Book Conservation and Digitization: The Challenges of Dialogue and Collaboration 9781641890540

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BOOK CONSERVATION AND DIGITIZATION

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COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT, CULTURAL HERITAGE, AND DIGITAL HUMANITIES This exciting series publishes both monographs and edited thematic collections in the broad areas of cultural heritage, digital humanities, collecting and collections, public history and allied areas of applied humanities. The aim is to illustrate the impact of humanities research and in particular reflect the exciting new networks developing between researchers and the cultural sector, including archives, libraries and museums, media and the arts, cultural memory and heritage institutions, festivals and tourism, and public history.

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BOOK CONSERVATION AND DIGITIZATION THE CHALLENGES OF DIALOGUE AND COLLABORATION by

ALBERTO CAMPAGNOLO AND CONTRIBUTORS

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. © 2020, Arc Humanities Press, Leeds

The author asserts their moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Permission to use brief excerpts from this work in scholarly and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is an exception or limitation covered by Article 5 of the European Union’s Copyright Directive (2001/​29/​EC) or would be determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act September 2010 Page 2 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 USC §108, as revised by P.L.94–​553) does not require the Publisher’s permission.

ISBN (print): 9781641890533 eISBN (PDF): 9781641890540 www.arc-​humanities.org

Printed and bound in the UK (by Lightning Source), USA (by Bookmasters), and elsewhere using print-on-demand technology.

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CONTENTS

List of Illustrations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

PART ONE: BOOKS AS OBJECTS AND THEIR DIGITIZATION

Chapter 1. Understanding the Artifactual Value of Books ALBERTO CAMPAGNOLO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Chapter 2. Conservation and Digitization: A Difficult Balance? ALBERTO CAMPAGNOLO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

PART TWO: CONSERVATION AND DIGITIZATION IN PRACTICE

Chapter 3. Conservation towards Large-​Scale Digitization at the Vatican Library ÁNGELA NÚÑEZ GAITÁN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Chapter 4. Large-​Scale Digitization at The National Archives CATT THOMPSON-​BAUM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Chapter 5. British Library/​Qatar Foundation Partnership and the Digitization Project: A Case Study about Conservation Processes within Mass Digitization of Library Material FLAVIO MARZO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Chapter 6. The Digitization of Medieval Western Manuscripts at Wellcome Collection STEFANIA SIGNORELLO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

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Contents

Chapter 7. Caring for the Object during Digitization of Written Heritage:  The Strategy of the Herzog August Library Wolfenbüttel ALMUTH CORBACH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Chapter 8. The Great Parchment Book Project CAROLINE DE STEFANI and PHILIPPA SMITH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Chapter 9. The Development of the Language of Bindings Thesaurus ATHANASIOS VELIOS and NICHOLAS PICKWOAD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Chapter 10. Spectral Imaging to Aid Preservation and Conservation of Cultural Heritage FENELLA G. FRANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Chapter 11. Multispectral Imaging for Special Collection Materials MICHAEL B. TOTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

PART THREE: CONSERVATORS AND DIGITIZATION EXPERTS IN DIALOGUE

Chapter 12. The Digitization of Manuscripts from the Point of View of a Book Conservator ABIGAIL B. QUANDT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Chapter 13. Implementing Advanced Digital Imaging Research in Cultural Heritage: Building Relationships between Conservators and Computational Imaging Scientists MELISSA TERRAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Chapter 14. Coda: Concluding Thoughts on Digital Surrogates ALBERTO CAMPAGNOLO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

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ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4. Figure 5. Figure 6. Figure 7. Figure 8. Figure 9.

Figure 10.

Figure 11. Figure 12.

Google Books Ngram for the phrase “book as object” for the period 1800–​2008 occurring in books written in English (captured in August 2017). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 JSTOR “Data for Research” graph showing the article count per year for the phrase “book as object” (captured in August 2017).. . . . . 21

A two-​level value system for primary sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 The proposed framework for the study and interpretation of books as artifacts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 The making of a codex. The diagram outlines the principal elements and actions required to assemble a book in codex format. Not all phases are necessary for all structures.. . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Snapshot of the main page of SharePoint.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Conservation Assessment page.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Boxed folding almanac, London, Wellcome Collection, MS.8932.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Misshapen cover of London, Wellcome Collection, MS.399, also showing the sewing between curling areas of the parchment through the Mylar® wrapper and supporting inner card to keep untreated parchment in place. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Clamping of London, Wellcome Collection, MS.767, with a split lower wooden board. The split board was treated with the book-block still attached to the cover, and the clamps were left in place for six weeks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Sampling being taken from London, Wellcome Collection, MS.632. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Wolfenbüttel Book Reflector.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Figure 13. a–​b Grazer Conservation Cradle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Figure 14.

Traveller’s Conservation Copy Stand (TCCS 4232).. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

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Figure 15. Figure 16.

Illustrations

Checklist on Assessment for Digitization of the Herzog August Library Wolfenbüttel.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Tight and hollow back.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Figure 17. a–​b Cracked covering material, broken leather bands.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Figure 18. a–​b Parchment bindings with hollow back. Deformation when opening due to the weight of the bookblock on the right. . . . . . . . . . 136 Figure 19. a–​d Comparison: Sight angle of reader (left) and imaging with the Book Reflector (right) as overall view and detail.������������������������� 137 Figure 20. Figure 21.

Bookblock wavy, therefore loss of text when imaging. . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Flaking of grain layer and loss of tooled decoration.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Figure 22. a–​b Hazard of clasp straps.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Figure 23. Figure 24. Figure 25.

Figure 26. Figure 27. Figure 28.

Figure 29.

Entry in the database of the Herzog August Library Wolfenbüttel.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Examples of severely damaged parchment sheets. Heavy gelatinization around the edges of the sheet has caused major planar distortions and folds that are obscuring the text.. . . . . . . . . . 146 Conservation treatment. After controlled humidification, the parchment sheet is laid on a metal surface to dry under tension by means of magnets. The polyester wadding is inserted underneath the severe distortion to unfold the vertical creases.. . . . 150

Before and after conservation treatment. The creases were released allowing the digitization of the sheets.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Kazim Pal during the digitization process. Between fifty and sixty images were taken for each side of the sheet to allow its virtual flattening.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Folio 1a of the Great Parchment Book flattened using the algorithm developed by UCL, shown with and without shading and discoloration, and with a detail image showing a close-​up view of a region of text after full reconstruction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Left: Full-​spectrum image; Right: Processed image illustrating broad black line of verdigris damage not visible in the left image but expanding into parchment made visible with processing, and visible follicle information.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

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Illustrations

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Figure 30. Response of document to treatment; Lines top to bottom of graph: paper before and after treatment showing no change, third line from top discoloration after treatment (illustrating no change in curve indicating any new components have been added), fourth line from top, original discoloration before treatment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Figure 31. Spectral imaging for watermark capture; from left to right: reflected, transmitted, and processed image.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Figure 32. Bartók’s Final Concerto for Orchestra: image processing illustrating the original score.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Figure 33. Left: Scoring of 1320 portolan chart; Right: Evidence of the hidden construction circle.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Figure 34. Archimedes Palimpsest Data Repository with image data in simple flat files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Figure 35. Father Justin positioning Syriac New Finds Frag. 65 (a Syriac Galen Palimpsest folio) for multispectral imaging.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Figure 36. Screen capture of Mirador viewer tool on the UCLA Sinai Palimpsests Scholar’s Site.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Figure 37. Reimaging key folios of the rebound Syriac Galen Palimpsest with the latest generation multispectral system.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Figure 38. Image processing of SGP Folio 88v with ImageJ Paleo Toolbox.. . . . . . . . 191 Figure 39. Digitization specialist Diane Bockrath preparing to lower the vacuum wedge underneath the next folio of an Islamic manuscript that is to be digitized. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.. . . . . . . . . . . 202 Figure 40. Digitization specialist Ariel Tabritha performing colour correction on the images of an Islamic manuscript in a separate space created for this task. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.. . . . . . 203 Figure 41. Construction of the handling mat developed at the Walters to digitize single manuscript leaves on the Stokes cradle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Figure 42. Digitization specialist Ariel Tabritha using the handling mat to digitize a bifolio of a disbound Islamic manuscript (W.624). The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Figure 43. The illuminated folios at the front of W.10 open easily while the text pages open with difficulty, putting stress on fragile media. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

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Illustrations

Figure 44. Linda Owen consolidating flaking paint in an illuminated Flemish manuscript. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.. . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Figure 45. On the left, the distorted parchments are annotated with the constraints, shown here by the superimposed lines. On the right, the documents are virtually restored, flattening the folios and removing the distortion. For further information, see Pal et al., “Digitally Reconstructing the Great Parchment Book.”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Figure 46. Iron gall ink parchment document: (left to right) before treatment, after treatment (blood), and the best possible recovery estimate using our methods (second principal component). For further information, see Giacometti et al., “The Value of Critical Destruction.”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 Figure 47. PRINT FRAG 3, UCL Library Services, Special Collections, used with permission. Highlighted areas for further imaging, to be able to read damaged areas of text. The missal mostly consists of texts for a mass identified by the rubric “[Domin]ica sexta,” probably the sixth Sunday after Pentecost. This begins with the introit at the bottom of column A on the recto and has readings from Romans VI and Matthew V.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Figure 48. Damaged sections from PRINT FRAG 3, UCL Library Services, Special Collections, used with permission. False-​colour images created of three principal components (a standard multispectral imaging processing method) showing the abraded letters clearly.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Figure 49. The virtuous circle of advanced, cumulative digitization that creates a new equilibrium between the original object and the digital product, not seen as subordinate, but as a new object that is capable of opening new avenues of research, subsequently traceable back to the original, restarting the cycle.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Lists List 1. List 2.

List 3. List 4.

Qualities of Intrinsic Value, National Archives and Record Services (NARS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 RLG Preservation Committee, “The Book as Object” guidelines.. . . . . . . . 29

Extract from the “Checklist of Primary Bibliographical Evidence Contained in 19th-​and Early 20th-​Century Publishers’ Bookbindings.”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Definitions of core qualities of books as artifacts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

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Tables Table 1. Table 2. Table 3. Table 4. Table 5. Table 6.

Illustrations

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Table illustrating the system of values to which the NARS qualities for documents of intrinsic value can be ascribed (our emphasis). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Table illustrating the system of values to which the RLG categories for rare and valuable books can be ascribed.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Table illustrating the system of values to which the AIC categories for publishers’ bindings can be ascribed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Four aspects of information (after Buckland, “Information as Thing,” 352). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Examples of advanced digitization of traditionally untransferable features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Development advances in successive generations of narrowband multispectral imaging systems.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

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INTRODUCTION Like men, books have a soul and a body. With the soul, or the literary portion, we have nothing to do at present; the body, which is the outer frame or covering, and without which the inner would be unusable, is the special work of the binder. (William Blades, The Enemies of Books, 1902, p. 96)

THE SUCCESSFUL TRANSMEDIATION of books and documents through digitization requires the synergetic partnership of many professional figures that have what may sometimes appear as conflicting goals at heart. On one side, there are those who look after the physical objects and strive to preserve them for the future generations—​ conservators and curators—​and on the other those involved in the digitization of the objects, the information that they contain, and the management of the digital data—​ digitization professionals, and then digital humanists. These complementary activities are generally considered as separate, and when the current literature addresses both groups, it does so strictly within technical reports and guidelines, concentrating on procedures and optimal workflow, standards, and technical metadata. In particular, more often than not, conservation is presented as ancillary to digitization, with the role of the conservator restricted to the preparation of items for scanning, with no input into the digital product, and this leads to misunderstanding and clashes of interests. Digitization projects have become increasingly crucial for memory institutions and cultural heritage in general and have been at the core of the field of digital humanities from its beginnings, inevitably with a profound influence on conservation practice since the early 2000s.1 Here, as hinted at in the title, we will be concerned with the digitization of books and documents. All the fields involved in this diverse practice landscape, besides the specifics included in technical manuals in regard with best-​practice procedures, have largely distinct authorship and readerships that do not overlap. This book tries to fill this gap. It strives to do so by showcasing, on the one hand, the need to understand the informational content of books as objects and the role that conservators could have in the creation of broader digital products and tools, and, on the other, the transformative and transcendent value that digital surrogates can and should bring to the table. The inclusion of a series of real-​life case studies and expert contributions aims at highlighting both the conservator’s and the digital humanist’s point of view, keeping in mind the significance of both aspects of the conversation: the importance of the original object, and the merit and enhancing nature of digital surrogates. The quote by Blades that opens this introductory chapter speaks of a soul and a body of books, the former being its (literary) content, and the latter being its physical form.

1  Kirschenbaum and Werner, “Digital Scholarship and Digital Studies,” 417; Bülow and Ahmon, Preparing Collections, 18–​20.

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Introduction

The physical form comprises the book’s cover and bindings—​as stated by Blades—​ but also the form and materials of its pages, inks, decorations, letter shapes, usage accretions, stains, and so on. While digitization tends to concentrate on the remediation of the content of books, “with the soul, or the literary portion, we have nothing to do at present,” and we will instead argue for an increased interest in the transmediation of the body too, to the extent that is possible. When considering the digitization of the bodies of books, one has to keep in mind their specific physicality and materiality, and that, as Hayles illustrates, these are two related but distinct concepts.2 While physicality is a permanent quality, an infinite set of physical attributes that make up the reality of the object, materiality, instead, is an emergent property that depends on the attention of some observer who isolates as meaningful some particular attributes, setting them aside from the continuum of physicality. Materiality results from human mediation and interpretation in an act aimed at the identification and discernment of information. Materiality—​and its information—​is extrapolated from the physicality and each aspect of it can be represented and manipulated, also digitally. This digital representation and manipulation of an object’s materiality—​or, indeed, materialities—​is achieved through different means. Among these, metadata designation—​certainly not limited to the digital realm—​is one of the most established processes, one that transcends the object/​ information juxtaposition, one that can flatten hierarchies and bring objects and the information infused in their materiality onto the same level.3 The digitization of books is generally understood as the capture of the page contents through photography and imaging. Not all features of books can be digitally acquired in this manner—​we will refer to these as untransferable characteristics—​ and models and descriptive metadata are necessary steps to computerize important information about the structure and materiality of documents. For this reason, we assign a broader meaning to the digitization (or computerization) of books. We include not only imaging activities—​that is the scanning of books, page by page, to attain digital surrogate images—​but also any action directed at the computerization and transmediation of books and their features, materiality included, into digital media, and the use of such data. Digitization can do much more than reproducing books as texts to be read, and books are much more than flat sequences of pages: there is much information in books that has been largely ignored—​so far. Other than showing sequences of pages of texts, digitization can make readable invisible texts or features, flatten irremediably distorted or rolled documents, rearrange pages beyond their physicality, and evidence the history and use of documents. Digital surrogates have the potency to be more than mere replacements of the original objects, and so only of use for a limited number of activities, as the term surrogate would suggest. Instead, when the transformative nature of the digitization process is more fully harnessed, they can become digital cultural objects:  digital objects that transcend the originals, work in synergy with them, and 2  Hayles, How We Think, 91–​92; Shep, “Digital Materiality,” 326.

