Subject: Parchment
Ilias Kastritis <ikast [at] aueb__gr> writes >Being a graduate from the Department of Conservation of works of art >and antiquities at the Technical University of Athens, and within >the context of my dissertation, I have done some ground work on >conserving vellum/parchment manuscripts of a very old and famous >Greek poet. Some of these items are going to be exhibited at a >section of the library as part of a general exhibition of his works. > >I would like, if anyone could kindly give me some insight or help on >references ( bibliography, tutorials, handbooks, ...) regarding the >current techniques of conserving vellum and techniques/approaches >to displaying such items within a museum/exhibition ( eg. >microclimate,...) Recently, Barbara Appelbaum asked that we discuss various aspects of the day-to-day business of the conservation of artifacts. Zoe Ginni has given us one benchmark; recently, a retired Indian engineer (from India, not America) from London went to the Ukraine to teach local Jewish people how to restore damaged Torah scrolls. He apparently learned what he felt was needful during the 8 years following his retirement. Without putting too fine a point on it, I would suggest that a student should not be left to inquire of this list what treatment is appropriate for a manuscript from "a very old and famous Greek poet," nor that a retired engineer should be responsible for teaching students how to repair parchment scrolls. But, in the real world, this is what happens. Sometimes it works. Sometimes, Scotch tape works. And we sit within our little circles of influence and talk about certification. At our current level of sophistication and influence, certification is congruent with reduction of competition. I apologize to Zoe Ginni for using an innocent inquiry as my springboard, but the question did not include enough relevant data to provide a substantive response; however, I'm the person who flunked a graduate student for failing an open book exam. But that's another story. Jack C. Thompson Thompson Conservation Lab. 7549 N. Fenwick Portland, OR 97217 503-735-3942 (voice/fax) *** Conservation DistList Instance 12:32 Distributed: Thursday, October 1, 1998 Message Id: cdl-12-32-003 ***Received on Wednesday, 30 September, 1998