Workshop on parchment and medieval manuscripts

"Understanding of the Parchment in the Medieval Manuscripts"
Horn, Austria
21-26 May 2012

Further education course held by Jiri Vnoucek, conservator, The
Royal Library Copenhagen.

Workshop

Parchment is one of the oldest and also most durable writing
materials. To be able to secure its proper preservation or eventual
conservation it is very important to understand its complicated
structure and way of the behavior. Experiments with practical
parchment making can help to learn more about parchment in medieval
manuscripts and even more to recognize different types of
imperfection and defects coming already from its production so they
are misunderstood with damage coming from later use and way of
storage of the manuscripts.

Structure of the course

    1.  Practical parchment making workshop which will cover all
        basic steps in the parchment making: dehairing, cleaning of
        the flesh side, stretching on the frames, dry shaving and
        pouncing, final surface treatment, preparation for writing
        of the manuscript.

   2.   Theoretical lectures about the history of the
        parchment-making and different types of the parchments for
        writing purposes and the way of their preparation.

   3.   Lectures about the visual examination of the parchment in
        the medieval manuscripts and interpretation of their damage
        and imperfection coming from the manufacture of the
        parchment (based on personal experience of this
        parchment-making course)

   4.   Practical visual examination and identification of different
        damage in real historical manuscripts. Duration of course 5
        days of theoretical lectures (morning) and practical
        parchment making (afternoon) will include at least half day
        of excursion to nearby archive or library where would be
        possible to study historical parchment material.

Course is designed for the conservators of parchment who have
already some knowledge about parchment and good practical experience
with its conservation and want to learn more about writing parchment
made for medieval manuscripts. But the course could be also found
interesting for codicologists or curators of manuscript collection.
The course main target is to understand the parchment and not
parchment conservation. On another hand certain discussion about
conservation of parchment will be raised by understanding of its
special characteristics and behavior which come from the way in
which is produced.

The course language will be English. The deadline for application is
one month before the course starts. The course fee plus
accommodation (4 nights) is 700.00 Euro plus 10% VAT. The number of
participants is restricted to 7. Registration:

    <URL:http://www.buchstadt.at/
        Registration-Vnoucek.241.0.html?&L=3>

    <URL:http://www.buchstadt.at/Understanding-of-the-Parchment-in
        -the-Medieval-Manuscripts.237.0.html>

    **** Moderator's comments: The above URLs have been wrapped for
    email. There should be no newlines.

The venue is the Renaissance castle housing the European Research
Centre for Book and Paper Conservation-Restoration.

Accommodation during the course is within the building and is
included in the price.

After application you will be provided with further information.

Participant also can bring own samples if they wish to.

Dr. Patricia Engel
European Research Centre for Book and Paper Conservation-Restoration
Wienerstrasse 2
3580 Horn
Austria
+43 650 58 71 877
+43 2982 200 30 31
Fax: +43 2982 200 30 28


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 25:26
                 Distributed: Sunday, November 27, 2011
                       Message Id: cdl-25-26-013
                                  ***