3  Geismar, “Defining the Digital”; Geismar, Museum Object Lessons, 61.

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Introduction

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make them something more. However, these advanced uses of digitization are only possible through synergetic  collaboration among conservators, digital humanists, and all others involved, as this encourages connections and resource sharing to achieve genuinely innovative outcomes. This book develops in three parts. The first part, “Books as Objects and Their Digitization,” sets the scene by presenting the issues related to the understanding (or lack thereof) of the artifactual value of books as objects, in turn leading to the understanding of the delicate balance between the aims of book conservation and the needs of digitization endeavours. The first chapter, “Understanding the Artifactual Value of Books,” illustrates how, despite the increasing interest in the book as an object and its artifactual value, probably linked to the distance that new technologies have allowed establishing between us and the object, books are generally black-​boxed, without deep consideration for their inner working. The concept of the artifactual or intrinsic value of books is complex: it is an emergent quality linked to material features that depend on research interests and points of view. The idea of intrinsic value of documents in need of preservation came about when archives and libraries began to look into reformatting as a preservation technique. It became apparent that specific characteristics of the documents would not be easily (or at all) transferable into a new medium, leading to loss of information. These untransferable qualities of books are very much still relevant, even if digitization is not regarded as a preservation methodology any more, as, for the same reason, digital surrogates fail to represent most of the materiality of digitized documents. As a way to bring together the diverse landscape of research interest in our written heritage, we advance a framework for the study of the book as an object that develops along four research axes. The first focus is on the materiality, looking into raw materials, structure, and appearance. Then comes the context, focusing on the relationships of the object and with the object, and its history, with its functions and uses. Finally, we look into the significance of books, covering their psychological and academic values. Through these research patterns, and the data thus accrued, one can draw a series of conclusions that aid a more inclusive interpretation of the object. The model encourages a cohesive investigation into books as material objects, bringing to the foreground what observable data can be gathered from their physicality, and putting them in relationships with other objects and information sources, fostering the production of a network of comparative and supplementary data. In turn, these views can be put in relation with the book contents and applied to the wide-​ranging understanding of books that is necessary for their conservation (balancing their value as objects, and their use as content delivery tools), and to produce more inclusive digital surrogates. The second chapter, “Conservation and Digitization: A Difficult Balance?,” showcases how conservation and digitization efforts relate to one another, and how they can work in synergy for the production of better digital representations of books. The balance between meaning and use often tips towards the latter, losing crucial historical evidence. The same is also mostly true when considering traditional routine digitization programs, whereby the sole scope of the reproduction seems to be the transfer of textual information into the new medium. Books, when regarded as archaeological objects, contain a lot of evidence, evidence that should at least be recorded (and transferred to

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4

Introduction

the digital products). Modern book conservation strives to safeguard evidence—​while preserving use—​and this is now transposed also into the digitization process, which can be seen as an intensive, and potentially damaging, use of the book. To curb this potential damage, conservators are more and more involved in digitization projects from the onset, guide in the selection of the equipment and its use, and help to preserve the documents by selecting materials that can undergo digitization, treating them, offering handling training, and maintaining an appropriate and stable environment. Digitization is, however, also an opportunity for the conservator, a chance to implement long-​term conservation and preservation programs, for example, or a way to collect reliable and high-​definition visual evidence to document the state of conservation of documents at a specific date; digitization can also help preserve the objects by limiting subsequent handling. Most importantly, digitization also helps to achieve results that are not possible with the original document or with standard conservation, transcending, in this manner, the material object. In turn, conservators can offer a means to address the untransferability of material objects, by helping to describe, through pertinent metadata, untransferable features, and by bringing into the fold their expertise, knowledge, and understanding. In this way, in the cohesive view of the book as an object fostered by the application of the framework that we have advanced, conservation skills and knowledge can be leveraged to record and transfer untransferable features, adding precious data to the digital representation of books. The second part, “Conservation and Digitization in Practice,” portrays a series of real-​life case studies aimed at showcasing the role of the conservator in digitization projects of diverse nature, from a varied set of institutions, encompassing libraries, archives, and universities. Each chapter introduces a particular digitization project with its challenges, goals, and achievements. The case studies have been selected to cover as many different situations as possible, providing examples of a full breadth of practices. We have examples of large-​scale digitization projects in bigger institutions, both from the library and the archive world, with their specific problems. On the one hand the reader will find the narration of the challenge of digitizing the multitude of manuscripts in the collections of the Vatican Library, and on the other the piecemeal approach to conservation for digitization at The National Archives in London. Other case studies concentrate on collection-​specific digitization in larger and smaller institutions, such as the Qatar Foundation Project at the British Library or the medieval manuscripts at the Wellcome Trust Library—​both in London, half a mile apart, yet entirely different in their approaches and the solutions adopted for equally successful projects. Particularly important and difficult objects may need bespoke digitization efforts, such as the Great Parchment Book project at the London Metropolitan Archives, in collaboration with the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities (UCLDH). Similarly, research libraries need well-​ established good-​practice standards, as exemplified by the account of the digitization endeavours at the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, Germany. Finally, increasingly, specialized digitization techniques are been put into use in memory institutions worldwide for difficult-​to-​digitize features, as is the case of the methodology for the description of bookbinding structures and materials fostered by the Ligatus Research

5



Introduction

5

Centre of the University of the Arts London, and the multispectral imaging techniques showcased by Fenella France and Mike Toth. The majority of the institutions and individuals involved are European and drawn in from personal connections because of the familiarity of this author with their work. This selection, however, was also strategic inasmuch as the main object of focus here is the book in codex format; in addition, the vast number of volumes in European collections, and the relative lack of funding, compared to North America for example, places these institutions in a situation where the balance between conservation and digitization is more challenging. Notwithstanding this, the experiences and lessons showcased here are transferable to other contexts, and Quandt’s expert contribution balances the European focus, just as Terras’s brings multispectral imaging within a European context. The contributing authors were asked to think about projects they had been involved with, considering the issues and challenges that they faced in setting up the project. They were requested to consider the kind of amendments they had to perform to accommodate for the problems they encountered and the compromises that had to be established to ensure the beginning of a fruitful project. In particular, the authors were to report on the kind of relationship that was established between the team of object experts (conservators, object curators, etc.) and that of the digital data experts (photographers, data curators, database engineers, online content managers, etc.), also thinking about how this changed during the project. Alongside this, the authors were to think about the relationships with other institutions, the practical solutions that had to be devised, and any outreach avenue that was established. Often, conservators reach out to colleagues in other institutions to seek advice, exchange information, and develop shared practices, especially looking for practical solutions to routine problems. It is also increasingly becoming customary to set up outreach activities, such as blog posts, to showcase the work of the conservator that would otherwise remain unseen and unnoticed. These allow the sharing of ideas and experience, and also offer an informal but public way to establish a unified narrative between all people involved in the digitization project, from the conservator to the digital data experts. An example of this is the Polonsky Foundation Digitization Project.4 Ángela Núñez Gaitán, head of conservation at the Vatican Apostolic Library, describes how the colossal endeavour to digitize their almost 82,000 manuscripts is linked to the Library’s century-​long tradition of preserving but also making freely available their textual heritage, in a balance of meaning and use. She puts the current digitization project into the perspective of a service that the Library has always pursued, having used photographic technologies since the nineteenth century, also as preservation techniques for the textual information of the manuscripts. In the past, conservators had been required to adapt old books to the modern user’s needs—​by disbinding and sewing on tapes, for example—​but this kind of invasive treatment, while certainly making reproduction easier, as it allows books to be opened at 180 degrees, inevitably results in the loss of historical evidence. Still, the needs of such a large-​scale digitization project meant that 4  Polonsky Foundation, “Polonsky Foundation Digitization Project.”

6

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Introduction

the Library had to select high-​production scanners (capable of capturing two pages at once) that force the books to open at 180 degrees, or 130 degrees with the insertion of supports. Even if some items have been set aside, waiting for more sympathetic technologies to become available, as is often the case, these scanning issues created a conflict between the conservator and photographer, as the preservation concerns of the former clashed with the need to produce the highest image quality possible of the latter. The conflict was resolved through constant dialogue and collaboration among conservators, digitizers, and IT specialists, helped by an integrated management system, specific handling sessions, and the production of a “technical phrasebook” to create a common language between the different teams. Items are routinely assessed before and after digitization and prepared for reproduction with minimal conservation treatments. The conservators then realized that the digitization process could be considered as one extensive use of the manuscript. Also, the high quality of the digitized images could mean that the object would then be handled less since the majority of the scholars should be satisfied with the surrogate, as textual features are preserved and enhanced. Even items with compromised legibility, in fact, can be read thanks to spectral imaging. Indeed, no digitization is a complete representation of the original, since the historical and cultural aspects and the materiality of books are inevitably left aside. These are better represented by metadata, but due to the high volume of manuscripts, it was not thought feasible, in this project, to record exhaustive metadata sets for each manuscript. Even the records in the conservation database are reduced to the bare minimum. Catt Thompson-​Baum, formerly senior conservation manager of the digitization services at The National Archives in London (now an independent accredited conservation manager and collections consultant in the UK), recounts the history of digital surrogate creation at The National Archives (TNA) in London. She describes the beginning of the large-​scale digitization programs and the fundamental role of the conservator as fully integrated within the workflow. TNA have a long history of reformatting, on microfilm first, and then through digitization. Given the nature of the collections, family historians are an important category of users, and with them come the commercial companies who manage family history resources. As a result, many mass digitization projects are funded and run by external companies. Making all stakeholders understand the value of conservation was a challenge at the beginning, sometimes only implemented as an afterthought. A  first attempt at integrating conservation and digitization required in-​house conservators also to manage commercial digitization needs. The situation was stretching the Archives’ resources, and a new approach was devised whereby the new role of the Digitization Support Conservator was established within the Preservation team, to manage large-​scale projects, build relationships with all digitization stakeholders, and carry out assessment surveys and conservation for smaller collections. Conservation was now always included in any project from the beginning. A second radical change was the move of the digitization conservation team away from collection care and into the commercial services department, with all other commercial digitization stakeholders. This inherently embedded conservation into the digitization team, in a separate conservation studio, next to the digitizers, and made “conservation for digitization” non-​negotiable and funded by the commercial partners. The new setting allowed stronger relationships to

7



Introduction

7

be built so that everybody involved understood the needs and work of the others. For example, conservators are required to sit with the digitizers and even try their procedures to get a deeper understanding of what it means to handle documents for digitization, thus informing their conservation work. A set of conservation guidelines were put together to help conservators and digitizers understand what kind of work was deemed necessary and sufficient. After condition assessment, trusting the handling training provided to all digitizers, conservation treatments only aim at stabilizing documents and guaranteeing maximum legibility, easier handling, and capture, with minimal documentation. The experience accrued and the success rate has meant that the Archives have become a leader in conservation for digitization, confirming the success of their model. Flavio Marzo, formerly conservation manager for the British Library/​Qatar Foundation Partnership (now managing conservator at the Cambridge Colleges’ Conservation Consortium, Cambridge, UK), reports on the Partnership’s digitization of materials relating to the Gulf history and Arabic science. He focuses on the role that the modern conservator has to take, shifting away from the bench and becoming an integral part of the digitization workflow in all areas of interest. Marzo describes the development of the digitization workflow, highlighting the importance of the involvement of Conservation from the planning stage and the communication and sharing of experiences with other conservators who had previously been involved in large-​scale digitization projects. There are many stakeholders involved in these projects, all coming with different expertise, knowledge, and jargon. It is, therefore, essential to foster a shared understanding of each other’s role, duties, and language. In this case, a koine was produced with the writing of a “Guidelines for Conservation” document, the painstaking process of devising the menus of the joint project management software, and handling training sessions. The integration process was also facilitated mainly by the physical working proximity of all parties involved. A secondary effect of the “Guidelines” was the fact that, by standardizing conservation treatments, these allowed the keeping of minimal and efficient condition assessment and conservation records (understandable by everyone, within the project). Given this close shared understanding of the objects’ and project’s needs, exceptional cases could be treated successfully on a flag-​up basis, and handling and bound-​volume opening concerns could be communicated and addressed without problems or damage. Even if the conservation records were necessarily minimal, a particular field in the database allowed the provision of technical descriptions of specific binding and structural features that could then be used for catalogue entries by some of the curators. This project makes available an enormous amount of records that were previously difficult to access, but the digitized documents are not the sole digital output. Through the website, blogs, and microblogging accounts, all stakeholders, with their set of specialized knowledge—​including conservation with video tutorials and articles about the history of bookbindings, its craft, and related topics—​have engaged in outreach activities, thus enriching the online surrogates with content pieces to help online users to better understand and enjoy the material. Stefania Signorello, a senior book conservator, covers the digitization of the 335 medieval Western manuscripts at the Wellcome Collection. Illustrating the development of the reformatting workflow, she touches on the significant research potential that is

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Introduction

embedded in the collection, and on how only through collaborations and partnerships is it possible to properly take advantage of it, advancing the knowledge about these artifacts. In the beginning, the project was run in batches of manuscripts but, to facilitate the work of the photographer, it became clear this approach had to be changed, thus allowing the digitizers to organize their work through selecting different kinds of materials. The books are digitized by the Library’s photographers, already known to all parties involved for their trustworthiness when it comes to the preservation needs of the materials. Therefore, there was no need to establish new relationships and a common language; rather, because of this, the conservators, in their pre-​digitization surveys, were able to flag up for conservation presence during scanning and for pre-​digitization treatments strictly when unavoidable. When necessary, conservation treatments were minimal so as not to cancel or hide any evidence. To avoid obscuring any information, it was preferred to digitize before treatment. The digital images would then act as a reference to control deterioration in the future. The survey, besides immediate conservation needs, covered foliation, binding issues, opening angle for bound volumes, after-​digitization restrictions, and re-​housing needs. Despite the full range of supports and digitization infrastructures (which included a conservation book cradle), some manuscripts had to be excluded, for the time being, from reproduction, because of their fragility and difficult opening characteristics. Due to the small nature of the collection, the pre-​scanning survey was a particularly rich experience, as it allowed the establishment of a long-​term preservation and conservation program, but also the noting of distinctive or unusual features as areas of potential research (such as candidates for multispectral imaging). The digitized manuscripts have become part of a vibrant digital information ecosystem published on the website, whereby users can be guided in the use of the collections through blog series or can experience materials enhanced by videos and other curated interfaces. Almuth Corbach, head of collection care and conservation at the Herzog August Bibliothek (HAB) Wolfenbüttel (Lower Saxony, Germany), describes in detail the kind of damage that can occur to books during digitization, and the tools and practices to avoid them. The HAB has a long history of reproduction, and in the past, books had been forced open at 180 degrees to be photographed and microfilmed. Today, all books are assessed by a senior conservator before digitization. About 10,000 books are assessed each year, and the number is steadily increasing. The guiding principle of the assessment is that no evidence can be lost during reproduction and that no loss of information is permitted in the digital copy (such as incomplete capture due to very narrow gutters). About 30  percent of assessed items are flagged up as not to be digitized for the time being. In order to permit digitization, limiting damage to the minimum, a series of new tools have been developed and acquired to adapt as much as possible to the various materials and their needs. A “Checklist on Assessment for Digitization” has been produced to standardize the selection criteria and as a communication tool. The opening characteristics of books depend on many aspects of the object, such as the presence of decorative elements and titling, spine movement, and joint stability. These are assessed pre-​digitization, and specific digitization tools are thus selected to address and respect them. New tools include:  the Wolfenbüttel Book Reflector (for capturing at angles as

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Introduction

9

narrow as 45 degrees); the Cobra Book Scanner (which allows two-​page scanning); the Grazer Conservation Cradle (to capture without contact with glass for illuminated manuscripts and other fragile materials); the Traveller’s Conservation Copy Stand (for small formats and ease of transportation) with its companion, the Austrian Watermark Imaging System (an infrared photography system for watermark capture in transmitted light); and a versatile divided table for large formats. Some items still require special handling, and ad hoc supports with the presence of a conservator. All information acquired during the assessment is recorded in a database. Finally, Corbach highlights how digitization can be seen as an occasion to focus on preventing and mitigating damage, degradation, and loss in the collections as part of preventive conservation activities. Digitization can also protect from constant handling, and therefore be regarded as a preservation measure, but it is the reformatting procedures that need to adapt to the demands of the object and not the other way around. Caroline De Stefani, conservation studio manager, and Philippa Smith, head of collections, from the London Metropolitan Archives in London, illustrate the work done, in partnership with UCLDH, on the Great Parchment Book (GPB), highlighting the fundamental role of the conservation prior to photographic capture to reveal obscured parts of the document and on the powerful response of the project’s outreach avenues. The GPB is an important document containing the 1639 survey of all the estates in Derry~Londonderry managed by the City of London. The volume was caught in the 1786 Guildhall fire, with devastating results due to the heat and the subsequent water damage: 165 sheets survived, but in a very poor state of conservation, with general concave distortions, and very deep text-​obscuring creases and folds. The sheets are now loose, and current knowledge does not allow establishing its former codex structure. The document was not accessible to scholars for over 200  years. Traditional conservation could not flatten the membranes without further damage, and traditional digitization approaches could not cope with the deep creases and three-​dimensional distortions. To tackle the problem, the project invested in a partnership between different disciplines (archivists, paleographers, conservators, computer scientists, digital humanists). It was decided to attempt only minimal conservation treatments to ease deep creases and reveal any hidden text, while a novel digitization method, a multi-​view stereo technique, was adapted and devised to cope with the distorted topography of the membranes. The process entailed taking between fifty and sixty images per side and processing them to obtain texture maps and virtual reconstruction. Subsequently, a virtual flattening algorithm computed a map to flatten the three-​dimensional surface onto a 2D plane with as little distortion as possible. The results were incredibly useful, to the point that the document could be withdrawn from access (the virtual surrogate being much more informative than the original, for what concerns the textual content). The project’s success was only possible thanks to the constant communication and relationships between all stakeholders. The project had also a very successful outreach program, with blog posts and videos, and all data (before and after virtual flattening images, and TEI transcriptions) was published on a dedicated website. The GPB project is a clear example of how digital surrogates can transcend and make the original usable, not merely replace them as secondary copies.

