Preservation

September update from the Library and Record Centre

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Lambeth Palace Library and the Church of England Record Centre regularly embark on new projects and acquire and catalogue new material, from rare books and manuscripts to modern publications.  These posts provide a brief update on some of our latest acquisitions, projects and upcoming events, to keep you up-to-date with our most recent news.

FullSizeRender (18)New books!

Enjoy reading one (or more!) of our recently acquired new books. Highlights include:

 

Magazines and journals

Lambeth Palace Library also collects a variety of magazines and journals. You are very welcome to visit the Reading Room to consult these too. Some of magazinesour recently received titles include:
Crucible: the journal of Christian social ethics
Churchman
Faith and worship
The Friends Quarterly
Historic Churches
Journal of Anglican Studies
Journal of Ecclesiastical History
Journal of Paper Conservation
The Library: Transactions of The Bibliographical Society
Privacy & Data Protection

We also receive the following papers and magazines weekly:

newspapersThe Church of England Newspaper
Church Times
The Tablet
TLS (The Times Literary Supplement)

 

Please note that from October 2019 Lambeth Palace Library will be closed on Fridays. This is to give the staff time to prepare the collections for the move to the new library building. Opening hours will be 10am to 5pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, and 10am to 7.30 pm on Thursday.

Upcoming events

‘Wanting more and wanting better’

traherne socBishop Richard Harries
Monday 23 September, 5pm (entrance not before 4:30pm)

The usual assumption is that Christianity disapproves of us wanting things. Thomas Traherne takes a very different line, saying we don’t want enough. But when we have moved out of innocent bliss into a world of sin and suffering, how do we manage this wanting?

In association with the Traherne Society. All are welcome, but those wishing to attend should book a free ticket at  https://richardharrieslambeth.eventbrite.co.uk or email melissa.harrison@churchofengland.org not later than Tuesday 17 September.

‘William Holcot’s books: recantation and repentance in Reformation England’

Professor John Craig (Simon Fraser University)
Tuesday 26 November, 5:15pm (entrance not before 4:45pm)
Craig
William Holcot was a mid-Tudor gentleman, bibliophile and lay reader in the early Elizabethan church, whose experience of recantation during the reign of Queen Mary powerfully shaped his thoughts and actions during the Elizabethan period. Very little survives from Holcot’s life but the few pieces that do enrich our understanding of a particular stream of Elizabethan Protestantism. This event will be followed by a drinks reception.

In association with the University of London seminar on the Religious History of Britain 1500-1800.  All are welcome, but those wishing to attend should book a free ticket at https://johncraiglambeth.eventbrite.co.uk, or email melissa.harrison@churchofengland.org not later than Friday 22 November.

Christmas reception for the Friends of Lambeth Palace Library and their 1488-5jguests

Wednesday 4 December, 6pm (admittance from 5:30pm)

Christmas reception held in the State Drawing Room in Lambeth Palace.

Tickets £10 per head, to include wine and mince pies. To book, please send names in advance to Melissa Harrison, melissa.harrison@churchofengland.org or telephone 020 7898 1400, not later than Friday 22 November.

 

New Library update

Work on the new library is progressing well and the programme remains on track to complete in April 2020.

IMG_20190828_114336895_BURST000_COVER_TOP

From the street, the completed brickwork for the east and west wings are now clearly visible. Scaffold only remains in place to the central tower which will start to be dismantled from October 2019.

Internally, considerable progress has been made. The archive spaces are nearing completion with the final shelving units arriving at the start of the month ready for installation.

IMG_20190828_112747241

The spaces which will be occupied by the staff have also progressed well. Finishes to the floors, ceilings and walls have started over the last period and will continue to the end of the project. Joinery is being put into the Reading Room, so we are now starting to see the wood panelling.

First floor office
First floor office
Reading Room
View from inside the Reading Room
Freezers in cold store
Freezers in the cold store

Externally, an exciting phase will start in the next quarter when the landscaping works for the Palace gardens commence. This will include extensive planting and a wetland habitat. The pond wall will be set out this week, and the excavations of the base of the pond started.

