Vasare Rastonis, Mellon Conservator for Special Collections, Columbia University and Susan Boynton, Professor of Historical Musicology, Columbia University

21st-century conservation and study of a 13th-century gradual

The presentation will describe a collaboration that came about between a variety of specialists and graduate students in the Columbia University community when a 13th-century gradual was chosen to be one of a few medieval liturgical manuscripts to be studied in Susan Boynton’s Seminar in Historical Musicology: the Middle Ages at Columbia University in the spring of 2015.

When Western MS 097, a 13th-century gradual, arrived at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University Libraries, little was known about the manuscript’s origin. The gradual had been chosen by Susan Boynton, Professor of Historical Musicology at Columbia University, for analysis in her Seminar in Historical Musicology: the Middle Ages. The Digital Humanities focus of the seminar was made possible by a Hybrid Learning grant from the Provost of Columbia University. The gradual, along with a 14th-century processional and other medieval liturgical manuscripts, was chosen to be studied in great detail with some of the findings to be presented in a number of online exhibits. In the autumn of 2014, Consuelo Dutschke, Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at Columbia University, brought Western MS 097 to the Conservation Department to assess its condition for digital imaging in preparation for the seminar. After a condition assessment, it was evident that the book could not be imaged without conservation treatment.

The early 20th-century quarter leather binding was detached from the text block and the heavy amount of adhesive found on the spine restricted the opening of the fine parchment leaves. As an essential part of the project was to digitally image all 341 leaves of the gradual, the text block had to be flexible for imaging and it was not. The treatment proposal to prepare the gradual for the Reprography Department, included reducing the adhesive and separating the signatures and bifolia. On the first day of the seminar, Alexis Hagadorn, the Head of the Conservation Department and Vasare Rastonis, the Mellon Conservator for Special Collections spoke with the seminar students about aspects of bookbinding history and about the steps taken to ready the manuscript for their studies. Andre Laboy of the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning also spoke with the students about how the digital images and content could be organized into online exhibits and then continued working with the students throughout the semester. During the course, the gradual remained unbound and was placed into an enclosure to help retain the manuscript’s order and to help protect it in its loose and vulnerable state. All participating in the seminar were able to handle the physical manuscripts as needed with Consuelo Dutschke’s assistance.

The timing of the conservation treatment had been predetermined to take place in late March and early April, when the seminar broke for spring break. The intention was to allow the students as much access as possible to the manuscript and to limit the conservation period to about three weeks. The gradual was made available for examination in its unbound and rebound form. On the last day of the seminar, Vasare Rastonis shared her approach and implementation of the conservation binding process for the gradual. The binding style chosen for the gradual was identical to one used for a rebind of a 13th century manuscript treated in 2009. The book is similar in size to Western MS 097 and the now six year old binding has successfully held up through repeated use in classes taught in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The gradual’s binding was worked in a manner that would support the fine parchment leaves, create a flexible and fluid opening and avoid introducing adhesive directly to the text block. The project’s nature pulled together a variety of professionals in the Columbia University community with differing and complementary skills.

The seminar’s graduate students with their diverse backgrounds were guided by Susan Boynton and had the support of staff from the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, from the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, from the Reprography Department and from the Conservation Department. With the efforts of all involved in the project, more details are now known about the gradual and its origins, images of the leaves are available online to facilitate future study, and the manuscript has been rebound and housed, ready for further examination.