10

10

Introduction

The last three contributions of this part cover a series of projects that can be accounted under the remits of digitization, as understood in the broader sense of the computerization of books outlined above, applied to the cultural heritage sector. The contribution by Athanasios Velios and Nicholas Pickwoad, directors of the Ligatus Research Centre of the University of the Arts London, showcases the potential of semantic web technologies for the preservation and digitization of information regarding books as artifacts. One of the reasons that have curbed proper bookbinding descriptions within catalogues is the lack of a consistent and recognized terminology. This makes the production of relevant literature and other descriptions, such as within conservation documentation, challenging, but it is even more problematic for the creation of database schemas. While traditional free-​text documentation can be suitable for single-​object records, schemas, databases, and controlled vocabularies are a better solution to document entire collections, as free text limits information retrieval and multi-​language access. In turn, the integration of different databases requires a more flexible approach. One solution is mapping the database schema to an abstract model (to which all databases of the same domain can relate) and referring to a universally agreed (domain-​based) system of concepts (often published in the form of thesauri). The Language of Bindings (LoB) thesaurus, developed by Ligatus, attempts to foster this kind of solution, by advancing a description system based on semantic web technologies (RDF and SKOS) to implement database integration through the CIDOC-​CRM (an ontology explicitly developed for the cultural heritage domain). Binding descriptions should arrange data according to strict book-​ structural principles, following the sequence of operations necessary to bind it, in a hierarchical approach, from top concepts (endleaves, structures, spines, boards, endbands, covers, decoration, fastenings and furniture, enclosures) to narrower and more precise ones. The LoB is organized precisely in this manner, through SKOS, in hierarchies, and following the CIDOC-​CRM. With the help of domain experts, the core terms have been selected from the concepts currently in use in bookbinding documentation. Each concept is assigned a preferred label (in a language), a scope note, and a stable and permanent URI, ready for semantic web applications, also through a SPARQL endpoint. The LoB has been included in the thesauri to be used in MARC bibliographic records. It is therefore hoped that with this new technology and reference model, the discipline may at last reach a mature stage, and more compatible descriptions and schemas may be implemented and queried. The last two contributions by Fenella France, chief of the Preservation Research and Testing Division of the Library of Congress (Washington, DC, USA), and Michael B. Toth, president and chief technology officer at R.  B. Toth Associates (Virginia, USA), draw attention to the implementation of multispectral imaging technologies. France reports on the potential that these cutting-​edge digital technologies offer to conservators. Traditionally, spectral imaging has been applied to palimpsests or underdrawings for the recovery of hidden texts and graphics. However, through close collaboration between preservation professionals, conservators, and curators, this imaging technique can be used for much more. Spectral imaging works by measuring the reflectance of materials to assess their chemical composition. Through these measurements, spectral imaging can be used to track change over time, assess the efficacy of conservation treatments,

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Introduction

11

characterize and identify inks and pigments, study data stratigraphy in early printing techniques, and for the recovery of hidden or faded text. At the Library of Congress, spectral imaging is implemented as a first investigative tool. Objects are imaged with a standard LED illumination at 45 degrees to map the spectral response of inks and colourants, characterize stains or discolorations, and look at layers. Raking light illumination at 15 degrees helps to capture the morphology of a document, and transmitted light can be used to capture watermarks, text within laminated layers, and detect treatment areas. In addition, the detection of fluorescence, a secondary response to light whereby energy is re-​emitted at a lower frequency, can help in identify deterioration areas, and assess organic colourants. Capturing is only one part of spectral imaging. Data thus acquired can be processed (generally through PCA) to further reveal features and to map and visualize spectral responses through false-​colour images that, for example, differentiate between features that may look the same to the naked eye, such as two different inks, or forgeries. Mapping can also highlight areas in need of further study with other analytical techniques (XRF, FTIR, FORS, etc.). Spectral imaging is also an excellent technique to archive data on the materiality of objects (at a specific date) and to enhance conservation documentation. The proper file formats need to be used (TIFF) to ensure archival quality data. For the same reason, comprehensive metadata need to be saved and embedded in the images. Also, because of the large nature of the files, any spectral imaging endeavour requires clear and firm relationships with the IT department of an institution to warrant long-​term preservation and access to machines with enough processing power. Toth addresses the issues and challenges related to the use of multispectral imaging on special collections and high-​profile items. The pioneering Archimedes Palimpsest Project involved a close relationship with conservation from its onset, setting the de facto standard for imaging following preservation and conservation guidelines, enforcing safe handling, adequate environmental conditions at all stages—​scanning included—​ and minimum light exposure. This also included the very specialized imaging at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), to penetrate the paint layers on forged leaves to reveal the undertext. The Archimedes Palimpsest Project saw the continuous development of the prototype multispectral imaging, explicitly developed for the manuscript since previous applications of the technology had not involved books and documents, but satellite imaging and astronomical phenomena. A second system, utilizing LEDs, was subsequently developed and the manuscript reimaged. The new system, now in its fourth generation, displays an important conservation characteristic: it does not generate heat, and it exposes documents to narrowband light sources, thus limiting light damage, despite the use of UV light sources. It was calculated that an imaging session would be equivalent to a couple of days in exhibition conditions. The St. Catherine’s Palimpsests Project did not include collaboration with conservators but was able to capitalize on the years-​long conservation survey run by Ligatus on the same collection. The processed data has now been released, but only with the undertext in mind, and no images highlighting conservation issues or areas of conservation interest have been produced and released. The imaging of the Syriac Galen Palimpsest, fragmentary and dispersed in the collections of five different institutions, on the other hand, proved successful thanks to the close relationship between all the

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12

Introduction

stakeholders involved:  scientists, curators, managers, and conservators. Toth also illustrates how image processing can be accomplished with open-​source software, and a tool specifically developed to render the operation easily implemented by curators and conservators. As a result, multispectral images are beginning to be considered as information sources by some conservation scientists and conservators to support long-​term preservation efforts. The last part, “Conservators and Digitization Experts in Dialogue,” showcases two contributions from two prominent figures in the fields of book conservation and digital humanities. One portrays the point of view of a conservator who has had considerable hands-​on experience in state-​of-​the-​art digitization projects of tremendously important (and valuable) manuscripts, the other that of a digital humanist who has been involved in cutting-​edge digitization of cultural heritage artifacts for a significant part of her career. The authors describe the role that they have played in several digitization projects and how they perceive the relationship between the two fields. They focus on what would not have been possible without the active collaboration and dialogue between the two fields, considering whether current training allows practitioners of both fields to understand each other, and how they see things changing in the future. Abigail Quandt, head of book and paper conservation at the Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, USA) and lead conservator of the Archimedes and the Syriac Galen Palimpsest projects, presents the book conservation point of view by reporting on over a decade of digitization projects at the Walters. On top of being a world-​leading conservator, Quandt is also very well acquainted with digitization and multispectral imaging efforts. The Walters Art Museum, beginning in the late 1990s under the leadership of Will Noel, has pioneered the digitization of manuscripts and their digital access. Thanks to a series of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants, the Walters has acquired specialized digitization equipment and run a series of successful manuscript digitization projects that involved close collaboration between the conservation department, the curators, and the digitization specialists. Special care was observed from the outset in the adaptation of the equipment, guaranteeing adequate environmental conditions, and in working closely with the digitizers, offering support and handling training. Having bought all the necessary equipment with the first grant, the following funding was able to cover a part-​time project conservator to survey and prepare the manuscripts for digitization. Eventually, the Walters agreed to absorb into the institutional budget the two digitizers, the maintenance of the equipment, and the processing and archiving of the data, while one conservator position was partially dedicated to supporting the ongoing digitization programs. An ad hoc database was prepared to survey the manuscripts and to record materials and binding information, current condition, past treatment history, current conservation needs, and minimal documentation. Given the particular nature of the material, aside from the usual repairs limited to tears, losses, and marginal binding stabilization, an essential aspect of the pre-​digitization conservation was the painstaking illumination treatment to secure flaking pigments and inks. At the Walters, all aspects that could be captured photographically are generally included in the digital surrogates, including stubs, endleaves, bookmarks and other inserted material, dealer’s tickets, and covers—​both current, and earlier detached bindings, if available. For those

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Introduction

13

items that cannot be safely imaged, the choice is to digitize only what is possible, from just the binding (if they do not open safely) to partial textblocks. Quandt also speaks of the difficulties in funding project conservators and the consequences of this limitation and criticizes that fact that, despite their in-​depth knowledge of the items and their materials and structures, conservators are very rarely involved in the documentation and cataloguing of books being digitized. It is hoped that the situation may change in the future considering how conservators are now routinely trained in the needs of digitization and should, therefore, understand the value of metadata as a means to add their insights to the digital sphere. Melissa Terras, Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage at the University of Edinburgh’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, and former director of the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities, represents the goals and expectations of a digital humanist, without forgetting the importance of the original artifacts. Terras is a leading researcher in digital humanities of worldwide fame. She teaches and researches in the digitization of cultural heritage materials in the library, archive, and museum sector, and has been involved in several high-​profile projects that required active collaboration with conservation practitioners, which she describes in her contribution. While most memory institutions now aim to create digital representations of documents, artifacts, and objects to improve access and foster understanding of their material—​with plans to digitize 52 percent of collections across Europe—​there are opportunities for advanced imaging to analyze primary sources, beyond routine reformatting projects. Indeed, as routine digitization requires conservation, and can thus be an occasion to implement preservation measures on the collections, conservators can also highlight which documents may benefit from advanced imaging to go beyond the limits of physical conservation, and help understanding materiality issues, accessing the material, drawing attention to how new methods and practices can be best applied. Advanced imaging projects depend on the synergy between imaging scientists, conservators, historians, and digital humanists, to develop suitable digital imaging approaches. In this manner, scientific imaging technologies can answer research questions about our cultural heritage and develop best-​ practice methods and recipes for specific tasks, so that others could then successfully apply these techniques. Inter-​ and cross-​disciplinary research and endeavours of this kind suffer from frequent issues, such as lack of a common language and understanding (or appreciation) of disciplinary-​specific knowledge, skill, methodologies, and tools, with distinct difficulties in engaging—​institutionally—​within liminal spaces. These can be overcome through dialogue and networking, leading to the clear benefits of developing ways to optimize methods and technologies and a solid awareness of other disciplines. For the future, the next generation of researchers and practitioners should gain the appropriate skills that are needed to work across a broader range of digital (and non-​digital) applications. Throughout the text, both in the introductory chapters and in the case studies and the expert contributions, a series of main recurring themes are advanced repeatedly. We find good-​practice procedures and desiderata, as well as issues related to the delicate balance of meaning and use as specifically applied to the digital and digitization. There are also reflections on the positive and the problematic aspects of the reformatting of

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Introduction

books, including the transcendence of the digital in relation to the readability of text and the tackling of conservation problems not safely solvable through traditional approaches. The importance of documentation and metadata is often underlined, in addition to the intrinsic and untransferable value of books, and the problems related to the digitization of the materiality of these objects. Finally, evident is the need for inter-​ and cross-​ disciplinary approaches and implementations for successful digitization projects. Such a liminal practice, however, brings a particular set of issues and challenges that can be overcome only through dialogue and synergy among all parties. When these differences are overcome, and effective collaboration takes place, as noted in the Coda, a new kind of digital product emerges. The original item becomes the common ground on which all stakeholders base their investigations and reformatting processes, leading to the production of digital cultural heritage objects that are not mere reproductions of the artifacts. Considering the emergent quality of materiality, these are never conceived as complete or final. Instead, they are capable of integrating more information as it becomes available, cumulatively, and, in making evident elusive features, create a new balance between the physical and the digital, whereby one informs the other in a recursive manner. It is this new balance that all stakeholders involved in the digitization of books should aim to produce. It is this new balance that this volume strives to foster.

Acknowledgements

The initial seed for this book came at the suggestion of Dymphna Evans from Arc Humanities Press to publish a monograph based on the work I presented at the inaugural session of the UCLDH seminar series in 2014, “Scalpels and Magic Wands: From Physical World of Book Conservation to the Magic of Digital Humanities,” by invitation of Professor Simon Mahony, then program director for UCL’s MA/​MSc in Digital Humanities, now director of the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities. My deepest gratitude goes to both, for their support and encouragement. I would like to thank the authors of the case studies and the expert contributions for their input to this volume. It is their hands-​on experience that makes this volume valuable, and that has informed and (re-​)shaped my own understanding of the equilibrium between book conservation and digitization. My sincere appreciation also goes to the reviewers of the book proposal and the manuscript for their careful and focused indications on how to improve the text. Any interpretative shortcoming remains mine.

17

Chapter 1

UNDERSTANDING THE ARTIFACTUAL VALUE OF BOOKS BOOKS, AS MOVABLE objects (of any material) provided with surfaces on which to store and deliver information, are a technology that has evolved, taking different forms and shapes with its progress. From clay, bone, and wooden tablets, to cloth and bark-​paper folded concertinas, papyrus scrolls, and parchment and paper codices, books have been part of our culture for millennia. When we think of the physical aspects of books, as empirically demonstrated by an image search on the web for the keyword “book,” typically we expect to see a book in its codex form, as this is the form with which we are nowadays most familiar, to the point that we simply call them books.1 Books in codex format are defined as “a collection of sheets of any material, folded double and fastened together at the back or spine, and usually protected by covers.”2 Despite the variations due to different historical and geographical traditions, codices are characterized by their inner working structure, which has yielded the success of this format: their pages (generally arranged in gatherings) are linked together at the spine, allowing for quick and easy browsing of the content.3

The Book as a Black Box

Although often collected exclusively for their content and decoration, books, as cultural objects, present the added value of technological and material data, preserved from another time and place.4 Like other tools and objects that are readily handled in our everyday life, books are, however, used “unconsciously” and few actually consider—​or even notice—​their physical form beyond the fact that they work as they are supposed to: they convey information.5 In order to read a physical book, one does not need any knowledge of bookbinding.6 In this sense, to borrow a concept from information science and actor–​network theories (ANT),7 books in codex format are, to the typical user, black boxes. A  black box, 1  Harnett, “The Diffusion of the Codex,” 184.

2  Roberts and Skeat, The Birth of the Codex, 1.

3  Harnett, “The Diffusion of the Codex,” 183–​84.

4  Sharpe, “The Catalogue of the Coptic Bindings,” 420. 5  Frost, “Mobility and Function,” 92. 6  Gaitan, “Game Theory.”

7  For an introduction to ANT see Cressman, “A Brief Overview.”

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in these terms, is a technological artifact that, while appearing obvious to the ordinary observer—​in the sense that its behaviour is perceived “as known and predicted independently of its context”8—​can also be regarded as a complex entity, the essence of which depends on a diverse system of techniques, materials, processes, and actions. It is in the act of opening the black box that one can investigate how the technical elements come together, and their social effects on makers and users.9 In addition, according to ANT, everything is both an actor within a network, and a network in itself, depending on the point of view: by process of “punctualization,” entire networks can be converted into single nodes, part of other networks.10 The book is generally studied as a punctualized entity, considering the outputs of the black-​box book—​that is, its information delivery—​and the effects if its technologies on society, without pausing and musing over its underlying physical processes. Books can, however, be looked at from different points of view.11 Traditionally, they have been studied for their content or decoration, both as information and looking at the technologies involved in content creation (printing, handwriting, and so on). Their effect on society has also been analyzed by investigating their function: books are thus also considered as objects of use, tools with which users interact, leave marks on, and that present certain technological constraints on how these function and can be utilized.12 Only seldom is the black box indeed opened, though, and the book as a technological object studied in its details and elements; the binding of books, in particular, while fundamental to their functioning as objects and strictly linked to the codex form, is treated more like a collection of ephemeral aspects than integral to the technological and historical understanding of books.13 When studies into the materiality of books are formulated, these tend to reflect on books as tools, and tools are always “intrinsically simple,” as they are innately black-​boxed by the end-​user.14 Furthermore, of all the aspects that make these information delivery tools, bindings are more often than not regarded as yet again another black box, a node in the network of elements that create them. As shown in Figure 1, a search the for the phrase “book as object” in the Google Books Ngram Viewer for the available years (1800–​2008) reveals an increased interest in the subject—​however defined (see below)—​from the 1960s, with the most occurrences in the mid-​1990s, at the beginning of the Internet era. Looking more closely into the data set, one can begin to tease out the various meanings that have been associated with 8  Callon, “Techno-​Economic Networks,” 152. 9  Latour, Pandora’s Hope.

10  Callon, “Society in the Making”; Callon, “Techno-​Economic Networks.” 11  Campagnolo, “Bit by Bit,” 92–​100.

12  An example of this is the current interest in the user experience differences between e-​book readers and traditional books on paper. 13  Agati, Il libro manoscritto, 345; Agati, The Manuscript Book. 14  Kubler, The Shape of Time, 11.

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Figure 1. Google Books Ngram for the phrase “book as object” for the period 1800–​2008 occurring in books written in English (captured in August 2017).

the phrase “book as object.”15 The sentence appears in texts dealing with a wide range of topics. It is found in religious studies to refer to the book as a sacred object; as the product of publishing design and typography; or as a manifestation of art bookbinding. Most references point to books as the object of study of textual scholarship and analytical bibliography,16 as a cultural object and a technology in contrast with the Internet and e-​book readers,17 and as artistic expression and an art object in artists’ books.18 Curiously, very few references are made to books as objects in conservation and preservation issues—​and most references appear searching for “artifact/​artefact”—​however, 15  These search results are obviously restricted to texts written in the English language. With fewer search results, similar results are obtained for the phrase “book as artifact/​artefact,” with slightly more emphasis on conservation and preservation issues (Google Books Ngram Viewer, “Book as Object”).

16  With the expected mention of the seminal works of McKerrow, Bowers, Gaskell, Febvre and Martin, Darnton, McKenzie, and Adams and Barker (McKerrow, An Introduction to Bibliography; Bowers, Principles of Bibliographical Description; Gaskell, A New Introduction; Febvre and Martin, The Coming of the Book; Darnton, “What Is the History of Books?”; McKenzie, Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts; Adams and Barker, “A New Model”).

17  These appear from the mid-​1990s and often refer to the influential works of Nunberg and Landow: Nunberg, The Future of the Book; Landow, Hypertext; Landow, Hypertext 3.0.

18  The most prominent works that are mentioned are those by Graham and Butor (Graham, “The Book as Object”; Butor, “The Book as Objects”; Rousset Altounian and Butor, Livres d’artistes, livres-​ objets). Interestingly, an image search gives prominence to artists’ books and literature about them.

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this is probably linked to the fact that Google Books does not index many book conservation journals.19 Comparable results are yielded by performing similar searches on JSTOR’s “Data for Research” (see Figure 2), where most papers are classified under the subject facet of bibliography and performing arts;20 on Google Scholar, where some conservation-​related results are found, but most are associated with bibliographic and art history papers;21 and on WorldCat, with the most hits for items on art and architecture and library science.22 Noteworthy is the fact that no results seem to surface concerning codicology, the archaeology of the book, and manuscript studies—​however, these do appear when performing a general Google search.23 However defined, these data sets show an increasing interest in the physicality and materiality of books, and in the understanding that the codex is fundamentally a technology, with some research areas being more prominent than others in their investigations on the matter. As a possible explanation of the phenomenon, Landow points to the fact that for the first time in centuries we are in the position to “decenter the book” and see it as a technology (and a tool).24 Thanks to the advent of new information delivery systems, such as the Internet, we are now capable of distancing ourselves from the concept of the book as an “intrinsically and inevitably human” singularity. By studying the book as a tool and a technology we are provided with the intellectual means to consider its effects on society and culture, and this has led the way to pivotal works on analytical bibliography, sociology of the text, and new media studies. All these approaches, however, function by black-​boxing the book and concentrating on its role “as a force for change.”25 In order to appreciate the artifactual value of books, we need to open the box and analyze its components.