 

Lambeth Local History Fair

Local History Fair

The Library was thrilled to have a stall at the Lambeth Local History Fair, a now annual event that kicks off Lambeth Heritage Festival, which runs throughout September.  This year the Fair was held in Brixton Tate Libary on Saturday 7th September, and saw dozens of local societies and local history organisations come together to showcase their services, alongside a programme of illustrated talks, tours and walks.  Library staff were pleased to talk to a large number of visitors and let them know how the Library and Record Centre could be useful to their research.

The full programme for the Lambeth Heritage Festival 2019 can be found here.

 

Archive news

Material catalogued and now made available in recent months has included:

  • Papers of the English Hymnal Company (ref: EHC), 1905-2000.
  • Correspondence regarding the Book of Common Prayer (1928), mainly between Lambeth Palace and Colonel H M Oldham (ref: MS 5149), 1926-1959.
  • Letters and reports to Cyril Eastaugh, Bishop of Peterborough on South Africa (ref: MS 5150), 1965.

The Library’s collections have also been used in a range of recent publications and resources including:

Further content has been added to the Library’s public image management system: http://images.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk/luna/servlet, including a range of manuscripts (MS 1, MS 284, MS 774, MS 1143, MS 1502, MS 2022, MS 5082) and material from Sion College (Sion L40.2/E25, Sion L40.2/E42, Sion L40.2/E44, Sion L40.2/L2 and Sion L40.2/L7).

MS 774f178v
MS 774, f.178v

In the Conservation studio

Over 30,000 items have been boxed, with a big focus now on protecting CERC collections for the move next year. We are currently working through the procurement process for potential movers and, once awarded, the process of preparing the day-by-day scheduling of the move will begin.  In addition, the team are preparing for the studio move, as well as helping with new library requirements.
Only 217 days until we get the keys to the new building!

boxing

Don’t forget – you can also keep up-to-date with our news and events, and enjoy glimpses of some of the treasures in our collections, by following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

 

 

Summer update from the Library and Record Centre

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Lambeth Palace Library and the Church of England Record Centre regularly embark on new projects and acquire and catalogue new material, from rare books and manuscripts to modern publications.  These posts provide a brief update on some of our latest acquisitions, projects and upcoming events, to keep you up-to-date with our most recent news.

New books!

Enjoy reading one (or more!) of our recently acquired new books. Highlights include:

Magazines and journals

magazinesLambeth Palace Library also collects a variety of magazines and journals. You are very welcome to visit the Reading Room to consult these too. Some of our recently received titles include:

Anglican and Episcopal History
Church Monuments
English Historical Review
Families First
Historical Research
Modern Believing
New Directions
Parliamentary History
The Prayer Book Society Journal
Theology

newspapersWe also receive the following papers and magazines weekly:

The Church of England Newspaper
Church Times
TLS (The Times Literary Supplement)

Upcoming events

Lambeth Palace Garden Open Days with Great Hall entry and exhibition

Every first Friday of the month until September, 12 noon to 3pm
Next Open Day: Friday 2 August 

garden

An opportunity to visit the Palace’s beautiful gardens and see the progress of the new Library building! Refreshments and entertainment are provided in the garden and there will be plants for sale. The 17th century Great Hall will also be open throughout the Open Days, with a chance to view displays of some of the Library’s collections. Do come along and bring your friends and family!

There is an entrance fee of £5, which will go to a chosen charity each month, and there is no need to book.

New Library update

As of July, the Library project remains on time and on budget. The Archbishop topped out the building in May.

topping.jpg

The brickwork is nearing completion and is gradually being revealed as the scaffolding comes down.

dav

Over the summer and Autumn most of the work is concentrated on the inside of the building as all the mechanical work progresses inside.

stacks

Staff are now heavily involved in planning for the big move of all the archives from the Library and CERC which will be taking place between June to December 2020.

Archive news

Clare Brown awarded The Lanfranc Award for Education and Scholarship

clareThe Library is delighted that Mrs Clare Brown, Archivist, was awarded The Lanfranc Award for Education and Scholarship by Archbishop Welby at the Lambeth Awards 2019, for her work in guiding readers through the archives of the Church of England, and for her exhibitions and scholarly expertise in support of Lambeth Palace Library and three Archbishops of Canterbury. In April, we bid Clare a very long and happy retirement after seventeen years of service at the Library!

