Storage and repair of parchment scrolls

Svetlana Taylor <svt [at] ula__cam__ac__uk> writes:

>Cambridge University Library houses a Cathedral collection of
>medieval parchment that is very degraded through damp and mildew.
>... a number
>have been conserved in the distant past; some by traditional methods
>of parchment and silk, some with western paper. Neither method has
>worked in favour of the original.
>... In this
>collection there are some 400 scrolls. The future storage is also
>under debate.

First, I believe that with such big collection of 400 scrolls you
would need to define priorities for conservation, this must be done
by a team of parchment/paper conservators who will survey the
collection condition state. A similar project is being done the
last six years by Conservation Labs of the Israel Antiquity
Authority and the Conservation labs of the Israel Museum concerning
the Dead Sea Scrolls and the fragments of the Dead Sea Scroll. The
conservation treatment of this project are carried out in the I.A.A
Labs and with good results. Mrs. Yelena Libman Head of conservation
of the IAA gave a paper on this subject in the last IPC London
Conference. The paper is about surveying the scrolls as conservation
treatments and housing solutions as well. I believe you can get good
consultation from Mrs. Libman.

Michael Maggen
Senior Paper Conservator
The Israel Museum Jerusalem
POB 71117
91710 Jerusalem Israel
+972 2 67 08 808
Fax: +972 2 56 31 833

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:92
                   Distributed: Friday, May 28, 1999
                       Message Id: cdl-12-92-003
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