The Faceted Concept of the Artifactual Value of Books

Books are complex objects. They are so in many respects: physically, due to their material and structural varieties; historically, considering their variable nature across time and space; and psychologically, given the multiple ways in which they can be perceived, observed, and studied. Historical and psychological complexities, in particular, are associated with cultural forces that intertwine them in an ongoing and everchanging discourse, subject to continual revision and thus never definitive.26 Consequently, the 19  The New Bookbinder: Journal of Designer Bookbinders (ISSN:  0261-​5363) seems to be the exception. 20  JSTOR, “Book as Object.”

21  Google Scholar, “Book as Object.” 22  WorldCat, “Book as Object.” 23  Google, “Book as Object.”

24  Landow, Hypertext 3.0, 46.

25  Febvre and Martin, The Coming of the Book, 248. 26  Nichols and Smith, The Evidence in Hand, 71.

21

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Figure 2. JSTOR “Data for Research” graph showing the article count per year for the phrase “book as object” (captured in August 2017).

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artifactual value of books is also a complex concept that changes depending on the point of view, the research interest, the outlook of the observer, and the open-​ended character of human inquiry. It is, perhaps surprisingly, a concept that is more subjective, or circumstantial, than objective, and, therefore, one that seems markedly affected by black-​boxing tendencies. The Physical Preservation of Books

The physical preservation of collection items has always been one of the primary missions of archivists and librarians throughout history. Despite often less-​than-​ideal environmental conditions, historical materials fared well and demanded little care beyond being kept away from water, fire, and pests, and occasional rebinding. With the advent of the industrialization of book and document production during the nineteenth century, however, libraries and archives were soon faced with increasing numbers of items in their collections being plagued by the less-​than-​durable nature of modern materials and structures. Book technologies had to speed up virtually all manufacturing processes, from raw materials production (for example, paper, and leather tanning), to printing technologies, and binding techniques.27 At first, new materials and techniques were devised to be the best possible. Soon, however, as the output increased, inferior materials and daring experimentations came into everyday use to keep the prices down: this created products with life spans that were considerably shorter than that of their pre-​industrial counterparts.28 Paper crumbled, leather rotted away, weak binding structures left books without boards or failed altogether, leaving fragile unprotected books behind.29 The physical preservation of books was not a real concern for librarians until the second half of the nineteenth century. Newer books were imperfect and had to be repaired and rebound—​sometimes preventively—​sooner than ever before; newer books also took their place in library shelves in increasingly larger numbers:  binding and rebinding became the principal, if not only, preservation technique for books of any kind.30 A century later, following the realization that modern materials lacked the stability of older resources, mass-​deacidification and reformatting projects gained impetus, and research on book permanence—​the quality of lasting in time—​and durability—​ the quality of lasting with use—​began.31 Rebinding tackled the problems of weak, or failing, binding structures. Deacidification aimed at curbing the brittle book problem, and, similarly, conservation treatments have been developed to halt corrosion due to 27  Stephen, Commercial Bookbinding.

28  Ball, Victorian Publishers’ Bindings.

29  Barrow and Church, Deterioration of Book Stock; Warner, “Modern Bookbinding Leathers”; Higginbotham, Our Past Preserved, 69–​79; Stephen, Commercial Bookbinding, 53; Lehmann-​Haupt, “On the Rebinding of Old Books”; Otto, Only in Cloth, 9–​10. 30  Higginbotham, Our Past Preserved.

31  Banks, “Decline in the Standards,” 124; Clapp, “The Story of Permanent/​Durable Book Paper”; Grandinette and Silverman, “Library Collections Conservation.”

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The Artifactual Value of Books

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metallo-​gallic inks and copper-​based pigments.32 Reformatting and surrogacy production, through microforms (microfiche and microfilm) or even photocopying at first, and then digitization focused on preserving written and image-​based information recorded in books, and on limiting damage to the original materials by restricting access.33 By the second half of the twentieth century, librarians had become increasingly more concerned with the physical preservation of the items in their collections, and of their information content. By the 1970s, a new professional figure had appeared, that of the preservation librarian in charge of the overall collection needs, and the necessary preservation measures, as well as in-​house bindery and mendery operations.34 Conservation and book repair techniques safeguarded, protected, and restored collections of original objects from general and special collections. Reformatting reproduced information at risk and improved distributability and functionality of items and access to information. Library binding programs bound or rebound items in a specially developed style—​that is, the library binding—​to make them robust and durable, essentially suitable, both economically and physically, to library use. The library binding was born as an answer to the fragility of modern books. As early as 1935, the Library Binding Institute (LBI) was formed as a side organization of the Book Manufacturers’ Institute (BMI) to assess and guide the needs of specialized binding and rebinding of library books.35 For nearly seventy years, the LBI initiated and participated in the development and promulgation of guidelines and standards for the execution of (re-​)bindings adequate for library use. What it meant for a binding to be “adequate” for library use changed considerably over time. In the beginning, the focus was on the production of sturdy and economic structures, which often resorted to oversewing and routine edge trimming as standard bookblock-​forming techniques.36 With time, librarians became concerned with openability and preservation issues, minimal intervention, and durability, but still needing to keep the structure economically affordable.37 Library bindings 32  Banik, “The Destructive Effect of Inks”; Hofmann et al., “Studies on the Conservation.”

33  Gwinn and Fox, Preservation Microfilming; Kenney and Rieger, Moving Theory into Practice. 34  Grandinette and Silverman, “Book Repair in the USA,” 274–​75.

35  BMI, established in 1933, was focused on the printing and binding of books. In 2014, LBI and BMI have merged again into one organization to represent all facets of book manufacturing. A Library Binding Council (LBC) was formed to forward the mission of the LBI (Book Manufacturers’ Institute, “BMI History”).

36  Oversewing: “the process of sewing groups of leaves to sewing supports in a process similar to stitching, but incorporating the sewing supports at the same time. A complete textblock may therefore have multiple oversewn groups of leaves. Oversewing is most often found on books consisting entirely of or with large numbers of single leaves” (Ligatus Research Centre, “Stitched Bindings”). For technical terms relating to bookbinding and other materiality aspects of books, we invite the reader to consult the Language of Bindings Thesaurus (Ligatus Research Centre, Language of Bindings Thesaurus). See also the contribution by Velios and Pickwoad in this volume for an introduction to the thesaurus.

37  Merrill-​Oldham, “Binding for Research Libraries”; Merrill-​Oldham, Managing a Library Binding Program; Ogden, “Guidelines for Library Binding”; Merrill-​Oldham and Parisi, Guide to the ANSI/​ NISO/​LBI Library Binding Standard; ANSI/​NISO/​LBI, Library Binding.

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allowed items to become fit for purpose within a library environment, at the expense of their value as historical objects. In this manner, for decades, books lost features of their artifactual history in the interest of making them durable. Following these principles, original bindings, along with dust jackets and other features considered ephemeral,38 in the best of cases became separated from their books or trimmed, mutilated, and bound in the new library-​style binding, or else, in the majority of cases, were thrown away all together. This new necessity of having to alter the physical form of books and documents, or even having to rely on reproductions and facsimiles for their preservation, in turn led memory institutions to consider what value was linked to the physicality of their documents. Although this was at first a consideration only necessary for modern materials, due to the increasing use and reliance on reproduction and digitization also for older items, the notion of value in the physicality of documents soon encompassed all materials. The Concept of Intrinsic Value of Documents

In parallel with the interests in the permanence and durability of collection items and the preservation of the information recorded in them, the emerging concern with minimal intervention and the physical preservation of the original items for both special and general collections led librarians and archivists to consider the essence of the value of books and documents. These considerations went beyond their mere informational value and forced them to establish appraisal criteria to identify those items that ought to be retained in their original form. This meant that, in an era in which storage space was becoming an issue, and reprographic means were becoming increasingly more readily available, items considered of intrinsic value, as defined below, would not be discarded, altered, or substituted with copies or reproductions, their easily captured informational value not deemed enough to represent them wholly. Due to the traits and quantity of archive collections, whose value seems to be mostly ascribed to the information recorded, archives, at that stage, were in danger of losing a significant part of their original physical collections, and archivists had to focus on material value to justify the physical preservation of documents. Libraries and librarians faced similar concerns with the problematic brittle books and the use of reformatting as a preservation measure.39 Archivists and librarians laid down a series of selection criteria to open the black box and establish what characteristics of books and documents make them more valuable than just the information they contain. Typically, they assessed the risk of unacceptable loss and established what had better be preserved in its current state for as long

38  Puglisi, Sopraccoperta; Tanselle, Book-​Jackets.

39  Tanselle describes the problematic approach of reformatting as preservation taken in those days (Tanselle, Literature and Artifacts, 59–​95).

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a period as feasible based on: age, aesthetic and exhibition value, scarcity and market value, associational value,40 and evidential value.41 These criteria, looking at features of the objects that make them valuable in their current state, were felt and advocated as inherently objective, almost universal. As it will be seen, however, their universality and objectiveness are disputable, as the artifactual value of books and documents is unavoidably a fluid and dynamic notion that must be considered on an ad hoc basis. This kind of object value came to be referred to as intrinsic value. A  first formal appearance of such a concept in the library and archive world emerged with the glossary of terms by Evans et al., “A Basic Glossary for Archivists, Manuscript Curators, and Records Managers”:42 Inherent value and, in manuscript appraisal, worth, in monetary terms, of a document dependent upon unique factors, such as its age, the circumstances regarding creation, a signature, or an attached seal.

The notion was then further refined over the years, and in 1982, the work of the Committee on Intrinsic Value of the National Archives and Record Services (NARS) of the USA was published as a white paper, defining the concept, and its application in the assessment of the collections in memory institutions.43 The Committee defined intrinsic value as:44 The term that is applied to permanently valuable records that have qualities and characteristics that make the records in their original physical form the only archivally acceptable form for preservation. […] The qualities or characteristics that determine intrinsic value may be physical or intellectual: that is, they may relate to the physical base of the record and the means by which information is recorded on it, or they may relate to the information contained in the record.

The white paper subsequently defines a series of nine qualities or characteristics that are possessed by materials having intrinsic value. Of these, the first seven are applicable to any cultural heritage item, while the latter two, relating to the informational content, highlighted in italics, are only relevant to archive documents,45 and will not be taken into further consideration here (see List 1).46 40  That is, the significance of materials based on the relationship to an individual, a family, an organization, a place, or an event (Pearce-​Moses, A Glossary, 39). 41  Of features that provide information about the origins, functions, and activities of the creation of an artifact (Pearce-​Moses, A Glossary, 152). 42  Evans et al., “A Basic Glossary,” 424. 43  NARS, Intrinsic Value.

44  NARS, Intrinsic Value, 1.

45  McRanor gives a thorough analysis of these criteria as pertinent to archival practice (McRanor, “A Critical Analysis”). 46  NARS, Intrinsic Value, 2–​3.

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List 1. Qualities of Intrinsic Value, National Archives and Record Services (NARS). 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)

Physical form evidence of technological development Aesthetic or artistic quality Unique or curious physical features Age that provides a quality of uniqueness Value for use in exhibits Questionable authenticity, date, author, or other characteristic that is significant and ascertainable by physical examination 7) General and substantial public interest because of direct association with famous or historically significant people, places, things, issues, or events 8) Significance as documentation of the establishment or continuing legal basis of an agency or institution 9) Significance as documentation of the formulation of policy at the highest executive levels when the policy has significance and broad effect throughout or beyond the agency or institution

The intrinsic value of an object, as described, depends on the object holding any of the qualities mentioned above, each leading to slightly different implications. The Committee states that the concept of intrinsic value is not relative and that it is its application that is relative instead, depending on the judgment of an agent.47 However, the very concept of intrinsic value can be interpreted in various ways. O’Neill describes three senses of increasing exclusivity: intrinsic value1, as a synonym of non-​instrumental value; intrinsic value2, as a synonym of non-​relational value; and intrinsic value3, as a synonym of objective value.48 According to this categorization, an object has intrinsic value1 if it is an end in itself, with no or negligible means-​ or use-​value. Objects selected for museum collections are typical examples of this:  their value residing in what they represent, not in their use or market value.49 The sense of intrinsic value2 is more restrictive and refers to objects whose value is assigned solely in virtue of properties that are characterizable in absolute terms, without reference to other objects. Such objects would be valued for qualities that are separate from what they represent, their relationships with other objects, or from their being an expression of certain actors. Such intrinsic value would persist 47  NARS, Intrinsic Value, 3.

48  O’Neill, “The Varieties of Intrinsic Value.”

49  As mentioned below, Krzysztof Pomian describes museum objects as having the function of being semiophores, i.e., carriers of meaning. They are removed from the practical and economic sphere, and, linking what is visible—​i.e., the object itself with its qualities—​to what is invisible—​ e.g., what is spatially, temporally, physically distant—​such objects are brought into a symbolic context (Pomian, Collectors and Curiosities).

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regardless of the existence or non-​existence of other objects/​actors, or any reference to other objects/​actors. To say that an object is valuable because rare is to put it in relation with all the other objects of its category. To say that an object is valuable because of its age is to put it in relationship with the other objects of its category. To say that an object has aesthetic value is to put it in relationship with a potential observer, and its capacity to produce aesthetic gratification. However, we can value an object in virtue of its relational properties—​for example, its rarity, age, or beauty—​without thereby considering it as having only the instrumental value of human satisfaction, making it fall in the category of intrinsic value1.50 The last sense identified by O’Neill considers objects whose value depends on properties possessed independently of the valuations of those who attribute value—​that is, without reference to the experience of an agent experiencing those objects. That water is valuable for life is a fact, for example, that makes it so independently of the presence of an agent assigning such value, even though such value would be assignable by an ideal observer in an ideal condition: a human being. The latter is the most restrictive of the senses. Applying O’Neill’s categories to the qualities identified by the Committee above, it becomes clear that, despite the statement that the concept of intrinsic value is not relative, if their applicability is relative to the assignment of an agent, then by necessity their concept of intrinsic value cannot be objective (intrinsic value3). All the qualities are also only definable in relation to other objects or actors, and, therefore, this disqualifies the non-​relational sense of the concept (intrinsic value2). This leaves us with the first sense of intrinsic value (intrinsic value1): objects whose value resides in themselves, and not in their use. This would at first glance exclude items whose value is in their being useful for exhibitions. However, the Committee further specifies that items that are “frequently used for exhibits normally have several qualities and characteristics that give them intrinsic value”;51 in other words, this characteristic is a consequence of the object already possessing intrinsic value and can, therefore, be ignored. The intrinsic value of cultural heritage objects then seems to reside in their quality of having more meaning than their primary use: they have value in themselves and not for their potential usage. According to Pomian, this definition is valid for all collection items.52 However, libraries and archives pose a more complicated problem because their collections can have a purely utilitarian scope and, as such, reference material cannot be considered as having intrinsic value. Looking more closely at the definitions and qualities brought forward by the Committee, it becomes apparent that they are formulated with reference to a system of values that sets certain items apart from the rest of the collections. As illustrated in Table 1, these are: evidential value, aesthetic value, exemplary value, associational value, plus the informational value that is related to the content of documents. 50  O’Neill, “The Varieties of Intrinsic Value,” 124–​25. 51  NARS, Intrinsic Value, 2.

52  Pomian, Collectors and Curiosities.

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Table 1. Table illustrating the system of values to which the NARS qualities for documents of intrinsic value can be ascribed (our emphasis). 1 2 3 4 5 6

7

NARS Qualities

Values

Physical form evidence of technological development

Evidential

Unique or curious physical features

Exemplary/​Evidential

Aesthetic or artistic quality

Age that provides a quality of uniqueness Value for use in exhibits

Questionable authenticity, date, author, or other characteristic that is significant and ascertainable by physical examination

General and substantial public interest because of direct association with famous or historically significant people, places, things, issues, or events

Aesthetic

Exemplary/​Evidential

Associational/​Exemplary Evidential

Associational

The Qualities of Value Archivists were among the first to be faced with the problem of the loss of information due to reformatting. However, libraries were soon to follow. While it may seem anachronistic and naïve, librarians did consider whether it was “necessary, feasible, or appropriate to retain an item after microfilming.”53 In the 1980s and 1990s, the eminent bibliographer G. Thomas Tanselle published several papers against this practice, arguing for the bibliographic evidence and artifactual value of books over the mere informational content captured with microfilming and reformatting.54 In 1992, the Research Libraries Group (RLG) Preservation Committee published an assessment guide for library materials, aptly titled “The Book as Object.”55 These guidelines, built on the experience accrued by RLG Committees on collection management, and based on a number of written documents—​among which was the NARS report—​were circulated as “informational, educational, and selection aid,” and aimed at explaining the reasons for a book to become “rare and valuable.” The guidelines list a series of nine importance categories that should be considered for retaining items in their original format (see List 2).56 53  Gwinn and Fox, Preservation Microfilming, 85. Often brittle books were selected for withdrawal:  “Library materials that have been chosen because their paper is brittle should be given strongest consideration for withdrawal. No treatment will restore strength or flexibility to brittle paper […]; thus, there is seldom a practical reason to keep a brittle item in the collection” (Gwinn and Fox, Preservation Microfilming, 87). 54  See Tanselle, Literature and Artifacts. 55  Elkington, “The Book as Object.”