Clare’s contribution over the years is too vast to summarise briefly, but we hope to give a sense of her many accomplishments. On joining the Library, Clare completed cataloguing of the papers of Archbishop Ramsey, and then led cataloguing of the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) archive. She led work on the collaborative projects on the Library’s important collection of Greek manuscripts, with an exhibition in 2006 and the launch of the catalogue in 2016. She contributed to understanding of the Canterbury Archbishops’ Registers alongside work undertaken by the Borthwick Institute on the York Registers. Her knowledge of the history of ecumenical relations contributed to displays for visitors to the Archbishop from other churches, and her extensive knowledge of the collections and of Church of England history have benefited many Library readers and NCIs colleagues over the years. This is evidenced, not least, by the amount of enquiries Clare answered during her time at the Library – almost 3,700!

We will all greatly miss Clare’s incredible knowledge, helpfulness, her willingness to share her expertise with Library readers and colleagues alike, and especially her sense of humour.

Archival collections news

Papers from 1988 have been released for research, including some 500 files from the papers of Archbishop Runcie and further material on Anglican-Roman Catholic relations from the records of ARCIC II. Descriptions can be searched on the Library’s online archives catalogue.

Further newly-catalogued material includes records of the Lambeth Diploma and Vacation Term for Biblical Study, two initiatives founded in the early 20th century to provide theological and scriptural training for women. Library staff are also adding detail to descriptions of various series of news cuttings and photographs relating to Archbishops Benson (cartoon pictured below), Davidson, Lang and Fisher, which complement correspondence and other papers in the main series. Photographs of Lambeth Palace and garden by Sue Snell are also now catalogued.

cartoon

An annotated Bible belonging to John Taylor Smith, Bishop of Sierra Leone, was donated to the Library. The Library also received a set of playing cards produced by the Mothers’ Union.

Watercolours from the Library collections can now been seen on the new Watercolour World website.

watercolour

Recent blog posts have covered a printed work on music from the Sion College collection; a further report on records of the Court of Arches; and a conference on Anglo-Saxon manuscripts.

A digitised version of Herbert Bosham’s life of Thomas Becket incorporating folios from the Library’s MS 5048 detached from the parent manuscript held in Arras is now available.

Bosham

The 100th anniversary of the Church Assembly, predecessor of General Synod, occurs in 2019. Aside from the main archive held at the Church of England Record Centre, there are further voluminous sources in the Library collections.

An edition of the household accounts of Archbishop Laud has been published; the original document is held at the National Archives, but complements sources relating to Laud in the Library collections. Readers may be interested in a Salvation Army blog post on the history of Christianity in China; the Library also holds material on the church in China.

In the Conservation Studio

Earlier in the year, a group of students from the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England (CHASE) visited the Library as part of their ‘Material Witness‘ training programme, which examines physical objects in the digital age. The visit was organised by Teresa Lane, PhD student at the Courtauld Institute of Art, who recently completed a six-month CHASE internship working on the Library’s illuminated manuscripts. It gave participants a behind-the-scenes look in the conservation studio and an opportunity to learn about the different approaches and techniques involved in preserving fragile books.

workshop

Lara Artemis, Senior Conservator at the Library, led the sessions on medieval manuscripts, examining their materiality and chemistry, as well as their history and provenance. The group were shown the stunningly illuminated 13th-century Lambeth Apocalypse (MS 209) – one of the Library’s treasures – and looked at the kinds of pigments used by the artists. The students even had a go at mixing pigments and painting their own illuminations on vellum afterwards!

workshop2

The photographs above are taken from the Material Witness blog about the student’s visit to Lambeth Palace Library, which gives plenty more fascinating insights into manuscripts and their conservation.

