Peter Kidd, Stolen Manuscript Leaves, and the ReceptioGate Campaign

Peter Kidd, author of the blog Medieval Manuscripts Provenance (mssprovenance), has for many years operated within the international market for detached manuscript leaves as a cataloguer, consultant, and commentator. Although frequently presented online as an authority on manuscript provenance, he has no university affiliation and no recognised academic position.

His professional activity is closely associated with the identification, description, and promotion of individual leaves removed from medieval manuscripts and subsequently circulated through auction houses, dealers, and private collections.

The significance of his role became particularly evident in connection with manuscript E.V.5 of the Biblioteca Universitaria di Torino.

Three illuminated leaves removed from this manuscript in 1979 later appeared on the international market and were offered for sale through Sotheby's London. The catalogue descriptions accompanying their commercialisation were prepared by Peter Kidd. The leaves were subsequently recovered through investigations conducted by the Italian Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (TPC).

A second case concerned a leaf removed from the Antiphonary D of Castelfiorentino. The expert opinion accompanying its circulation on the international market was issued by Gaudenz Freuler, a retired University of Zurich academic with longstanding connections to the manuscript trade.

Both cases later became the subject of recovery actions by the Italian authorities.

In August and October 2022, Prof. Carla Rossi submitted reports to the Italian Carabinieri TPC concerning manuscript dismemberment, detached manuscript leaves, provenance issues, and the circulation of material originating from stolen cultural property.

The documentation included information concerning the Turin leaves, the Castelfiorentino leaf, and the broader market in detached manuscript leaves.

On 20 December 2022, an article published by AboutArt publicly referred to these reports and to the wider phenomenon of biblioclasm and manuscript dismemberment.

Within days, Peter Kidd initiated what would become the ReceptioGate campaign.

Using his blog as a platform, he published a long series of posts directed against Prof. Rossi, the RECEPTIO Research Centre, her collaborators, and her legal representatives.

Over time, more than twenty posts were published.

The campaign was accompanied by anonymous communications, defamatory emails, online harassment, fake obituaries, threats, and repeated attempts to undermine the credibility of institutions associated with Prof. Rossi.

Among the documented consequences were:

– the publication of fake obituaries announcing Prof. Rossi's death;

– anonymous threats, including death threats;

– defamatory communications circulated through academic mailing lists;

– attempts to influence journalists and shape media narratives through unverified allegations;

– coordinated efforts to discredit research on manuscript dismemberment and provenance reconstruction.

The chronology is striking.

The reports concerning stolen manuscript leaves came first.

The campaign came afterwards.

This sequence has never been convincingly explained by those who participated in the attacks.

It is also relevant that Prof. Rossi's research repeatedly focused on manuscript leaves whose commercial circulation had previously been catalogued, described, promoted, or authenticated by individuals who later emerged as her most active critics.

Her work challenged the legitimacy of manuscript dismemberment and sought to reconstruct manuscripts that had been broken apart and dispersed through the antiquarian market.

The resulting conflict therefore extended far beyond personal disagreement.

It concerned two fundamentally different approaches to cultural heritage.

One approach treats detached leaves primarily as marketable objects whose value lies in commercial circulation.

The other seeks to reconstruct the original manuscripts, document their history, identify losses caused by dismemberment, and restore access to cultural heritage through research and digital reconstruction.

OProM considers the protection of manuscript heritage a matter of public interest.

The destruction of manuscripts for commercial purposes, the circulation of detached leaves without adequate provenance scrutiny, and campaigns directed against researchers who document such practices raise serious ethical and cultural concerns.

For this reason, OProM expresses its full support for Prof. Carla Rossi and for all scholars engaged in provenance research, manuscript reconstruction, and the protection of cultural heritage.

This page is published as a response to a documented campaign whose chronology, participants, and consequences are preserved in publicly accessible records.

The manuscripts are real.

The recovered leaves are real.

The reports submitted to the Italian authorities are real.

And the campaign that followed is extensively documented.

The facts are public.

The chronology is public.

The documentation remains available for anyone willing to examine it.

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Further Links:

https://www.oprom.eu/post/how-peter-kidd-promoted-the-destruction-of-the-de-roucy-hours-his-collaboration-with-manuscript-dis
https://www.oprom.eu/post/peter-kidd-excised-leaves-and-the-illusion-of-provenance-research-2025-commentary
https://www.oprom.eu/post/peter-kidd-a-documented-case-of-defamation-and-concealment-from-giovanni-mazzarelli-to-receptiog
https://www.oprom.eu/post/peter-kidd-manuscripts-provenance-mssprovenance-false-claims-and-misuse-of-oprom-identity
https://www.oprom.eu/post/peter-kidd-medieval-manuscripts-provenance-mssprovenance-a-dormant-blog-once-used-to-promote-manu
https://www.oprom.eu/post/from-bloomsbury-to-sotheby-s-the-destruction-and-sale-of-the-de-roucy-hours-and-peter-kidd-s-part
https://www.oprom.eu/post/the-receptiogate-affair-official-documents-academic-response-and-timeline-of-events
https://www.oprom.eu/post/the-receptiogate-affair-truth-defamation-and-the-struggle-against-manuscript-dismemberment
https://www.oprom.eu/post/le-blog-medieval-manuscripts-provenance-de-peter-kidd-une-violente-campagne-de-diffamation-con
https://www.oprom.eu/post/the-responsibility-of-the-società-internazionale-di-storia-della-miniatura-in-the-receptiogate-affai
https://www.oprom.eu/post/accusations-de-plagiat-textes-m%C3%A9di%C3%A9vaux-et-receptiogate-r%C3%A9ponse-document%C3%A9e-%C3%A0-un-cas-d-%C3%A9cole-20
https://www.oprom.eu/post/receptio-rossiaffair-detailedrebuttaltodavidrundle-sallegations
https://www.oprom.eu/post/carla-rossi-and-the-university-of-zurich-clarification-and-academic-record
https://www.oprom.eu/post/reddit-and-the-carla-rossi-case-zurich-2025
ISFiDa
https://www.isfida.eu/post/peter-kidd-a-documented-case-of-defamation-and-concealment-from-giovanni-mazzarelli-to-receptiog
https://www.isfida.eu/post/biblioclasm-market-and-ethics-stop-calling-them-fragments
https://www.isfida.eu/post/how-mssprovenance-lost-its-purpose-and-turned-into-an-attack-bloga-documented-contribution-to-the
https://www.isfida.eu/post/peter-kidd-manuscripts-provenance-mssprovenance-ethical-concerns-and-the-legacy-of-dismembered-ma
https://www.isfida.eu/post/receptiogate-official-documents-publications-and-institutional-response
https://www.isfida.eu/post/receptiogate-and-the-defence-of-academic-integrity
https://www.isfida.eu/post/la-società-internazionale-di-storia-della-miniatura
Receptiogate.info
https://www.receptiogate.info/
https://www.receptiogate.info/actors-behind-the-defamation
https://www.receptiogate.info/actors-behind-the-defamation/peter-kidd-medieval-manuscripts-provenance
https://www.receptiogate.info/press-statements
https://www.receptiogate.info/press-statements
https://www.receptiogate.info/timeline
https://www.receptiogate.info/faq
https://www.receptiogate.info/actors-behind-the-defamation/societ%C3%A0-internazionale-di-storia-della-miniatura
Alta-Formazione
https://www.alta-formazione.it/post/receptiogate-spiegato-diffamazione-documenti-accuse-infondate-e-risposta-accademica
https://www.alta-formazione.it/post/what-is-receptiogate-a-chronicle-of-attacks-and-academic-continuity
https://www.alta-formazione.it/post/peter-kidd-s-manuscript-provenance-blog-a-vile-persecutory-campaign-against-prof-carla-rossi
Carla Rossi.info
https://www.profcarlarossi.info/post/una-campagna-persecutoria-ignobile
Substack
https://oprom.substack.com/p/carla-rossi-zurich-clarifying-facts
https://oprom.substack.com/p/carla-rossi-zurich-clarifier-les
https://oprom.substack.com/p/carla-rossi-zurich-fakten-statt-geruchte
https://oprom.substack.com/p/carla-rossi-zurich-una-aclaracion
https://oprom.substack.com/publish/post/164304863
https://open.substack.com/pub/oprom/p/carla-rossi-zurich-an-academic-profile?r=5j99hd&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
https://oprom.substack.com/p/peter-kidd-and-receptiogate-not-an
https://oprom.substack.com/p/academic-integrity-cultural-heritage
https://oprom.substack.com/p/documented-timeline-of-the-defamation
https://oprom.substack.com/p/cronologia-documentata-della-campagna
https://open.substack.com/pub/oprom/p/receptiogate-was-not-a-scholarly?r=5j99hd&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
https://oprom.substack.com/p/why-peter-kidds-blog-is-not-a-scholarly
https://oprom.substack.com/p/peter-kidd-and-the-mazzarelli-case
https://oprom.substack.com/p/peter-kidd-and-receptiogate-not-an
https://oprom.substack.com/p/facing-disinformation-with-knowledge
https://oprom.substack.com/p/how-the-societa-internazionale-di
https://oprom.substack.com/p/come-la-societa-internazionale-di
https://oprom.substack.com/p/all-official-sources-on-receptiogate
https://open.substack.com/pub/oprom/p/peter-kidd-mssprovenance-and-manuscript?r=5j99hd&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
https://oprom.substack.com/p/2025-why-peter-kidds-mssprovenance
Receptiogate blog
https://receptiogate.blogspot.com/2025/05/2025-peter-kidd-medieval-manuscripts.html
https://sites.google.com/view/receptiogate
https://sites.google.com/view/carla-rossi/home-page
 

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