John Gillis: "Book in a bog": The continuing saga of the Faddan More Psalter

This is an update on the conservation of an 8th-century Irish manuscript extracted from a bog in 2006 and some unexpected discoveries, which was presented at the 11th seminar on the care and conservation in 2008. 

The difficult and complex task of conserving a fragmented and waterlogged vellum manuscript has required some new approaches to deal with the unique circumstances of the find; having dealt with this in my paper given here in 2008.

I would now like to discus:

1. How we tackled the issue of housing/display of the individual bifolia given their fragile nature and remembering that the manuscript is in the possession of the National Museum and will be central to a dedicated and permanent exhibition.

2. The conservation of the limp tanned leather cover and some exciting discoveries made during this process which raises many questions from codicological, palaeographical and indeed historical view points.