56  Elkington, “The Book as Object,” 63–​64.

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List 2. RLG Preservation Committee, “The Book as Object” guidelines. 1) Evidential value a. printing history (registration marks, cancels, printing techniques, errors) b. binding history (sewing stations, binding structure, reused spine lining, cover materials) c. marginalia, ownership marks, ephemera 2) Aesthetic value a. binding (techniques/​artistry, structure and materials, signed/​designer bindings, early publishers’ bindings) b. decorations (gilding, gauffering, decorated endpapers, fore-​edge paintings) c. non-​reproducible illustrations, photographs, maps, sketches d. artists’ books (books designed as objects) 3) Importance in the printing history of significant titles a. first appearance, bibliographic variants, fine press printing, printing techniques, early local imprints 4) Age a. printed before specific dates, or periods 5) Scarcity a. rare item, or printed in fewer than 100 copies 6) Association value of important, famous, locally collected figures or topics a. marginalia, notes, inscriptions, signatures, bookplates, or other ownership marks 7) Monetary value 8) Physical format or features of interest a. technological development b. curious physical features (watermarks, printing on parchment, wax seals) c. ephemeral material d. manuscript material e. miniature book f. questionable authenticity where the physical format may help verify it g. rare examples of styles, fads, techniques 9) Exhibit value a. links to historical events, creators b. censored, or banned These importance categories point to the specification and evaluation of rare and valuable (printed) books. The importance of such books lies in them having any of the listed qualities, and specifically in not having purely instrumental value. They are examples of intrinsic value in the first sense (intrinsic value1), except, once again, for the exhibit value category that defies this simple definition. At a closer look, the guidelines associate exhibit value to items that are important because associated with historical

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Table 2. Table illustrating the system of values to which the RLG categories for rare and valuable books can be ascribed. RLG Categories

Values

1

Evidential value

Evidential

3

Importance in the printing history of significant titles

Exemplary/​Evidential

2 4 5 6 7 8 9

Aesthetic value Age

Scarcity

Aesthetic

Exemplary/​Evidential Exemplary/​Evidential

Association value of important, famous, locally collected figures or topics

Associational

Physical format or features of interest

Exemplary/​Evidential

Monetary value Exhibit value

Monetary

Associational/​Exemplary

events, or specific actors, or as examples of banned/​censored books:  they are therefore important because they carry associational and exemplary value, and not because of their possible use in exhibitions. As illustrated in Table 2, these categories, just like the NARS qualities, are expressions of a system of values that confer to the items that possess them importance as primary research sources. Given the focus and emphasis on “rare and valuable” books, it would seem that, by definition, the RLG guidelines would exclude non-​rare library materials from those items of substantial intrinsic value, because their usefulness as books outweighs their value as artifacts. The choice is, however, not so unambiguous, and each item and category of items deserves specific considerations. The “Checklist of Primary Bibliographical  Evidence Contained in 19th-​ and Early 20th-​Century Publishers’ Bookbindings,” published by the Library Collections Conservation Discussion Group of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC), is an admirable example of the definition of intrinsic value criteria for non-​rare library materials.57 What is exceptional about the Checklist is that it outlines ways of identifying library materials whose integrity should be preserved, not just because they are valuable now, but also because they “will gain value and importance to the public at large,” due to their historical, artistic, and cultural significance. Silverman and Grandinette focus attention to physical attributes of publishers’ bindings that “may not as yet be widely recognized as significant or rare.” By looking at historical development in the manufacture of these industrial books, they identify categories of “primary research material essential to a wide range of historical research,” from industrial revolution, to design, book manufacture, book reception, and impact on literacy.58 They identify five categories of attributes 57  Silverman and Grandinette, “Checklist of Primary Bibliographical Evidence.”

58  Silverman and Grandinette, “Checklist of Primary Bibliographical Evidence,” 1.

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that are of importance as evidence of the historical development of the industrialized book (see List 3).59

List 3. Extract from the “Checklist of Primary Bibliographical Evidence Contained in 19th-​and Early 20th-​Century Publishers’ Bookbindings.”

1) General considerations a. period design, dust jackets, first printing and variant states, evidence of local manufacture 2) Covering material a. paper-​covered bindings (paper wrappers, printed ephemera, limp paper-​ case and board bindings, early paper-​case bindings, “Yellowbacks”) b. early cloth bindings c. leather publishers’ bindings d. unusual covering material 3) Binding decoration a. stamping, printing, onlays, signed bindings 4) Endpapers a. coated papers, printed patterned endpapers 5) Technological advances in bookbinding a. caoutchouc bindings, wire stitching, machine sewing The emphasis is on surveying and identifying those characteristics of the physical industrial book that, because unrecognized as evidence of historical development, risk disappearing due to careless repair, rebinding, or reformatting. The Checklist shows how even items that do not have significant monetary value, that are not (yet) rare, and that may not be as old as others can still possess intrinsic value as artifacts. Table 3 interprets the AIC attributes of primary research on publishers’ bindings with reference to the system of values mentioned above.

A Two-​Level Value System for Primary Sources in Library and Archive Collections

Many are the aspects and qualities of documents that have been identified in the literature as potential carriers of intrinsic value. The examples mentioned above attempt to define such characteristics in as general terms as possible for archive, and library special and general, collections. These qualities can be seen in even more general terms as ascribed to a universal system of values that captures the complex and fluid nature of significance for library and archive collections. This system (see Figure 3) develops in two levels. At its core lies a series of qualities that have been similarly identified by the practitioners highlighted in the previous section. These are termed here as aesthetic, 59  Silverman and Grandinette, “Checklist of Primary Bibliographical Evidence,” 1–​3.

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Table 3. Table illustrating the system of values to which the AIC categories for publishers’ bindings can be ascribed. AIC Categories

Values

1

General considerations

Exemplary/​Evidential/​Associational

3

Binding decoration

Exemplary/​Evidential/​Associational

2 4 5

Covering material Endpapers

Technological advances in bookbinding

Exemplary/​Evidential Exemplary/​Evidential Exemplary/​Evidential

Figure 3. A two-​level value system for primary sources.

associational, evidential, exemplary, informational, and monetary value, and can be defined as below: Aesthetic value:  the significance of an item derived from its artistic qualities and pleasing appearance. These are generally associated with decorative elements, such as illuminations on manuscripts, or elaborate tooling on bookbindings.

Associational value: the usefulness or significance of materials based on their relationship to an individual, family, organization, place, or event.60 60  Pearce-​Moses, A Glossary, 39.

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Evidential value: the quality of documents that provides information about the origins, functions, and activities relating to the process of creation, distinctly to their content.61

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Exemplary value: the quality of typical items to represent a larger group or their category, and to serve as a reference.

Informational value: the usefulness or significance of materials based on their content, independent of any intrinsic or evidential value.62 Monetary value:  the estimated amount of money that an item would bring if offered for sale.63

At a higher level, one can consider what qualities of an item cannot be easily represented and exist outside of the object, and which characteristics are, or might be, essential for future research ventures. This set of values is even more unfixed than the core level and necessitates careful consideration. Paul Banks notices how items may possess characteristics—​among which, predominantly, their materiality—​that, while overt, for economic or practical issues, cannot be easily transferred onto other formats through traditional techniques, and that are bound to their physicality.64 In such cases, Banks speaks of items possessing an exigent artifact value.65 The remediation process of artifacts, such as in digitization, is essentially a translation mode. As in any translation, there are some essential features of the original constituting its translatability, but at the same time, depending on the target “language,” certain features cannot be translated, cannot be transferred onto the new modality.66 We refer to these traits of the original artifact as untransferable qualities since these confer an untransferable value to the object: untransferable not in absolute terms, but regarding traditional reproduction technologies through direct acquisition. As noted by Silverman and Grandinette, there may be physical attributes that “may not as yet be widely recognized as significant or rare” but that, if destroyed and lost, would impede future research in areas not yet identified as investigation avenues.67 Remarkably, Pearce-​Moses defines research value as a synonym of informational value, and, therefore, as “independent of any intrinsic or evidential value.”68 As exemplified by Silverman and Grandinette above, this cannot always be the case. Nichols and Smith consider that the value of an artifact for research purposes is primarily evidentiary, or even forensic when it is useful in establishing the authenticity and integrity of an item. 61  Pearce-​Moses, A Glossary, 152–​53. 62  Pearce-​Moses, A Glossary, 206. 63  Pearce-​Moses, A Glossary, 255.

64  For a definition of physicality and materiality see the Introduction and chap. 2, “Transferring Untransferable Features.”. 65  Banks, “Decline in the Standards”; Banks, “A Typology of Artifact Values.” 66  Benjamin, “The Task of the Translator,” 70–​72.

67  Silverman and Grandinette, “Checklist of Primary Bibliographical Evidence,” 1. 68  Pearce-​Moses, A Glossary, 206.

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The format itself can be the subject of investigation, as in the case of bookbindings, and the physical encounter with the object itself is of unparalleled heuristic value for the researcher.69 The research value of a document is inherently unfixed and depends on all possible investigations into the object and its content. Relevance is subjective, as it does not pertain to the object in itself, but rather to the object as remarked by a scholar.70 The research value of a document, just as its materiality, is, in fact, an emergent property.71 The definition and assessment of the research value of an item are therefore problematic, since one cannot foresee all potential avenues of research based on such an object and its content, and it is also unfeasible to think that all documents and objects can be preserved indefinitely. Additionally, given that an item may possess untransferable qualities, reformatting and digitization cannot be the answer to the future preservation of all items. What remains is to consider best-​practice conservation for as many items as deemed realistic, and to perform continuous assessment programs to establish endangered information-​carrying sources, as new research areas arise. As it turns out, the definition of the artifactual or intrinsic value of books and documents is a complicated matter because the concept is fluid and multifaceted. Pearce-​ Moses appropriately defines it as “the usefulness or significance of an object derived from its physical, aesthetic, or associational qualities,72 inherent in its original form and generally independent of its content, that are integral to its material nature and would be lost in reproduction.”73 These characteristics depend on the system of values illustrated above, and they are indeed rooted in the physical make-​up of the object, but the artifactual value of a book cannot be seen as entirely independent of its content—​for example, frequently, different textual genres prescribed different binding styles and traditions. In 69  Nichols and Smith, The Evidence in Hand. 70  Culkin, “A Schoolman’s Guide,” 71.

71  See the Introduction and chap. 2, “Transferring Untransferable Features.”

72  The associational value of a book may result in it being considered an iconic object, a relic, and thus untouchable (preserving it in its entirety, removed as it is from the wear and tear of normal use). Such is, for example, the case of the St. Cuthbert Gospel, prepared for the reverenced bishop, and buried in the coffin with his body: having later been exhumed with the saint’s remains, it became a treasured relic, thus surviving unused and untouched, making it, today, the earliest example of an intact European bookbinding, its artifactual value having been completely preserved by its association with the saint (Powell, “The Binding”; Powell and Waters, “Technical Description”; Pickwoad, “The Development,” 87; Breay and Meehan, The St. Cuthbert Gospel). At a much later date, two books of the Banks Family of Kingston Lacey in Dorset, probably given to their ancestor Sir John Banks by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to Queen Elizabeth I, met a similar fate, as they were preserved as family heirlooms, never used nor repaired, unlike the other books in their library (Pickwoad, “The Development,” 87). Associational value, however, does not always warrant preservation of the artifactual value of an item. Pickwoad mentions the books given to William Wyndham II of Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk by Dr. Samuel Johnson, the famous lexicographer: the family valued these books so highly because of their association, that they felt it necessary to replace their plain original bindings with gold-​tooled leather, removing important artifactual evidence (Pickwoad, “The Development,” 87). 73  Pearce-​Moses, A Glossary, 36, 217. The emphasis is ours.

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the same way, content should not be considered without a reference to its form, since, for example, an unusual binding style can inform readership, reception, or otherwise the history of a specific text. Tanselle also points out that in the “intrinsic value” discussion the focus is on defining which materials have it and why, without any general acknowledgment that “every artifact has intrinsic value,” and this adds significantly to the complexity of the matter.74 A way to try and address this complicated matter is to open the black box that renders books mere information carriers and, following the model for the study of books as artifacts advanced in the following section, investigate their materiality, context, history, and significance as a whole. In this manner, more research avenues can be assessed and possibly foreseen, enhancing the study of books in general. As we will see in the next chapter, however, what happens when books and manuscripts are digitized is that content, still today, generally takes precedence over all other aspects of the object. Considering those untransferable qualities that are inherent to the materiality of the items, a considerable amount of information fails to be represented in the digital form. In these digital representations, the object book is black-​boxed for the purpose of transferring onto the new format its content. Thankfully, digitization is not generally considered as a preservation method, and the objects are retained after digitization. One could, therefore, be granted access to the object should the research require it. It is however desirable, and, considering the increasing interest in the materiality of books, conceivable, that more efforts should be made to open the black box and remediate onto the new medium part of those more-​difficult-​to-​transfer qualities of books. This would allow for a more comprehensive representation, and, consequently, foster a deeper understanding of the object.

A Framework for the Study of the Book as an Object

Book history, defined as “the study of the history of the book and texts,”75 has been traditionally associated with bibliography, codicology, paleography, literary studies, and economic and social history, and has struggled to establish its place as an independent discipline.76 Over the years, various modes and models of investigation have been presented by numerous researchers to bring forward the fundamental methodological tools and issues for the study of the history of the book. Alongside the critical contributions of bibliographers such as McKerrow, Bowers, Gaskell, Febvre and Martin, Tanselle, McKenzie, and Chartier,77 many scholars have produced a series of general investigative models for the discipline. 74  Tanselle, “Reproductions and Scholarship,” 82–​83. 75  Finkelstein and McCleery, An Introduction, 7. 76  Howsam, Old Books and New Histories.

77  McKerrow, An Introduction to Bibliography; Bowers, Principles of Bibliographical Description; Gaskell, A New Introduction; Febvre and Martin, The Coming of the Book; Tanselle, Selected Studies; McKenzie, Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts; Chartier, On the Edge of the Cliff.

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A first pioneering model appeared in the essay “What Is the History of Books?” by Robert Darnton.78 With his “communication circuit,” the author wanted to lay the groundwork of the new discipline of book history by focusing on the ways in which ideas, embodied in books (both manuscripts and printed books, though his main interest, as a bibliographer, was the printed text), circulated in a society, from the author to the reader. Darnton’s model depicted a circuit and the relationships between the actors involved:  author, publisher, printers and suppliers, shippers and booksellers, binders, and readers.79 While accepted mainly as a groundbreaking contribution, Darnton’s model has also been amply criticized by other scholars for its somewhat limited and limiting focus: his model is undoubtedly useful for social historians, but, by pushing certain perspectives into the background, it becomes restrictive for those involved in the study of the book as an artifact. For this reason, a decade later, Adams and Barker proposed a new diachronic model,80 loosely based upon that of Darnton, but which focused attention on the book as a physical object—​the material book81—​and its transmission, as the linking force between the components of the cycle.82 They identified five core events in the life of a book—​publishing, manufacturing, distribution, reception, and survival—​and consider the text the raison d’être for the cycle, while its transmission depends upon the capacity of the book to continue to progress its motion through subsequent life cycles. For a book to complete its life cycle, it has to go through three stages. The first stage relates to the book’s creation and initial reception, when it is used for the purpose for which it was created. The second stage is that period during which the book is less frequently used—​it is in this phase when it is most at risk of not surviving. The third and last stage represents that particular point in a book’s life when it acquires significance as an object—​either in its own right or for the text it contains—​because it is a witness to the age in which it was produced. During this last phase, the book enters the world of specialist archiving and scholarly research: in other words, it has acquired research value.83 Of interest is how this model considers under the category of survival the fact that a book that reached us today is likely to go through a conservation process that could change it, altering or even destroying one or many of its components. Along the same lines, Adams and Barker consider the process of reformatting—​and thus digitization—​as a potential stage in the life of documents, acting as a link between its survival and a new cycle of its life: returning to 78  Darnton, “What Is the History of Books?”

79  The presence of the printer as a declared agent clearly signals the interest of the author mainly in the printed book trade. 80  Adams and Barker, “A New Model.”

81  The term “material book” can assume two main distinct and yet correlated meanings: the physicality of the book and the physical and economic context of a book’s existence (Eliot, “Some Material Factors”).

82  “Transmission is the essence of our new model, which links intention and reception, and converts them into a historic process” (Adams and Barker, “A New Model,” 200). 83  Adams and Barker, “A New Model.”

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the category of publication, and so forth. Despite the fact that Adams and Barker follow the bibliographical tradition of the primacy of the text over other aspects of the physical book, and that their model, therefore, focuses attention on the written word, they distinguish themselves by striving to consider all aspects of the artifact book, bringing together in one place the different disciplines that deal with it. Their model provides different disciplines with a common ground on which to build an integrated and inclusive history of the book. In 2016, an active and provoking online conversation on “Book History Models” took place in the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing (SHARP) mailing list.84 Over twenty scholars took part in the dialogue. The topic thread, stemming from Darnton’s 2007 revisited model,85 offers a stimulating overview of the different book history models that have been proposed and discussed,86 and also a critique of the usefulness of all these models. Some objecting voices reject the value of the models altogether, calling for dropping the theories and going back to “looking at books.” Important points made by eminent scholars such as William St. Clair, Simon Eliot, and Daniel Bellingradt are that, given the current fragmentary state of knowledge in the field, it may be better to move on from circuit models and to conceptualize the processes at hand as linear. They also point out how it would be beneficial to concentrate on books as made objects, and subsequently on robust economic and political models of book production, distribution, and consumption, thus covering the interplay between sociality, spatiality, and materiality of the book industry.87 This triadic investigative approach, proposed by Bellingradt and Salman, is of particular interest because of its attempt at unifying into one model what it identifies as three distinct dimensions of book culture, dimensions that have often been looked at in isolation.88 The social dimension includes the actions and motives of the various actors involved in the intellectual creation, manufacture and technical production, circulation and preservation, and consumption of books.89 The 84  SHARP-​L, “Question: Book History Models.”