In other news, we continue to make strides in our boxing and preparing the collections for the move. We’ve now completed around 25,000 boxes for vulnerable items in the collection, including completing the job of cleaning, measuring, boxing and organising the vulnerable Sion College Library collections stored in the Blore, one of our Library storerooms.

boxing

Sion College Founder’s Day at Lambeth Palace

Fellows and members of Sion College celebrated its Founder’s Day at Lambeth Palace on Tuesday 9 July. This year’s event included a lecture by Baroness Manningham-Buller, former Director General of MI5, who spoke on the topic of “Intelligence and Ethics”. Evening prayer in the Chapel was followed by a drinks reception in the Great Hall where attendees were able to view an exhibition of some of the newly catalogued items from the Sion College collection, now housed in Lambeth Palace Library. Also on display were books and manuscripts relating to the lecture’s theme, including Reginald Scot’s Discovery of witchcraft (1654) in which the author denounced the prosecution and torture of those accused of witchcraft as un-Christian and irrational, and a 1584 caricature of Thomas Norton, whose ruthless and enthusiastic punishment of English Catholics led to his being nicknamed the “Rackmaster-General”.

Witchraft.jpg

Don’t forget – you can also keep up-to-date with our news and events, and enjoy glimpses of some of the treasures in our collections, by following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

A Helping Hand

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Mary Clayton-Kastenholz has been working as a conservation assistant at Lambeth Palace Library for the past month. Prior to this she volunteered with the printed books team assisting with cataloguing and collections care tasks. In this blog post Mary discusses her work as a conservation assistant.

In addition to assisting with the ongoing boxing and cleaning projects that are preceding the move to the new building, I have been helping to conserve some flat objects from the Church of England Record Centre. Most of these documents are from a series known as ‘chancel plans’; architectural drawings of the front section of churches drafted in the late 19th century, depicting proposed restoration schemes. These documents are an important, active legal record for the Church; in many localities, ownership of certain houses can still come with a formal obligation to care for the local church chancel (‘Chancel repair liability’). It is important for the Record Centre that these documents are accessible, stable, and clean for reader access.

Mary 8

Starting to clean G.2774 (CERC) with a chemical sponge

To clean these documents, I have used a ‘smoke sponge’, so called because it can be used to remove smoke damage and soot, as well as effectively removing surface dust and dirt. To begin I would first carefully unfold the document, setting aside any other items that may have been stored inside. In the case of the chancel plans, the outer document often contained several pieces of tracing paper illustrating aspects of the proposed 19th century renovations; often these also required surface cleaning. Once unfolded, I would weigh the document in several places, and carefully use the sponge to lift the dirt using a diagonal dabbing motion. Tracing paper, which becomes extremely brittle over time, is only cleaned where dirt is visible, usually on a few outer edges. Dirt on the tracing paper usually sits very loosely on the surface, so it is possible to remove it with almost to no pressure. With the larger paper chancel plans I would clean the whole surface taking care not to disturb any inscriptions in pencil. I was expected to test any other media (ink and water colour) to make sure they are not going to come off. The smoke sponge is made of vulcanised rubber or a synthetic equivalent and is essentially an aerated eraser which can remove any material drafted in graphite.

before and after.PNG

Deed 40966 (CERC) before and after cleaning

I then used a Stabler Mars eraser, to carefully rub away any particularly ingrained dirt areas, but only on the edges and at a distance from the media on the page. Once the surface had been cleaned, I used a soft goat’s hair brush to brush away any loose dirt and miniscule pieces of sponge. Both sides of a document are cleaned, and in some cases the reverse sides, before they were rehoused in archival boxes. It is important to note that conservation surface cleaning does not return an item to its original state. The process described only removes surface dirt that is not deeply ingrained. Documents that have been exposed to high humidity often look very similar before and after cleaning, as the dirt sinks in and sets in the paper when it is exposed to moisture.

before and after 2.PNG

ECF/11/4/392 (CERC) before and after cleaning

Once cleaned, the documents are carefully encapsulated in Melinex (archival quality polyester film) which is cut to a size just larger than the document and sealed on three sides. Any pieces of tracing paper that had been folded inside the plan are fully encapsulated, as any handling risks immediately damage to these fragile documents. The encapsulated tracing paper elements are then stored inside the Melinex envelope with the outer plan, so that all the elements that were stored together when they came to the lab are also together when they return.

Mary 6.jpg

G.2774 (CERC) after a full clean

An interesting consequence follows the flattening and encapsulation of documents; when they are returned to the storage facility they take up far more lateral space than when they left. In their new form they are best stored in plan chests or large conservation-grade portfolios rather than in archival boxes. In planning the equipment for the new library, more plan chests and wide shelves are being projected, so that there will be space to store objects that change format as a result of their conservation.

