Old manuscript
A handwritten document from a long time ago — text that survived because someone kept copying it.
An old manuscript in a dream is the dream's image of text that survived because someone kept copying it. The manuscript is fragile and is still here because of a chain of careful hands. The dream brings the manuscript when something in your life — a piece of knowledge, a family story, a tradition — has come to you only because earlier people took trouble to preserve it. An old manuscript opened with respect is the dream affirming the chain of keeping. An old manuscript left to the damp, with the ink dissolving back into the page, is the dream noting that the chain has reached you and you have not yet decided to take the trouble that the previous keepers did.