85  Darnton, “ ‘What Is the History of Books?’ Revisited.”

86  Models and works that have been cited in the conversation are: King and Bryant, Evaluation; Darnton, “What Is the History of Books?”; Phelps, “Where’s the Book?”; Meerkerk, “Dyades”; Howsam, “Models”; Darnton, “ ‘What Is the History of Books?’ Revisited”; St. Clair, “The Political Economy of Reading,” 2007; Kovač, Never Mind the Web; Muri, “The Technology and Future of the Book”; Bachleitner, “A Proposal to Include Book History”; Ray Murray and Squires, “The Digital Publishing Communications Circuit”; St. Clair, The Political Economy of Reading, 2012; Squires and Ray Murray, “The Digital Publishing Communications Circuit”; Weel, “Book Studies”; Howsam and Shep, “Books in Global Perspectives”; Heritage, “The Reading Subject”; Bellingradt and Salman, “Books and Book History.” 87  St. Clair, “Question: Book History Models”; Eliot, “Question: Book History Models”; Bellingradt, “Question: Book History Models.” 88  Bellingradt and Salman, “Books and Book History.”

89  This dimension is particularly well developed in the French school of the Histoire du Livre, and the German Sozialgeschichte der deutschen Literatur (Bellingradt and Salman, “Books and Book History,” 4). The social approach is also well developed, as the study of human actions and agency,

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spatial dimension wants to include both the static dimension of “place” (as geographical location) and the dynamic and relational concept of “space,” or more precisely, “space-​ time,” and includes dissemination-​focused investigations and the “complex places” of book production and consumption.90 Finally, the material dimension covers the physical characteristics of books, the infrastructure of their manufacture, and their consumption (for example, commissioned bindings, marginalia, stains, and signs of usage).91 As noted above, of the many aspects that together form the object book, bookbindings are the element that is most often black-​boxed and left aside, because considered ephemeral. In Darnton’s original model, bookbinding was only marginally included in the cycle as an appendix of either the agent bookseller or the agent reader. This is justified by the fact that books were frequently sold unbound, or within temporary bindings, to be sent to the binder by the owner. Focusing attention on the book as a physical object, though, the role of the binding must be integrated with the main cycle of the life of books. In Adams and Barker’s scheme, bindings are crucially included in the five main categories of events involved in the life of a book, because, as clearly stated, they put at the centre of their cycle the artifact book with its text, but also giving primacy to the binding as an integral part of each one of these categories. Consequently, Adams and Barker, though concentrating on the textual transmission, have incorporated well in their perspective the fact that a book is also a physical object. Nonetheless, their and other models do not look at books as technological objects and have no archaeological interest:  they treat their materiality as a black box, looking only into the consequences of their physicality, without accounting for the study of the details and elements involved in such physical manifestations. As lamented by Bellingradt and Salman, while many researchers have demonstrated the relationship between the physical appearance of books and their functions and consumption, more systematic research is necessary. This can only be done by opening the black box and engaging with the material object in all of its aspects.92 Codicologists, book archaeologists, and book conservators need a different approach. To provide a means to open that black box and to bring to the light the working and the technology of books, we put forward a different kind of model, a framework, in fact, that draws greatly on archaeology and artifact studies. The proposed framework (see Figure 4), not entirely novel, and therefore essentially familiar in its conception to book conservators and book archaeologists, has been based upon those developed by Robert in the school of new bibliography of Bowers and Gaskell (Bowers, Principles of Bibliographical Description; Gaskell, A New Introduction). Only through the meticulous reduction of human actions to discernible processes, in fact, can we reconstruct individual acts of human agency (Bellingradt and Salman, “Books and Book History,” 289).

90  See also Johns for an analysis of the complex social and cultural character of printing houses at the beginning of their existence (Johns, The Nature of the Book, 74–​108).

91  As pointed out by Roger Chartier, the relevance of the materiality of books does not stop at the production or circulation stage, and through their material interactions with the book, readers and users add meaning to their copies (Chartier, Forms and Meanings). 92  Bellingradt and Salman, “Books and Book History,” 3–​4.

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Figure 4. The proposed framework for the study and interpretation of books as artifacts.

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Elliot and Susan Pearce for the examination of artifacts.93 The model, not unlike that of Bellingradt and Salman,94 tries to cover a wide range of areas of interest, striving to provide an integral and comprehensive approach to the assessment of a book. The model proposes an interdisciplinary research approach and to reunite in one framework the various research avenues of scholars involved in the history of the book (from book archaeologists to codicologists, to bibliographers, and so forth). It is nevertheless a framework overall focused on connecting the material aspects of the book with other traditional research interests, and the model gives prevalence to the material artifact. As will be seen in the following chapter, however, a full codicological investigation would require an additional step aiming at reintegrating the information gathered on the book as an object, with its content. The model is not in opposition to or to be used instead of the other models mentioned above. It should be regarded as a tool of heuristic value to think with and be guided by during the examination of and research on artifacts.95 It is a means to correlate the various processes involved in gaining new knowledge about material objects, and, in turn, to focus attention on those characteristics that give an object its research value and—​given the prominence assigned to the materiality—​ its untransferable value. It is a means to study books, but also, as will be seen in the following chapter, to understand their digital surrogates, what they enhance, what they lack, and how different levels of information could be used to produce more complete representations. In the proposed framework (see Figure 4), the properties of a book are divided into four main areas: materiality (raw materials, structure, appearance); context (relationships); history (functions and uses); and significance (psychological and academic values). Each of these areas highlights properties that grant a book its intrinsic artifactual value. In the materiality sphere, as will be exemplified more in detail in the next chapter, reside most of the untransferable properties of a document, but also elements that confer aesthetic, evidential, exemplary, and monetary value. Additionally, if these can be discerned with enough certainty, one can find evidence of associational value, for example by linking a particular structure or tooling to a binder or bindery. Certainly, then, the material aspects of books are sources of properties of potential research value, even though attributes of research value are generally mostly identified within the remits of the other three areas. The context and the history fields concentrate on well-​established properties of associational, evidential, exemplary, informational, and monetary value; while the psychological domain tends to encompass qualities of associational and exemplary value. Looking in further detail at the model, an obvious starting point of an investigation is the physical description of the object—​its structure, components, appearance, and materiality—​and then the focus shifts to the environment around the object and its content, highlighting the relationships with other objects and agents, including spatial and economic ones. The analysis of the structural elements and materials used should 93  Elliot, “Towards a Material History”; Pearce, “Thinking about Things.” 94  Bellingradt and Salman, “Books and Book History.” 95  Ciula and Eide, “Modelling in Digital Humanities.”

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Figure 5. The making of a codex. The diagram outlines the principal elements and actions required to assemble a book in codex format. Not all phases are necessary for all structures.

be studied consistently, following a precise series of clearly defined criteria, so that the same data may be recorded for each item, also facilitating electronic storage and manipulation, and permitting the identification of patterns, categories, and varieties. There have been a series of efforts to lay down description guidelines over the years.96 A particularly efficient approach is one that follows the process of bookmaking: starting from ruling and folding the leaves of the textblock, followed by the assemblage of the bookblock with the addition of the endleaves and the completion of the sewing, the treatment of the edges and the spine and the addition of boards, spine linings, and endbands, to finish with the covering and the application of the protective metal furniture (see Figure 5).97 This approach creates a hierarchy of top and narrower concepts that allow stopping 96  See Federici et  al., Scheda di censimento; Petherbridge, “Sewing Structures and Materials”; Sharpe, “Observations on Data Collection”; Pickwoad and Gullick, “Assessment Manual”; Pickwoad, “The Condition Survey”; Sheppard, “The British Medieval Binding Structures Census.”

97  Gnirrep, Gumbert, and Szirmai, Kneep en binding; Sharpe, “The Catalogue of the Coptic Bindings”; Sharpe, “Observations on Data Collection”; Pickwoad and Gullick, “Assessment Manual.” See also Velios and Pickwoad in this volume.

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at any stage, depending on knowledge and time constraints, but that would keep any description consistent, regardless of the level of detail.98 Once book structures and their materials are analyzed and described in the needed level of detail, additional observable data can be gathered from decorative features and inscriptions (if present).99 Data from different objects on materials, structures, decorations, and design patterns can then be grouped, thus creating a comparative framework of essential data that can be further analyzed to tease out patterns and trends of variations that depend on time, location, and social factors. Further data that is used to interpret and reconstruct the material aspects of the history of books come from supplementary sources of information. Unusual or complex binding structures can be understood only through physical reproduction, trials, models, and mock-​ups, because they are the result and product of a process or a series of operations, and only in doing can one recognize revealing details of specific procedures. Conservators, in fact, before tackling elaborate bindings, often invest time and practice in the production of models showing and demonstrating partial to full processes that are then used when working on the actual object. These models contain important supplementary observable data that are, however, rarely shown to other scholars or made available as research items (outside of the conservation studio). Finally, as customary in any scientific research, the literature is another source of valuable secondary data, even though the literature on binding structures is not as rich as one would hope. The rest of the model covers information areas that have been traditionally recognized as research avenues: context, history, and significance. The context area explores those sets of data that can establish the relationships of the book with its environment, production, possession, and other agents and items. This model distinguishes between the physical, the geographical, and the economic contexts of books. The physical context investigates all those observable clues and sets of data that illustrate the diachronic relationships of the object with its immediate surroundings. For example, what other materials were available to the scribe, binder, or printer during the book’s production? Do we have examples of manuscript or printed waste used within the binding? Are the pages palimpsested? Are there other instances of reuse? Still, in this area, one would concentrate on collecting ownership notes, inscriptions, library stamps and call numbers, and the position of the manuscript title (indicating vertical or horizontal positioning of the shelves, for example). Also, one could aim at reconstructing, if possible, entire libraries and their entity (was it a chained library?) or the specific proximity of other books on the shelf (through marks left on the cover, for example). The geographical context aims at marking the provenance of the book and its materials, and also tracing its movements through space. The data to analyze this context come from both the materiality areas of research and the physical context. Certain materials and structures can point to specific geographical regions, as much as certain decorative tools and design patterns, inscriptions (both with their content and, through paleographical analysis, 98  See Velios and Pickwoad.

99  Chap. 2, “Evidence as Tangible Information beyond Texts” describes this in more detail.

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their writing), or previous ownership notes and library stamps. As can be noted, the economic context represents a borderline between the areas of study of context and history. Here one would try and gather any clue indicating the economic context of a specific book. One could find price notes and charges written on the endleaves, or somewhere within the text, or the cost and value of an item might be included in probate and other archive records (hence the borderline of this context with the historical investigation area). Economical clues might also be indirect, such as specific binding structures or the use of precious materials in the book’s making. History covers more specifically the agents that have been involved with the book and its uses in its own time and place, but it is also concerned with its history of publication, exhibition, and collection. This area of research, while assuredly gathering clues from the results of the previous areas of research and their analyses, digs deeper into the information that can be gathered from secondary sources, such as archive documents. Finally, the “psychological role of the artifact” is considered in relation to the significance of the object for its own time and place—​and our own.100 This involves the examination of how a specific book was socially considered in its own time, why, how, and if it demonstrated prestige and social status, and the evidence for its research and artifactual value, that is, how the object is considered nowadays, and, potentially, in the future. Furthermore, non-​irrelevantly, even in the psychological domain, one cannot elude the materiality of the object and the observable data. Objects, in fact, through a process of embodiment, shape our mind and affect how our cognition works: the human mind is an emergent product of a complex system of relationships and material engagements, rendering thought, actions, and material objects a unified organizational force.101 As the term “value” indicates, there are some objects that have or represent some significant characteristics that set them apart from similar items. As we have explored in the previous section, understanding and preserving such a value is challenging because it is often unknown and unfixed, because of the dynamic nature of intellectual inquiries: artifacts are cultural variables, and their value is necessarily linked to the ways in which they are viewed, used, and studied by certain cultures at particular times.102 Clues for each area of study can be gathered by direct observation (observable data), by comparison with other artifacts (comparative data), and by information coming from additional sources such as research literature, models, and so forth (supplementary data). The ultimate goal of artifactual investigation on material objects is their interpretation. Therefore, in the final stage, one ought to bring together the yield of information gathered through each step taken, linking all collected data through all areas of research, from physical examination to the object’s context, history, and significance. The correct interpretation of an artifact, in fact, depends on the synthesis of the studies of various disciplines, such as history (here including context, history, and significance), science (to analyze chemical components or to gather and visualize other data about materials, for example), and 100  Pearce, “Thinking about Things,” 200.

101  See Malafouris, How Things Shape the Mind. 102  Nichols and Smith, The Evidence in Hand.

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craftsmanship (to fully understand the structure and manner of assembly of the item).103 While a comprehensive approach should encompass all areas to arrive at a full interpretation of the artifact, the framework develops in a grid, signifying that scholars can still enter the research process at any stage, and that particular avenues of research may not necessarily cover all areas of study. Traditional book history models, for example, can be seen as connecting information from the context, history, and significance areas of inquiry, but often fail to consider materiality in its entire complexity, thus forsaking essential data for the interpretation of the object of study. The model encourages a cohesive investigation on books as material objects, bringing to the foreground what observable data can be gathered from their physicality, and putting them in relationships with other objects and information sources, fostering the production of a network of comparative and supplementary data. Codicology and the archaeology of the book, aiming at providing information on the context and methodology of book production, require a reference framework to analyze and interpret objects’ variations and typologies depending on time (diachronic investigations), location (diatopic investigations), and social factors (diastratic investigations).104 Besides the limited amount of information available in the literature and reference sources, as illustrated by the work of Velios and Pickwoad in their contribution to this volume, it is by applying the model to a series of objects, as more linkable data is gathered, that this reference framework is created. Hence the need for a coherent data acquisition model that is flexible enough to be applicable by a diverse range of scholars, and on different materials. The grid pattern, as mentioned above, allows a scholar to come in and concentrate on a particular theme and research avenue. The grid, however, most importantly, sets an interconnected framework through which a diverse range of scholars specialized in specific aspects of research can establish successful, fruitful, and coherent collaborations aimed at an ever more satisfactory interpretation of a book, its history, its context, its reception, and its content. Although data complexity varies from case to case, the interpretation of the different aspects of books and their materialities requires specialist input from several disciplines.105 By fostering such a varied assembly of skills and knowledge and such collaborative investigative work, an analysis of a book advanced according to the proposed framework is more likely to capture the more elusive and unfixed research value of the object outlined in the previous section. Besides, 103  I am indebted for this triadic approach to the history of the book to the teachings of John L. Sharpe III.

104  The concepts of diachronic, diatopic, and diastratic variations are adapted from those proposed by linguist Leiv Flydal—​and then further developed by Eugenio Coseriu—​in his idea of an architecture of language, analyzing languages as historical objects, and not as self-​contained systems. In this respect, language variations can be measured according to three dimensions: (i) diastratic, meaning variations among different social groups; (ii) diatopic, meaning geographical variations; and (iii) diachronic, meaning temporal variations. See Flydal, Remarques sur certains rapports; Coseriu, La geografía lingüística; Coseriu, “Los conceptos de dialecto, nivel y estilo.” On the codicological reference framework, see Scheper, The Technique of Islamic Bookbinding, 5–​6. 105  Scheper, The Technique of Islamic Bookbinding, 14–​15.

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since a complete reading and application of the model would build upon the observable data found in books and the materiality—​or materialities—​of these objects, their untransferable qualities are necessarily counted among the foundational elements of the investigation’s development. Consequently, the untransferable value of the objects becomes overt and transparent. As will be seen in the next chapter, this is particularly useful in understanding the value—​and limitations—​of (traditional) digital surrogates.

A Delicate Balance of Meaning and Use

All kinds of “desirable” natural objects and man-​made things have found their ways into collections and museums for the sake of their preservation.106 These may be artistic products of human industry, or exemplars of material culture that have survived from the past, or that have been specially selected for preservation as tokens of historical importance. As mentioned above, one common aspect that is shared by these varied family of items is that even those that in a previous life possessed specific uses (for which they had been devised), once in the collection, lose any specific and practical usefulness.107 This seems to create a dichotomy between what is perceived as purely useful—​and as such ordinary, expendable—​and what is considered unique or irreplaceable—​and therefore meaningful and worthy of collecting. At one end of the gradient, we find tools and instruments, useful objects that are meant to be used and consumed. At the other end, Pomian postulates special consideration for objects of no utility, such as exemplars of material culture, or works of art, that express their value since they represent something absent, remote in time and space, or belonging to another realm of reality, the invisible. These objects are imbued with meaning—​Pomian calls them “semiophores”—​as much as void of usefulness.108 The former are characterized by their use and are recognized for their “operational character” that highlights a specific set of acts that can be performed with them; the latter, instead, yield no immediate action and only limited use, if any at all.109 There are, however, objects that are both useful and meaningful; although, for the same observer, at one moment, they are either useful tools or they are essential for their meaning. Libraries and collections of scientific and technological materials are examples of objects that remain in this grey area of useful semiophores. The areas of research highlighted in the model above showcase where books can carry meaning, including their materials and structures. The latter are also the most at risk of deterioration due to the use of the objects (to access their contents). Books have a dual nature of tools and semiophores that conservators and curators strive to balance and preserve. Leaving books aside for a moment, let us consider the case of scientific and technological instruments. Collections of scientific instruments flourished as mirabilia in the 106  Kubler, The Shape of Time, 1.