Coming to a Close

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The latest blog post comes from Alexandra Wade (Preservation Project Assistant), who tells us about the conservation work that has been carried out on Lambeth Palace Library’s manuscript collection over the past 18 months.

In May of 2017 I joined the conservation team at Lambeth Palace Library as a Preservation Project Assistant. I was assigned to a specific project to clean and box 590 volumes in the early manuscript sequence; a project funded by the National Manuscript Conservation Trust (NMCT).

“In 2013 a cataloguing project funded by the Library Trustees completed in 2013, prompted a closer look at the collections condition and storage as well as promoted further use of this material. It was decided that a clean and re-boxing program was needed to protect and preserve the collection from environmental and handling damage as well as prepare the material for the move to the new library building in 2020.

MS 466

The binding of MS 466 

The early part of the manuscripts sequence contains a number of volumes from the Augustinian priory of Llantony, and they include such treasures as an Anglo-Saxon glossed psalter from the early 11th century (MS 427). Consequently, they are among the most important part of the holdings and a central resource for those using the Library’s reading room and other public services. They also form the subject of requests for loans to exhibitions, such as MS 306, a collection of 15th/16th century chronicles once owned by the antiquary John Stow, which was lent to Palace Green Library, Durham, for the ‘Magna Carta and the Changing Face of Revolt’ exhibition in 2015.”[1]

The overall focus was to undertake a programme of condition checking, cleaning and protecting.  This started with: a quick survey to identify initial conservation issues, which led on to mechanically dry cleaning each manuscript; whilst collecting any fragments including debris in the gutters; and to create a bespoke phase box.

MS 253

Ingress dirt within MS 253

Most of the collection is parchment which is often very susceptible to moisture. The material can expand in damp conditions rapidly and dramatically and we were keen to avoid this issue. By choosing a dry mechanical cleaning method we were able to remove the dust but add no dry or wet particulates to the original material.  A smoke sponge was used; originally developed for removing fire damage and soot from a wide range of materials; it is now a staple in conservation studios. Preservation Equipment Limited describes it as: “made of either vulcanized natural rubber, or our synthetic latex free material.”[2] The sponge is made with very tightly packed air bubbles throughout. When one puts pressure on the sponge when holding it, it creates a slight vacuum, sucking material and debris up into the sponge. It had a very positive effect on the text, paper and parchment. A decision was made not to take the sponge over the text. The inks used on texts of this age can be unstable and prone to breaking apart under pressure, therefore the sponge was only used on the marginalia and blank areas of the leaves.

brushes and sponge

Examples of hakes brushes and smoke sponge used in dry cleaning

To clean the main body of the leaves a hake brush was used. These are: “[f]lat, wide, soft, white goat hair brushes, gentle enough for delicate Japanese papers and tissues. Used for dusting, washing, sizing, mounting, gluing or spreading any thin media.”[3] Although exceptionally soft, these brushes are unable to be taken over red, green, or blue inks as these inks are more unstable than black ink and will lift if disturbed. Cleaning was carried out around these areas. Over time I acquired a selection of other natural hair brushes in different sizes that allowed removal of dust and debris from the guttering and from the folds in the pages.

The library and stores will be moving to a new, purpose-built building in 2020, therefore for the past year the conservation team has been packaging the volumes ready for transportation. To do this in-house a Zund project cutter was purchased which allows templates to be designed to suit our needs. There are two kinds of boxes: four flap and clam shell, which are allocated depending on the depth of the volume.

4

The manuscript sequence is now boxed

Using a book measurer, the exact dimensions of every book were taken and using the catalogue as reference, the correct name and item number were confirmed. Boxes are produced flat and then folded before fitting them to the book. We chose not to use a template that would require glue to assemble them but instead used tabs. This reduces the risk of adhesives finding their way onto the books over time and creating a conservation issue in the future.

