The eighth seminar on the care and conservation of manuscripts, 16th-17th October 2003

The eighth seminar, the largest to date, was attended by over 120 people, with speakers from Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, The Czech Republic, Turkey, The Vatican and The United States.

The following papers were presented: Niels Bonde, the National Museum, Copenhagen, Peter Springborg, Arnamagnæan Institute, University of Copenhagen, & Catherine Lavier, l´Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon: Wooden bindings. — Hersteinn Brynjólfsson & Sigurgeir Steingrímsson, Arnamagnæan Institute, Reykjavík: The reconservation of Codex Scardensis. — Konstantinos Choulis, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana: New projects for the care and conservation of the manuscripts in the Vatican Library. — Jirí Vnoucek, National Library of the Czech Republic, Prague: The manufacture of parchment for writing purposes and the observation of the signs of manufacture surviving in old manuscripts. — Per Cullhed, Conservation Department, Uppsala University Library: Ink and pens through 2000 years. — Abigail Quandt, Walters Art Museum, Conservation Division, Baltimore, U.S.A.: The conservation, imaging and transcription of the Archimedes Palimpsest. — Augusta Strand, Conservation Department, Uppsala University Library: The examination and conservation of earlier embroidered repairs in a medieval manuscript. — Jane Eagan, Oxford Conservation Consortium: A collection of textile bindings once in the library of King Henry VIII: technical examination and conservation. — Jana Dernovšková & Jana Drevikovska, State Central Archives, Prague: The study of materials to be used for the consolidation of the paint layer in illuminated manuscripts. — Barbara Hassel, Frankfurt/Main: Conservation of heat-damaged parchment manuscripts. — Andrea Giovannini, Bellinzona, Switzerland: The influence of codicology on restoration: the example of a Byzantine Tetraevangeliar from the XIIth century. — Karsten Friis-Jensen, Institute of Greek and Latin, University of Copenhagen: The Danish connection: the Gotha manuscript of Paul the Deacon and its history. — Jennifer M. Sheppard, Census of Western Medieval Bookbinding Structures: The findings of phase 1 of the British medieval binding structures census project (bindings in Cambridge). — Nil Bayder, Baskent Vocational School, Ankara University: The conservational aspect of Ottoman period manuscripts: Binding decorations and hand tools for making bindings. — Annlinn Kruger Grossman, Washington D.C.: Care and conservation of manuscripts at the Library of Congress: An overview. — Alexander R. Rumble, University of Manchester: Palaeography, scribal identification, and the preservation of manuscripts. — Valeria Kobiakova, Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering & Signals Corps, St Petersburg: Biomonitoring of rare books and documents. — Wolfgang Undorf, Unit for Book History, Planning of Stacks and Library Binding, the Royal Library, Stockholm: Virtual book history exhibitions. — Nancy Bell, Oxford Conservation Consortium: A closer look at Cardinal Wolsey's epistolary and lectionary. — Pamela Porter, British Library, London: German stamped bindings of the 16th century: a review. — Robert Fuchs, University of Applied Sciences, Cologne: New recipes for the conservation of leather and parchment bindings.

The proceedings are published in Care and conservation of manuscripts 8, ed. Gillian Fellows-Jensen and Peter Springborg (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2004).