Mary French, Rebecca Goldie and Emma Nichols, Cambridge University Library

The Lewis-Gibson Project: Reflections on the conservation of 1,791 manuscript fragments from the Cairo Genizah

The Lewis-Gibson Collection is one of three Cairo Genizah Collections housed at Cambridge University Library. A genizah is a room in a synagogue usually accessible only by a small opening – such as a high window – where traditionally Jewish people discarded worn religious texts as a mark of respect so that the words of God could decay of their own accord.

Typically, a genizah is ceremoniously emptied every seven years, although the Cairo Genizah was left untouched for nearly a millennium. Discovered in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo, Egypt, in the late 19th century, this is the largest known collection of fragmentary medieval Jewish writings in the world, containing vast amounts of religious texts as well as all manner of details about daily life in medieval Cairo.

This momentous discovery was made possible by the efforts of two adventurous sisters, Agnes Smith Lewis (1843–1926) and Margaret Dunlop Gibson (1843–1920), whose handpicked genizah manuscripts form the collection which have been undergoing conservation in this project. Consisting of 1,791 paper and parchment manuscript fragments, the collection was repaired and bound into volumes in the late 19th century when the Lewis-Gibson sisters brought them from Cairo to Cambridge.

Cambridge University Library holds the largest number of Cairo Genizah fragments in the world and has been home to the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit (GRU) since the 1970s. Since then, the Conservation Department has been working to conserve and stabilise these fragments. In August 2013, the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, and Cambridge University Library jointly purchased the Lewis-Gibson Collection from Westminster College, Cambridge.

The aim of the conservation project was to stabilise the fragments, reveal obscured text, and to facilitate digitisation so that the manuscripts could be more accessible and available to view online. Three newly qualified conservators were hired to complete this project within a two-year timeframe. A treatment plan was formulated that drew upon the Conservation Department’s previous experience with genizah materials and in collaboration with the GRU and the Library’s Digital Content Unit. This plan sought to identify treatments that could be applied to the entire collection while accounting for each fragment’s own characteristics, deterioration acquired through time in the Genizah and issues that had arisen from the 19th-century repairs.

Although these repairs may have been considered appropriate at the time, some of them obscured text, restricted natural movement of the fragments, and in some cases accelerated the degradation of the already fragile manuscripts. The conservation process brought to light several ethical issues regarding the removal of these 19th-century repairs and has sparked an ongoing discussion about their significance as an integral part of the collection’s identity and as an historical resource.

Scientific analysis of the fragments was conducted in collaboration with other professional institutions. This included collagen analysis through peptide mass fingerprinting, undertaken with BioArCh at the University of York, to identify parchment species. In conjunction with West Dean College, pigment identification was carried out through X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and adhesive analysis was performed using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). These tests contributed to the conservation team’s understanding of the composition of the Genizah material and informed treatment decisions on the Lewis-Gibson project. The results also aided the work of the manuscript researchers in the GRU, who were, for the first time, able to compare the results of the rigorous scientific analysis with the previously held assumptions derived from received codicological knowledge. This has added to the reliability of the manuscript descriptions produced by the GRU and opened up new avenues of investigation. Throughout the project, both the researchers and conservators have benefitted from a close working relationship, which has greatly assisted the process of conservation, while also in turn informing the research.

The Lewis-Gibson project has given the conservation team many chances to reflect, re-evaluate, and adapt the techniques and materials used throughout the conservation process. This has been the third Cairo Genizah collection to be conserved at the UL, and as a result a sensitive, subtle and effective approach to treatments has been established which can be adapted and applied to similar large-scale manuscript collections. It is hoped that through this project, the fragments have retained the significance of their material culture and have been given the best possible chance at long term survival. The completion of digitisation will make the collection accessible to a worldwide audience.