Birch bark manuscripts

Nicole Gilroy <nicole.gilroy [at] bodley__ox__ac__uk> writes

>I am involved in the survey of a collection of birch bark
>manuscripts, with the ultimate aim of making the items safe to
>digitise. There are thirty manuscripts in all, some of which have
>been folded into codex form, some sewn and some have bindings of
>various types. Many are extremely brittle.

I restored before 2000 the majority of about 1,000 Mongolian
manuscripts on birch bark, removing dirt and grease (water, ethanol,
acetone, turpentine), joining the broken pieces together (Japanese
tissue and adhesives--methyl cellulose, sturgeon glue--see
<URL:http://aic.stanford.edu/jaic/articles/jaic32-01-003.html>,
PVA). For a final consolidation if necessary I suggest Paraloid B72
in acetone. Some manuscripts, maybe in a different way, were
restored by Mrs. Katharina Nebel, Cologne University of Applied
Sciences, Dept. of Conservation of Archival Material. For examples
see Elisabetta Chiodo, The Mongolian Manuscripts on Birch Bark from
Xarbuxyn Balgas in the Collection of the Mongolian Academy of
Sciences (= Asiatische Forschungen. Monographienreihe, Bd. 137),
Wiesbaden (Harrasowitz Verlag) 2000

Ivan Bentchev M.A.
Rheinisches Amt fur Denkmalpflege
Abtei Brauweiler
Pulheim-Brauweiler
Germany


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 16:61
                 Distributed: Wednesday, April 16, 2003
                       Message Id: cdl-16-61-003
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