Morgan Adams: Extraordinary ordinary: Physical evidence and treatment of a 17th-century heraldic manuscript

An “ordinary of arms” is an armorial document depicting coats of arms organized by visual motif, a herald’s picture dictionary. Originally working documents for heralds, ordinaries were often created as large format bound manuscripts. Later collectors appreciate their intricate and fantastical imagery.

Conservation treatment and research revealed a surprising and complex history of an English Ordinary of Arms in the Literary and Historic Manuscripts Collection at the Morgan Library & Museum. A small 17th-century decorated manuscript on paper, it was bequeathed to the Morgan in 1969 in a 19th-century leather case binding. Its 188 pages are filled with coats of arms drawn in pen and ink and painted in opaque watercolor. The arms are accompanied by notes inscribed by the book’s various owners over a period of nearly 300 years. The severely deteriorated condition of both the text block and the 19th-century cover and remnants of previous bindings made the book unsafe to handle. In preparation for an upcoming exhibition, the manuscript was selected for conservation treatment in the fall of 2012. After removing the 19th-century binding and mending the text block, the manuscript was rebound in a structure that accommodates the fragile condition of the text block and allows a free, non-damaging opening of the book to present the full page.

After briefly reviewing the conservation treatment, this paper will present the history of the manuscript uncovered during treatment. Close examination of the paper reveals that manuscript’s pages were cut down to their present octavo format from larger sheets, which were likely originally bound in a folio format. This change in format results in a new juxtaposition of the images and a different “reading” of the book, perhaps indicative of a change in the use of the manuscript. Recognition of the original organization of the pages allows for a digital reconstruction of the earlier folio format. Analysis of the media with x-ray fluorescence, infrared and false color infrared imaging, and microchemical spot testing further refines the chronology of contributions to the manuscript between the end of the 17th-century and the mid-20th-century. Finally, provenance research and a survey of armorial manuscripts in the Morgan and other libraries provide a historical context for our understanding of the manuscript.