Whilst undertaking the cleaning items of interest were found in the guttering of the books. Things such as: pressed flowers, finger nails, flies, and loose leaves of other material have all been found in texts. Instead of removing this material it has been kept it in situ, sometimes housed in an acid free paper to protect it if required. The manuscript number is written onto the envelope; should it ever be separated from its original document it can be slipped back into place. In the interest of maintaining the provenance of the item and the text, the additional piece must be re-inserted where it was found.  There has been a push in recent years to examine bindings, and the material that may be trapped in a binding and in the debris in the guttering. Such information may add provenance and understanding to the way the contemporary owners of these books lived, worked, and studied.

9

An unlucky fly within the pages of MS 20

The additional finds have been well received by tour groups and MS 573, within which the Islamic Star of David shown below was found, is to be the subject of our Item of Interest blog for this month. The additional finds (dust, pollen, seeds, hairs, friable pigment etc) can be scientifically analysed further to enhance any provenance data or to discover new historical context.

Judgements were made on the condition of the manuscript and in some cases, it was decided to place handling suggestions on the box and on the digital records. Consideration was given to: how secure the manuscript block was, if the manuscript leaves were detaching from the binding, the effectiveness of the binding cover as a protection for the manuscript leaves, specific damage to leaves, evidence of pest damage, and weakening of the binding components (both structurally and materially)-balanced alongside the risk of producing the manuscript to search room readers and for filming. This safeguards the manuscript from poor handling practices and protects the manuscript from stress damage. This first phase of cleaning allowed us to flag materials that may need future conservation in a further phase of work.

BeforeAfter2

An example of damage and the ingress dirt that can accumulate

The project was showcased to students visiting from Camberwell College of Arts and West Dean College, and tour groups from various backgrounds. By being in the studio I have been able to learn from the projects that colleagues are undertaking at the same time, some of which overlap with this project. I have also attended courses and lectures on topics that correspond with the collection and undertake additional research. Being able to handle, inspect, and work on the books provides depth and further understanding to their remote learning. It has been a great pleasure and privilege to be able to work on this project and the experience afforded to me has been invaluable.

conservation evening
Examples of manuscripts ready to exhibit at a Conservation Evening event

In total we have now cleaned 552 manuscripts and boxed 554.

[1] J. Atkinson, ‘Initial report’, National Manuscripts Conservation Trust, 2016 P. 1

[2] Preservation Equipment Limited, Smoke Sponges [website], 2018, https://www.preservationequipment.com/Catalogue/Cleaning-Products/Sponges-Cloths/Smoke-Sponges (accessed 2/06/2018)

[3] Preservation Equipment Limited, Hake Brushes [website], 2018, https://www.preservationequipment.com/Catalogue/Equipment-Tools/Brushes/Japanese-Brushes/Hake-Brushes (accessed 2/06/2018)

Item of Interest: Hidden Treasures

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The latest Item of Interest post comes from Alexandra Wade (Preservation Project Assistant), who tells us about the treasures that have been uncovered during conservation work being carried out on Lambeth Palace Library’s manuscript collection.

This year in the conservation studio I have been working on a National Manuscript Conservation Trust (NMCT) funded project to clean and re-package our early manuscript collections to prepare them for the move to the new library in 2020. This collection is made up of the libraries of Archbishops Bancroft and his successor Abbot, and contains the bulk of our medieval manuscript collection. I have been dry cleaning the books using a combination of a rubber smoke sponge and a series of soft brushes. Once the book is cleaned it is boxed in a new complete enclosure. We custom make these boxes in-house using a Zund production machine and acid free, archival card.

MS 573 in custom made storage box
MS 573 in its custom made storage box.

Whilst sampling this material I often come across many unique and interesting items that hold hidden treasures. An example of this is MS 573, simply titled: Arabic Manuscript. Initially the book appeared to be an average volume, bound in an oriental, red leather binding with paper leaves, it wasn’t until I opened it that I found a few treasures waiting for me.

MS 573 binding
The gilt stamped binding of MS 573.

Each page has a basic illumination around the edges of the block of text, which is usual for the Arabic texts that Lambeth holds. In comparison, the Western texts tend to have images which are illuminated rather than creating marginalia. There are odd words or phrases highlighted in gold throughout MS 573 and these are recitational markings for the pieces that are to be vocalised.