107  Pomian, Collectors and Curiosities.

108  Pomian, Collectors and Curiosities, 41. 109  Kubler, The Shape of Time, 23.

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seventeenth century, with scientific museums with didascalic purposes opening from the second half of the nineteenth century, and a century later embracing actual scientific relics linked with famous scientists and personalities, and ultimately comprising industrial and computer archaeology.110 Simpler brass, glass, and wooden instruments of the nineteenth century meet both aesthetic criteria and scientific curiosity, and their functioning is usually easy to understand or showcase, attracting the attention of the general public and experts alike. These are also generally sufficiently removed from their modern counterparts that their antiquity is unambiguous and they are therefore accepted as belonging to museums.111 With the advent of electronics and digital technologies, the look of tools and instruments becomes less and less appealing or visually unique—​metal or plastic boxes with several knobs and dials and internal circuitry—​and their functioning, no longer evident in form, more complex, difficult to demonstrate and comprehend, and increasingly problematic to preserve.112 Once modern tools worthy of a museum collection have stopped working, it is challenging to restore their functioning, especially if they were an experimental technology, and if they had been taken apart. I remember meeting in 2006 a passionate technician at the National Science and Media Museum (Pictureville, Bradford, UK)—​then known as the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television—​employed to preserve rare examples of early television sets. In his seventies, he used to work in a local TV shop as a repair technician and was hired by the museum because of his intimate knowledge of the quirks and peculiarities of earlier televisions: without his insight, many of the pieces of the museum would be useless old boxes, formerly utilized as television screens. There is certainly scope in analyzing old TV sets for their design and social history, which can be studied solely based on their inoperable shells; however, when in working condition, these yield to technological examinations and could unquestionably open new research avenues, particularly the more remote in time we are from their production. There is value in preserving original objects in working condition to make them available for an examination given research questions that are currently unforeseeable.113 Similar efforts have been pursued for the preservation of old computers as vehicles for illustrating the functioning of modern devices. These need technicians capable of understanding and keeping in working order both their hardware components—​which, as we know, become obsolete in a matter of a decade, if not sooner—​and the software necessary to run them. The Science Museum of London, together with the British Computer Society, founded, in 1989, the Computer Conservation Society to restore—​or resurrect, as the name of their journal, Resurrection, suggests—​and keep operational old computing machines. The first efforts involved the resurrection of the Ferranti Pegasus machine, an early British vacuum tube computer built in 1959, and of the Elliott 803, a transistor-​based computer from 1963. The former ran up to 2009 when a severe electrical fault killed permanently what had been, “for 110  Pomian, Collectors and Curiosities, 50; Anderson, “Conservazione od oblio,” 50–​51. 111  Swade, “Computers and Antiquity,” 204. 112  Swade, “Computers and Antiquity,” 205. 113  Swade, “Computers and Antiquity,” 206.

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many years, the oldest extant working electronic computer in the world.”114 The latter is still demonstrated at weekends in Bletchley Park (Milton Keynes, UK) at the National Museum of Computing.115 The preservation of these modern materials—​or better, machines—​affords two genuine and problematic issues. On the one hand, the relative scarcity of the material in these collections and the limited pool of researchers has generally meant a lack of granular and systematic nomenclatures to allow straightforward access to the material. On the other, conservators and curators are faced with ethical problems since any physical intervention results in the destruction of some original elements. The “resurrection” of old machines to their former working status, or even the simple efforts to keep them in running condition, oftentimes, require resorting to replacing some original parts with new components, or components harvested from cannibalized machines. Would a complete machine be better than a fully working machine for future researchers?116 The answer is, as usual, that it depends on the questions, on whether the value of the object lies in its meaning per se—​its materials, design—​or in its working and use.117 The preservation of modern machines in their working condition may seem like a new problem—​after all, no ancient Greek vase in a museum has ever been restored to be used as an actual Greek vase, for, as pointed out by Pomian, once in a collection, its being a semiophore outweighs any possible use.118 If we consider books, however, we realize how, ever since the development of modern conservation theories and practices in the twentieth century, as we will see in the following chapter, conservators have had to consider with great care the balance between books as working tools (use) and books as archaeological and historical artifacts (meaning). As Pomian rightly states, library collections are complicated. Each conservation treatment needs to take into account to which degree a book is to be kept in good working order to warrant continued access to its content for scholars, and how, or whether, its value as an artifact, witness to some traditional workmanship and practice, should be preserved. Essentially, the struggle is in determining what kind of information is most valuable, and how to best preserve it. Speaking of a delicate balance between meaning and use, as illustrated in the following chapter and the case studies, conservators have become custodians of the physicality of books and its meaning, challenged by the damage that can occur during the digitization process. It is, however, certainly understood that a digitized copy would 114  Computer Conservation Society, “CCS Projects.”

115  Swade, “Computers and Antiquity”; Anderson, “Conservazione od oblio,” 62; Computer Conservation Society, “CCS Projects.” 116  Anderson, “Conservazione od oblio,” 63.

117  It should also be noted that modern materials present critical conservation problems for the very fact that they simply cannot last very long, and their decay can compromise other materials and trigger series of drastic chemical deterioration cascades. For these reasons, foams, rubbers, and some plastics, for example, need to be removed and replaced with inert materials before too much damage has occurred. Preserving modern machines completely, without removing or replacing some original components, may not be feasible at all. 118  Pomian, Collectors and Curiosities.

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satisfy the vast majority of users, and an item would be then handled less, incurring in less damaging circumstances in the future, and only scholars interested in its materiality would still need to access the original artifact.119 It may consequently be the case that moderate damage caused by digitization—​if it does not affect the object’s structures and materials—​could be seen as an acceptable compromise (in the meaning/​use balance). This might have the effect of allowing books to be finally viewed more as museum objects, with the increased importance of meaning over utility that the status entails, a shift in favour of their archaeological data content rather than their use. In this scenario, already foreshadowed by Pickwoad, digitization could finally allow historical books to enter the world of museums fully, being removed from their previous role of tools, and preserved for their informational material content.120 Notwithstanding this, book conservators are today objectively faced with new challenges brought forward by the current push for the digitization of information of library and archive collections. These challenges may also serve as opportunities to contribute with their intimate knowledge of books as objects, as, increasingly, users become aware of the untransferable qualities of books, and of their importance. By looking at books as illustrated in the model presented above, the data that is typically concentrated in the first of the areas of interest—​materiality—​can be integrated with the kind of information that is generally recorded on catalogues and in the literature—​that is, context, history, significance. In this manner, scholars can open the black box in which books (as information carriers) have been traditionally put, and, in turn, help preserve and communicate more of the information they carry: there is much information held inside the black box of books as objects and in their structure and materiality.

119  See Núñez Gaitán, chap. 3, “Digitization for the Common Advantage of Scholars.”

120  Pickwoad, “Library or Museum?”; Scheper, The Technique of Islamic Bookbinding, 18–​19.

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CONSERVATION AND DIGITIZATION: A DIFFICULT BALANCE? HISTORICAL BOOKS HELD in memory institutions are likely to undergo conservation treatments that could alter, or even destroy, material evidence, to preserve their function as content-​delivering tools. For this reason, bookbinders—​formerly, aside from amateurs, the sole practitioners of restoration and conservation treatments in the past—​ are mentioned alongside fire, water, neglect, collectors (and servants and children!) in the well-​known nineteenth-​century book by William Blades, The Enemies of Books.1 I will now place on record some of the cruelties perpetrated upon books by the ignorance or carelessness of binders. […] Indeed, so conservative is a good binding […] that many a worthless book has had an honored old age, simply out of respect to its outward aspect; and many a real treasure has come to a degraded end and premature death through the unsightliness of its outward case and the irreparable damage done to it in binding.2

Blades laments, in particular, the destruction of old bindings by the hand of careless bookbinders, for “everything which diminishes the interest of a book is inimical to its preservation, and in fact is its enemy.” Then, in an unusually illuminated judgment for his times, he stresses how “old covers, whether boards or paper, should always be retained if in any state approaching decency.” This has also the great advantage of not depriving the future generations “of the opportunity of seeing for themselves exactly in what dress the book buyers of four centuries ago received their volumes.”3 At the core of the destruction of old bindings and the damaging of old books (also through the application, mostly for aesthetic reasons, of bleach and other harsh chemicals) lies the focus on making them usable and the ignorance of the history of each volume. In essence, this is equal to the incapability of putting each material element of the object in relation to the context, history, and significance of the book as a whole, in an effort to interpret the data and reveal the meaning of each object, as emphasized in the model offered in the previous chapter.

Losing Evidence

Indeed, conservators (and curators), often with the best of intentions at their heart, out of zeal and through misguided actions, have inadvertently damaged many a book, deleting material evidence and historical traces. Blades describes a good number of such 1  Blades, The Enemies of Books.

2  Blades, The Enemies of Books, 95–​97. 3  Blades, The Enemies of Books, 107–​8.

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instances, and stresses how the “weapon with which the binder deals the most deadly blows to books is the plough, the effect of which is to cut away the margins.”4 To the plough, one could add an infamous pair of desk scissors. In 1910, an ancient Coptic library of nearly sixty codices, many of which were still in their original bindings, was discovered in a dry well in the southern Faiyum area, in Egypt, near the village of Al Hamuli. This was an incredible find as it constituted the largest surviving group of intact Coptic codices coming from a single source. In 1911, the American financier John Pierpont Morgan Sr. purchased the bulk of the Hamuli manuscripts from a Paris dealer, thanks to the efforts of Emile Chassinat, then Director of the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, and Henry Hyvernat, professor at the Catholic University of America (Washington, DC, USA). The following year, however, once in New York, despite the desire to make them immediately available to scholars and researchers, it was sadly apparent that the manuscripts were in too poor a state of conservation for safe handling and consultation. Special arrangements were therefore made for the codices to be repaired and restored by the Vatican Library, under the supervision of Father Franz Ehrle, then prefect (up to 1914), and, subsequently, from 1929 to 1934, cardinal librarian to the Holy Roman Church.5 At the time, the restoration laboratory of the Vatican Library, thanks to the vision of Father Ehrle, was renowned for being at the forefront of book and parchment conservation knowledge and techniques.6 Hyvernat brought the manuscripts to Rome, and the prefect planned for the codices to be restored. Even though the bindings were to be the object of particular attention, as they were recognized as one of the chief merits of the collection, regretfully, the first step taken in the restoration of the volumes was the rash removal of all the bindings by part of Father Ehrle himself. He cut the sewing thread with that infamous pair of desk scissors.7 At first, the plan was to re-​place in their original bindings those manuscripts which had been preserved, but it soon became apparent that this would make them too fragile and difficult to handle. Eventually, despite the passing in 1915 of Augusto Castellani, the best restorer of the Library, and the interruption caused by the troubles of World War I, all manuscripts were restored, sewn on tapes, and completely rebound, separate from their covers. This, unfortunately, resulted also in the destruction of a considerable amount of evidence for the sewing system and the original binding structures.8 Noteworthy is the fact that it was already customary at the Library, to avoid for scholars the expense of travel and an unnecessary sojourn in Rome—​or New  York, in this instance—​and to preserve the textual information as it appeared at the time, to photograph the items.9 Following this practice, Father Ehrle, in addition to the 4  Blades, The Enemies of Books, 97.

5  Needham, Twelve Centuries, 12–​13.

6  For an overview of the history of the Vatican Library’s restoration laboratory and the role of Father Ehrle, see Núñez Gaitán, “Los albores del laboratorio,” 2013. 7  Needham, Twelve Centuries, 13; Fredericks, “The Coptic Manuscripts.”

8  Tisserant, “Notes sur la restauration,” 222–​25; Needham, Twelve Centuries, 13.

9  Great Britain Foreign Office, Photographs of Manuscripts, 15–​16. See also Núñez Gaitán in this volume.

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restoration process, had arranged, from the onset of the project, for the manuscripts to be photographed on large-​format plates by Pompeo Sansaini, expert photographer of manuscripts, employed by the Library on many occasions for his skills and expertise. Between the end of 1912 and 1922 the manuscripts were all photographed. Before photography, the books were placed in the hands of the restorers, but only for those operations deemed necessary, such as separating leaves, securing loose fragments, or consolidating those parts whose fragility might have posed a risk during the reproduction operations. Final restorations were to be postponed to a later phase, following photography, as the photographs were to reproduce, as far as possible, the state of the manuscripts as they were at the time of their discovery. A similar example of the loss of archaeological evidence of book structures due to hasty conservation treatments can be found in the case of the notorious Nag Hammadi codices, a series of thirteen papyrus codices, dating from the third to fourth century AD, and among the earliest examples of surviving structures of books in the codex form. These were found still in their original leather bindings in 1945, buried in a jar near the Nag Hammadi village in Egypt. The discovery was announced in 1949, and in the same year a short article with a few general photographs of the manuscripts was published;10 however, due to the problematic content of the manuscripts—​Gnostic texts, among which the only complete example of the non-​canonical Gospel of Thomas—​they were not made available to scholars for years.11 In 1961, Doresse presented a first brief study of the bindings with some sketches.12 However, from the description of the bindings by Robinson written in the 1970s, it is sadly apparent that the bindings had already been dismounted without careful documentation, with some parts already lost and not in their original state, leaving aspects of the original binding structure unclear and not recoverable from the remaining evidence.13

Evidence as Tangible Information beyond Texts

“The development of bookbinding is so full of informed variations and possibilities in both structure and choice of materials that it reflects a complete sociological and technological history,” noted Clarkson already in 1978.14 Despite this, the books mentioned above, mutilated for the sake of safeguarding valuable textual information, were considered mostly for their content, and if bindings were counted in, this was only to protect the decorated boards and not the structure. These books—​and their structures and materiality—​were, as is often the case, black-​boxed in favour of their ultimate function of textual (and decorative) information 10  Doresse, “Nouveaux documents gnostiques coptes”; Doresse and Mina, “Nouveaux textes gnostiques coptes.” 11  Robinson, Introduction; Szirmai, The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding, 7. 12  Doresse, “Les Reliures des manuscrits gnostiques coptes.”

13  Robinson, The Facsimile Edition; Szirmai, The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding, 7. 14  Clarkson, “The Conservation of Early Books in Codex Form,” 34.

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Table 4. Four aspects of information (after Buckland, “Information as Thing,” 352). Entity Process

Intangible

Tangible

Information-​as-​knowledge Knowledge

Information-​as-​thing Data, documents, objects

Information-​as-​process Becoming informed

Information processing Data processing

carriers. However, information comes in a variety of flavours. Information is certainly what is written on the pages of books and documents. It is also knowledge, what is processed by our computers, what we can perceive with our senses, what is retained by forms and shapes,15 and so on. Zemanek lists “ten definitions of information (so that no definition may be taken too seriously!),” stressing that most things can be regarded as information or information bearers.16 Buckland distinguishes three meanings of information—​information-​as-​process, information-​as-​knowledge, and information-​ as-​thing—​and further classifies four distinct aspects of information, distinguishing between tangible and intangible information, and entities and processes of information (see Table 4).17 Tangible information—​embedded in the physicality of things—​can be touched, perceived, or measured directly. It is viewed as materiality and evidence, that is, something related to understanding some matter. For our purposes, information-​as-​thing and physical evidence from materiality can be regarded as synonyms, and this kind of information is represented in the model offered in the previous chapter both under the investigative field labelled materiality and, across fields, as observable data. Evidence implies passiveness because, while things can be done with or to it, information-​as-​thing does not do anything actively, resulting as it does from human mediation and interpretation. However, the perception of evidence brings change to what it is known about something. Physical evidence is also read as a sign of events and time.18 Commonly, information science literature (and scholars in general) have concentrated predominantly on data and documents as information carriers, disregarding the fact that, for example, the physicality and materiality of most museum objects, coupled with their context, are generally the sole repositories of information available on them. Not all potentially informative objects—​that is, objects that signify something concerning a subject or event—​are, in fact, documents in the traditional sense of textual 15  For an in-​depth review of the physical and psychological role of shape as an information carrier see Leyton, Symmetry, Causality, Mind; Leyton, Shape as Memory. Similarly, Kubler investigates the role of shape as a sign of time in art and artifactual history (Kubler, The Shape of Time). 16  Zemanek, “L’informazione è sorpresa,” 224. 17  Buckland, “Information as Thing,” 351.

18  Buckland, “Information as Thing,” 352–​56. See also Kubler, The Shape of Time; and Leyton, Symmetry, Causality, Mind; Leyton, Shape as Memory.

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information.19 Museum objects, for example, despite not being traditional text-​bearing documents, are nevertheless regarded as precious information resources. At the same time, books, while being traditional text-​bearing documents, can nonetheless be information resources in their own right, if regarded as archaeological objects. When these are transposed into the digital medium through traditional digitization, because this concentrates on the textual information, the information transfer of the process of reproduction and digitization is firmly focused on the visible but intangible part of documents, excluding any tangible information embedded in their materiality.20 Buckland divides informative objects into (i)  those expected to represent some meaning: texts, but also diagrams, maps, pictures, and so on—​such as books (as text-​ bearing objects) are; (ii) those that were not intended to represent meaning, such as a ship, but also books as archaeological objects; and (iii) objects that are not artifacts at all, such as herbaria specimens.21 Any of these can be informative because they serve as evidence. Any of these can be used in different ways from that which may have been intended: for example, books are sources of archaeological evidence besides their text. Informative objects of the second kind, those not intended to represent meaning, are equivalent to natural signs because they are informative without deliberate communicative intent.22 Some informative objects, such as historical buildings, cannot—​generally23—​be collected, stored, and retrieved like traditional documents; however, one can create virtual collections through descriptions and representations:  what is then collected, stored, and retrieved is informative representations, that is, data representing and describing them. Virtual models of this kind are powerful tools for the representations of information related to structure and materiality, and, subsequently, the creation of knowledge.24 The original objects remain unquestionably more informative than any model, because any representation is incomplete, as necessarily a function of a set of choices of which parts of the materiality of the object should or can be recorded. Different models can decide to represent different information sets of the physicality of the original object.25 Traditionally, for example, as seen above, bookbinding structures are not considered informative (or maybe informative enough) to be worthy of being fully considered and described in library catalogues. In addition to binding structures, in the physicality of 19  Otlet, Le livre sur le livre, 217.

