The seventh seminar on the care and conservation of manuscripts, 18-19 April 2002

The seventh seminar, which had no specific theme, was attended by some 90 people, with speakers coming from Denmark, Sweden, Great Britain, Russia, Germany, Belgium and Hungary.

The following papers were presented: Susanne Vogt, the Institute of Name Research, University of Copenhagen: A progress report on the conservation and registration of the Ravnholt Archive in the Arnamagnæan Collection. — Michael Chesnutt, the Arnamagnæan Institute, University of Copenhagen: Reconstruction from transcripts: the case of Egils saga in Möðruvallabók, an Icelandic codex of the fourteenth century. — René Larsen, the Academy of Fine Arts' School of Conservation, Copenhagen: Improved damage assessments of parchments. — Dmitri Erastov, the Laboratory of conservation and restoration of documents, Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg: Use of beta-radiography for the investigation of manuscripts. What shall we do now? — Christina Henningsen, the Academy of Fine Arts' School of Conservation, Copenhagen: An investigation of the use of laser in paper-conservation. — Irakli Iakobashvili, Institute of Manuscripts, Georgian Academy of Science, Tbilisi: The basic steps in the creation of an electronic version of a handwritten catalogue of historical persons participating in military actions in the Caucusus in the nineteenth century. — Ekaterina Krushelnitskaya, Manuscript Department, National Library of Russia, St Petersburg: The electronic catalogue of manuscript collections of the National Library of Russia: its structure and functions. — Svetlana Uspenskaya, Preservation Service for Cultural and Historical Artifacts, Military Historical Museum of Artillery, St Petersburg: Digitisation as part of the museum's preservation programme. — Håkan Tegnestål, Biskops Arnö: Medieval writing instruments. — Chris S. Woods, Dorset Archives: From the sublime to the repetitious: minimalism for all seasons. — Marianne Lund Petersen, the Arnamagnæan Institute, the University of Copenhagen, Lena Westling Karlsson, Riksarkivet, Stockholm & Jørgen Bech Andersen, Hussvamp Laboratoriet, Vedbæk: The history of the conservation of seals in Danish archives. — Thomas Rydén, Lund University Library: Documentation of illuminated manuscripts – The equilibrium of detail and pragmatism. — Jesper Düring Jørgensen, the Royal Library, Copenhagen: Security. — Pamela Porter, the British Library, London: German stamped bindings in the British Library manuscript collections – a few surprises. — Agnes Scholla, Nürnberg: Libri sine asseribus. Research on early western limp bindings. — Fuchs, Robert, University of Applied Sciences, Cologne: The history of chemical reinforcement of texts in manuscripts. What should we do now? — Per Cullhed, Conservation Department, Uppsala University Library: On the conservation of the Waller collection. — Ildikó Csillag, National Széchényi Library, Budapest: Conservation of manuscripts at the National Széchényi Library. — Lieve Watteeuw, the Royal Library, Brussels: Historical restoration practices and the care of the manuscripts in the fifteenth-century Library of the Duke of Burgundy. — R. I. Page, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: Sixteenth-century transcripts of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts.

The proceedings are published in Care and conservation of manuscripts 7, ed. Gillian Fellows-Jensen and Peter Springborg (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2003).