years ago, most of the collection is more of a curiosity than a valuable resource to modern scholars.

It's an abbey, so they are probably into religious tracts and it has cultural and sentimental value to them. E.g. if it has a Bible from the 13th century then it's worth preserving even if it's just the usual stuff.

[mitthrowaway2]

Potentially some of the books are also palimpsest, and perhaps if examined closely might have more ancient writings on them like lost Greek histories, poetry, or philosophy. I understand that the repurposing of paper was quite common back then.