Contributions to the 5th AICCM Book, Paper and Photographic Materials Symposium. Editors: Prue McKay and Alana Treasure. Canberra, ACT: AICCM (Inc.), 2008.
Abstract
From March through to June 2008, the State Library of Victoria held a major exhibition of medieval manuscripts entitled ‘The Medieval Imagination: Illuminated Manuscripts from Cambridge, Australia and New Zealand’. This provided an opportunity to address the conservation of two medieval manuscripts in the collection that had been in need of attention. The Pilgrimage of the Lyfe of the Manhode and Pilgrimage of the Sowle is a mid 15th century English translation of Guillaume de Deguileville’s French verse narrative. Its damaged 17th century binding was removed in the early 1990s to facilitate microfilming, after which it was boxed in a disbound state. The Codex Sancti Paschalis is a 13th century manuscript owned by the Australian Province of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor on long term loan to the State Library of Victoria’s Rare Books Collection since 1994. The manuscript’s 19th century binding was breaking down each time the manuscript was examined; conservation work was essential if it was to be displayed. This paper, after introducing each manuscript, will look at the research, analysis and treatment of the manuscripts, including an examination of the vellum cleaning and repair, and non-adhesive bindings that were performed on each manuscript.
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