It is noted in David Wilkin’s catalogue of 1720 that:

MS 573 David Wilkins catalogue entry (002)
David Wilkins’ catalogue entry.


“The solution to the difficult terrain of tradition about the issues (Books) directions were recorded by Mahmoud Ebn-Seder Esharia, authors Obeid Allah, Ebn-Masuud Ebn-Esharia Tagus.”[1]

We can also see an inscription inside of MS 573 in the hand of Archbishop William Sancroft, providing an earlier description given by Edmund Castell (1606 -1685):

“The religion of Arabia. The Meslimis. Concerning the purification of fasting, the prayers of the pilgrimage of faith, teaching of those who make profession of the religion of muhammedici.”[2]

The ownership inscription indicates to us that Archbishop Sancroft owned this text and that it was gifted to him by John St. John in 1679. We know from our records that John St. John presented a series of Arabic Manuscripts to Archbishop Sancroft in 1679 and again in 1680 from his personal collection.

Upon working through the text, I discovered two small, loose inserts that had been placed inside of the book. The red images are inked onto a very thin piece of parchment and in both cases, they are partial images with some areas missing. The first appears to be part of the Muslim Star of David with some inscriptions present within it.

MS 573 Star of David
Inscribed insert depicting the Star of David.

“The six-pointed star is actually a common symbol throughout many different religions, including Islam. Muslims know the hexagram as the Seal of Solomon— both Solomon and David were prophets, and both are mentioned in the Islamic holy book, the Quran. The hexagram appears in Islamic artefacts and mosques worldwide.”[3]

The other piece is more faded but depicts a series of circles that also has inscriptions within it. There is debate around the intended purpose of these pieces of parchment, were they meant to add context to the main text? Were they precious keep sakes, or even book marks? The missing sections are interesting and the straight edges suggest that the piece was deliberately cut either before the ink was laid or after.

MS 573 inscribed insert
Inscribed insert with circular design and inscriptions.

It is important that we preserve these decorative pieces to add to the provenance of the text. Through research and the dedication of time we will be able to decipher the writing and add some context to the images. To keep the items in good condition I create custom fit wallets from age compatible paper which is an acid free substance that adds little bulk to the overall text but maintains a more rigid structure than tissue. I enclose all edges around the insert and I also write on the MS number so that in the unlikely event that it was separated from the main text it could find its home again. These little envelopes are placed back into the text at the place they were found so that the provenance of the text is not disturbed.

MS 573 packaged insert
Insert safely packaged in an envelope and returned to the manuscript.

As I came to the end of the text I noticed that there were several notes added in to the margins of the pages. Although I am unable to read the text myself one can assume that the notes relate to the subject matter: the purification of fasting, the prayers of the pilgrimage of faith, teaching of those who make profession of the religion. Seeing additional notes like these remind us that we are intimately connected with the people of the past and provide insight into the everyday practices, thoughts, feelings, and priorities of those using this text.

MS 573 illumination
Example of an illumination from MS 573, with marginalia.

Interestingly, the last page also contains an illuminated image. Through research I have been able to determine that several Arabic texts feature this image on the final page. It is suggested by Julia Friedman that the:

“text is often placed within or adjacent to holy symbols; what may look like a visual decision may be primarily symbolic.”[4]

In this collection I have been unable to find another example of an early protective covering for an illumination. This works in the same way that a protective piece of tissue would be used in more modern books to protect plates and engravings. This one is made from parchment and is bound into the text block so that it is held in place.

MS 573 illumination with covering material
Early protective covering for an illumination.

Are you able to decipher any of the notes or writings on loose parchment? Do you have any more information about what the images or the illumination symbolise?  Leave a comment below to let us know what you think.

 

References:

[1] Lambeth Palace Library, Calm View Record, [Website], 2008-2018, http://archives.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=MSS%2f573&pos=1, (accessed 30 May 2018)

[2] Lambeth Palace Library, Calm View Record, [Website], 2008-2018, http://archives.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=MSS%2f573&pos=1, (accessed 30 May 2018)

[3] Unknown, ‘The Star of David’, The Star of David in Islam, [web blog], 7 May 2016,  https://starofdavidsite.wordpress.com/category/star-of-david/star-of-david-in-islam/ (accessed 30 May 2018)

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