Photograph: Gary Wayne Gilbert

Boston College’s 10,000-volume Jesuitana collection includes this 18th-century manuscript from India. Constructed of palm leaves and measuring 13 1/4 x 5 x 2 inches, it contains an eight-day version of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises (usually 30 days in length), an introduction to the exercises, and a collection of sermons on various topics, all written in Tamil. (The French on the volume’s palmwood cover is presumably by J. Ress, SJ, the devotional’s editor, whose name appears at the top of the left-hand panel.) The text, which covers both sides of the leaves, was inscribed using a metal stylus and then darkened with a mixture of lampblack—the soot from a lamp chimney—and plant juices.