Robert Browning was keen on reading old, arcane documents

*Me too.

browning.jpeg

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43755/fra-lippo-lippi

And a face that looked up . . . zooks, sir, flesh and blood,
That's all I'm made of! Into shreds it went,
Curtain and counterpane and coverlet,
All the bed-furniture—a dozen knots,
There was a ladder! Down I let myself,
Hands and feet, scrambling somehow, and so dropped,
And after them....