Jane Eagan: Fit for a king: Evidence of the refurbishment of a group of medieval manuscripts for the library of Henry VIII.

This paper investigates the programme to recover and embellish a group of medieval manuscripts on entry into the royal library in sixteenth-century England in the wake of the destruction of the monasteries.

Examination of the manuscripts reveals that the medieval structures were largely retained, while new and luxurious-looking coverings of red or black velvet were applied in order to create bindings befitting the library of Henry VIII. This royal refashioning was done quickly and neatly, often with minimal impact to the original binding structures, but nonetheless left behind valuable clues as to original covering materials now lost, and the methods used to recover and update.

The 17 manuscripts discussed are now in the collections of the Bodleian Library and The Queen's College, University of Oxford; this research grows out of the complex interventive conservation treatment of seven of the manuscripts carried out collaboratively by book conservator Jane Eagan and textile conservator Maria Hayward from 2002-2010.