20  Crocetti, “Parole introduttive,” 30–​31; Federici, “Digitale,” 4. 21  Buckland, “Information as Thing,” 355.

22  Eco, Trattato di semiotica generale, 29–​30.

23  There are exceptions to this, such as St. Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff, the first national open-​air museum of the United Kingdom, opened in 1948, that collects representative buildings of the Welsh heritage, dismantled at their original location, and subsequently rebuilt, piece by piece, on the museum’s grounds (Amgueddfa Cymru—​National Museum Wales, “St. Fagans”). 24  Ginzburg, “Representation,” 64.

25  For definitions of physicality and materiality see the Introduction and chap.  2, “Transferring Untransferable Features.”

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books, there is an almost indefinite and infinite number of information-​bearing features and elements, and any of these are, factually or potentially, informative. Just as with the indeterminateness of the concept of the artifactual value of books outlined in the previous chapter, the capacity of being informative embedded in the physicality of objects, expressed through their materiality, is subjective, situational, and emergent:  there is much information in the materiality of black-​boxed books. While what may or may not be relevant as information depends on the circumstances, for the most part, what is informative is driven by consensus of the significant probability of being usefully informative in the future.26 This is why no model can ever fully substitute the original object, and also why, as much as possible,27 all evidence should be preserved, or at least recorded.28

Modern Book Conservation and the Safeguard of Evidence

Academic interest in books as archaeological objects made its appearance in the nineteenth century. In the beginning, however, as also testified by the attitude towards the Hamuli codices at the Vatican Library, the main object of investigation and attention, besides textual evidence, was the aesthetics of book covers and bookbinding decoration.29 Research on bookbinding decoration and tools can yield important information, even lead to the identification of a specific bindery and binder and unlock historical and provenance information. For example, several bindings at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, have been identified through their decoration as having been produced in Erfurt by the binder Ulrich Frenckel;30 similarly, examination of the tooled 26  Buckland, “Information as Thing,” 357.

27  Not everything can always be preserved. Some evidence may be detrimental to other features, such as a badly executed binding that causes damage to the leaves of a book; some evidence may be ephemeral, like the evanescent scent of perfume in a sealed love letter; some evidence may be elusive, such as absence of certain characteristics as information.

28  Gullick laments that subtle and unobtrusive evidence is continuously destroyed, such as “the dirt and debris in the spinefolds […] of quires usually dusted away by tidy binders and librarians [which] might contain valuable evidences for instance. One puff and it is gone” (Gullick, “Books as Archaeological Objects,” 10–​11). Milke has researched, for example, a number of manuscripts from South West Germany and northern Switzerland, from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century, to analyze the content of blotting sands found in their gutters as a way to determine the areas of use of manuscripts by applying tools and methodologies from mineralogy and geological and historical sciences (Milke, “Geomaterials in the Manuscript Archive”). 29  For example, Arnett, An Inquiry into the Nature; Weale, Bookbindings and Rubbings of Bindings; and Schwenke, “Zur Erforschung der deutschen Bucheinbände.” Szirmai and Foot outline the history of bookbinding as a discipline and comment on the mostly aesthetic approach of its beginnings (Foot, “Bookbinding,” 113–​17; Szirmai, The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding, ix–​xi).

30  Petersen and Schöne, Mittelalterliche Bucheinbände, 59–​61; Foot, “Some Bookbindings in the Herzog August Bibliothek,” 94–​111; Adler, Handbuch Buchverschluss und Buchbeschlag, 87–​104; Schneider, “Von Lilienschließen und durchbohrten Herzen,” 93–​98.

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bindings of the manuscripts in the Library of the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai led to the identification of specific binderies and binders.31 Largely, this (mostly) aesthetic approach carried on up to at least the 1970s, to the point that Clarkson and Foot acknowledged that for the most part bookbinding history was little more than the history of bookbinding decoration,32 and Szirmai lamented that still at the end of the last century, no more than 10  percent of scholarly literature covered bookbinding structures and techniques.33 Not all bindings are decorated. Decorated bindings are a minority within library collections.34 A different research methodology is, therefore, necessary to be able to consider any book as an information source. Instead of focusing exclusively on externally visible elements, such as the cover and the overall appearance of the book (the material employed in covering the book, its decoration, the book’s furniture, for example bosses, fastenings, and so on) books could be looked at as archaeological artifacts, with a focus on their internal working, investigating their structure and materials.35 Among the pioneer scholars of this approach we find:36 Paul Adam (1849–​1931, bookbinder, Germany);37 Berthe van Regemorter (1879–​1964, bookbinder, Belgium);38 Theodore C. Petersen (1883–​ 1966, priest, professor and manuscript cataloguer, USA);39 Graham Pollard (1903–​ 1976, bookseller and bibliographer, UK);40 Léon Gilissen (1924–​2009, codicologists and book conservator, Belgium);41 Jean Vezin (1933–​, librarian and codicologist, 31  Sarris, “Classification of Finishing Tools.”

32  Clarkson, “The Conservation of Early Books in Codex Form,” 34; Foot, “Bookbinding,” 113. 33  Szirmai, The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding, ix. 34  Pickwoad, “An Unused Resource,” 84.

35  See also the contribution by Velios and Pickwoad in this volume. 36  The list is not, by any means, complete.

37  Pickwoad lists Paul Adam among those notable bookbinders whose work was characterized by a systematic approach in understanding historical book structures (Pickwoad, “Library or Museum?,” 115–​16). See Adam, Arbeiten des Buchbinders; then translated into English as Adam, Practical Bookbinding. 38  Irigoin, “Berthe Van Regemorter.” See, for example, the works by Regemorter on binding structures written at the end of the 1940s: Regemorter, “Évolution de la technique de la reliure”; Regemorter, “La reliure des manuscrits.” For a comprehensive view of her work see also van Regemorter’s anthology: Regemorter, Binding Structures in the Middle Ages.

39  Ellis, “The East-​West,” 136. See Petersen, “Coptic Bindings”; Petersen, “Early Islamic Bookbindings.”

40  Turner, “Pollard, (Henry) Graham.” For example, on the structure of early insular bindings, the description of medieval bindings, and the later evolution of the craft with the advent of printing, see Pollard, “Changes in the Style of Bookbinding”; Pollard, “The Construction of English Twelfth-​ Century Bindings”; Pollard, “Some Anglo-​Saxon Bookbindings”; Pollard, “Describing Medieval Bookbindings.” See also Pollard and Potter for a collection of textual evidence on the manufacture of bookbindings up to the introduction of machine binding in the nineteenth century (Pollard and Potter, Early Bookbinding Manuals). 41  Maniaci, Archeologia del manoscritto, 18–​19; Lemaire, “Léon Gilissen.” The Belgian book archaeologist and conservator describes the mode of construction of Western manuscripts and focuses the

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France);42 Bernard C. Middleton (1924–​, bookbinder, UK);43 János Alexander Szirmai (1925–​ 2014, professor of medicine, then bookbinder and book conservator, Netherlands);44 Christopher Clarkson (1938–​2017, book conservator, UK);45 John Lawrence Sharpe III (1939–​ , librarian, manuscript cataloguer, and book conservator, USA);46 Mirjam M. Foot (1941–​, librarian and binding historian);47 Guy Petherbridge (1944–​, book conservator, USA);48 reader’s attention on the minimal details that need to be read as evidence in order to understand the practice of craftsmen from the past, in a truly archaeological approach to the history of the book. See Gilissen, La reliure occidentale antérieure à 1400; Gilissen, “Le mode d’attelle des nerfs aux ais.”

42  Foot, “Bookbinding,” 113. For example, Vezin studies the manufacture and construction of Western medieval bookbindings (Vezin, Évolution des techniques de la reliure médiévale; Vezin, “La Realisation matérielle des manuscrits”; Vezin, “La reliure occidentale au Moyen Age”). 43  Duffy, “Bookbinder Bernard Middleton.” See in particular Middleton’s monograph on the history of English bookbinding: Middleton, A History.

44  Smith, “J. A. Szirmai.” In his early work, the binding historian sets the basis for his approach to the study of medieval bookbinding as a different art form than modern “designer bookbinding” (Szirmai, “Zur Kritik der Einbandkunst I”; Szirmai, “Zur Kritik der Einbandkunst II”). Szirmai also looks into the evolution of the mechanics of medieval codices and their significance (Szirmai, “The Evolution of the Medieval Codex”; Szirmai, “Old Bookbinding Techniques and Their Significance”). Finally, a selection of his writings cannot escape mentioning his seminal work on the archaeology of medieval bookbinding:  Szirmai, The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding.

45  Pickwoad, “Christopher Clarkson.” Clarkson sets the ground for what is needed for the scholarly interpretation of evidence from book structures and materials (Clarkson, “The Conservation of Early Books in Codex Form”), and he looks into the material evidence of parchment as writing support and covering material (Clarkson, “Rediscovering Parchment”). For examples of historical binding structures, highlighting general methodological approaches and nomenclature, see Clarkson, “English Monastic Bookbinding”; Clarkson, “A Hitherto Unrecorded Book Sewing Technique”; Clarkson, “Further Studies in Anglos-​Saxon and Norman Bookbinding.” During his time in Florence, Clarkson studied in particular limp parchment bindings for their durability (Clarkson, Limp Vellum Binding).

46  For example, Sharpe investigated the earliest examples of wooden books and book structures with wooden boards as archaeological evidence (Sharpe, “Wooden Books and the History of the Codex”; Sharpe, “The Earliest Bindings with Wooden Board Covers”).

47  Attar, “Foot, Mirjam M.” Foot worked on a catalogue in three volumes of the books of the so-​ called Henry Davis Gift, now at the British Library, published over the course of thirty years (Foot, The Henry Davis Gift; Foot, The Henry Davis Gift, vol. 2; Foot, The Henry Davis Gift, vol. 3). The catalogue highlights the evolutions of Foot’s approach to bookbinding studies. Volume 3, besides describing decoration tools and patterns, contains descriptions of the binding structures, because, as the author mentions, over the course of her pluriannual research, she has realized “how inseparable structure and decoration are when trying to date and locate bookbindings” (Foot, The Henry Davis Gift, 3:10).

48  Columbia University, “Petherbridge.” For example, Petherbridge, “Sewing Structures and Materials.” Also his work on Islamic bookbinding in collaboration with Bosch and Carswell (Bosch, Carswell, and Petherbridge, Islamic Bookbinding and Bookmaking).

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Nicholas Pickwoad (1948–​, book conservator, book historian, and professor, UK);49 and Carlo Federici (1948–​, librarian, book historian, and professor, Italy).50 As can be noted, a great number of these scholars (and certainly the most prolific) have also worked as bookbinders or book conservators (or—​ethical—​restorers in previous times). This is not a trivial point, because books are works of craftsmanship, and it takes a trained eye to notice, and understand, the smallest details of physical and material evidence in books and their structures.51 The art of binding books is not learned through books and manuals; it requires a deeper understanding and knowledge of the materials and their behaviour, and of the structures that together result in the working of the object book. Small expedients that may look casual and insignificant may hold the clue to understanding working practices, and, consequently, may be used to locate and date bindings. Szirmai, for example, looks into the shape of the spine of medieval codices to gain insight into the mechanics of the sewing structure: only a trained binder could fully understand the effects of thread swelling into the spine of the gatherings,52 and the resulting spine shape.53 It is therefore not surprising that so many book historians interested in the book as an archaeological object are, or have been, trained binders and book conservators: the understanding of historical structures is a condicio sine qua non for the scrupulous conservator.54 It is essential to speak about scrupulous conservators, because, as lamented by Blades, and mentioned above, countless books have been damaged by unsympathetic restoration practices.55 It is also not the case that modern book conservation practices are so tightly intertwined with the development of book archaeology as a discipline. The onset of modern book conservation—​that strives with great care to understand, in a philological manner, the book in order to preserve as much evidence as possible 49  Foot, “Bookbinding,” 113. Pickwoad has concentrated his efforts on the binding of printed books, but his methodologies are applicable (and have been applied) to bindings from any period. Pickwoad’s works, with punctual examples, set the ground for the research on binding structures and their relevance for the history of books (Pickwoad, “Onward and Downward”; Pickwoad, “The Interpretation of Bookbinding Structure”; Pickwoad, “The Development”; Pickwoad, “Recording Medieval Bindings”; Pickwoad, “An Unused Resource”). See also Pickwoad, “Bookbindings in the Biblioteca Augusta”; Pickwoad, “Tacketed Bindings”; Pickwoad, “The Origins and Development”; Pickwoad, “The Structures and Materials.” 50  For example, Federici, “Metodologia e prassi”; Federici, “Un progetto di censimento.” Also the work in collaboration with Houlis, Pescalicchio, and Carvin (Federici et al., Scheda di censimento; Federici and Houlis, Legature bizantine vaticane; Federici and Pascalicchio, “A Census”). 51  Foot, “Preserving Books,” 434.

52  The swelling is caused by the thickness of the thread in the gatherings’ fold in relation to the thickness of the materials of the folded sheets and the number of gatherings. 53  Szirmai, “The Evolution of the Medieval Codex.” On the mechanics of book spines, see also Conroy, “The Movement”; Frost, “Mobility and Function.”

54  Federici, “Sul fallimento dell”archeologiadell’archeologia del libro,” 54; Federici and Zanetti, “Book Archaeology”; Da Rold and Maniaci, “Medieval Manuscript Studies,” 8–​9. 55  Blades, The Enemies of Books, 95–​108.

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without causing new damage, while still balancing its use as an object—​can be traced back to two main origins. Firstly, to the legacy of two pre-​eminent figures: Roger Powell (1896–​1990, bookbinder, UK)56 and Sydney Morris Cockerell (1906–​1987, bookbinder, UK).57 Secondly, to the subsequent gathering of experience and people for the great flood of the Arno river on November 4, 1966 in Florence that caused incommensurable damage to the collections of the Central National Library (Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze—​BNCF).58 If initially the interest in the study and the preservation of binding structures was limited to medieval bookbindings, due to their age, rarity, and uniqueness, a further stimulus to extend such interest to early printed books came from the Florence Flood of 1966.59 Drawing from the experience of their master, Douglas Bennett Cockerell (1870–​1945, bookbinder, UK)—​a former apprentice at the Doves Bindery, founded by Thomas Cobden-​ Sanderson, closely linked to William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement60—​ Powell and Sydney Cockerell created a new approach to book conservation. They then passed this on to their apprentices, thus not only fundamentally influencing the evolution of the modern discipline of book conservation, but also, subsequently, that of the archaeology of the book. Their legacy, in the footsteps of the influential De Coverly/​ Cobden-​Sanderson/​Cockerell English bookbinding tradition,61 came to be known as the Powell-​Cockerell School.62 Their interest in the techniques and workmanship of binders of the past, the materials used, the morphological and decorative characteristics of books, the circumstances in which they were commissioned, and the uses of these books, were all passed on to new generations of apprentices and book conservators. When the world of book conservation united in Florence to tackle the damage and loss of cultural heritage caused by the Florentine flood, Powell, Cockerell, and former colleagues, tutees, and students—​among whom were Christopher Clarkson,63 Guy Petherbridge,64 Peter Waters (1930–​2003, bookbinder and book conservator, UK/​USA),65 Don Etherington (1935–​, bookbinder and book conservator, UK/​USA),66 and Anthony Cains (1936–​, bookbinder 56  Harrop, “Pioneers of Conservation”; Griffiths, “Powell, Roger.”

57  Harrop, “Pioneers of Conservation”; OxfordDNB, “Cockerell, Sydney Morris.”

58  Over two million damaged books and countless other works of art were damaged (Devine, “The Florence Flood of 1966,” 15). See also Ogden, “The Impact of the Florence Flood”; Di Renzo and Harris, Una biblioteca, un’alluvione. 59  Pickwoad, “Library or Museum?,” 16. See also Velios and Pickwoad in this volume. 60  Harrop, “Pioneers of Conservation”; Crawford, “Cockerell, Douglas Bennett.” 61  Conroy, “English Bookbinders.”

62  Petherbridge, Conservation of Library and Archive Materials, 5. 63  See note 45. 64  See note 48.

65  Born and trained as a fine bookbinder in the UK, he became the first restoration officer of the Library of Congress in 1971, and led its book conservation efforts for twenty-​five years (Martin, “Peter Waters”). 66  University of Illinois Urbana-​Champaign, “Donald (Don) Etherington Papers.”

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and book conservator, Ireland)67—​met with kindred minds such as Paul N. Banks (1934–​2000, book conservator, USA):68 the flood gave a “jump start” to the profession of book conservation.69 Everything changed after the flood, to the point that Peter Waters used to say that “library conservation has a Biblical nature, that is, conservators tend to view the field in terms of before the flood and after the flood.”70 Even the concept of “book conservation,” as opposed to restoration and rebinding, came out of the reflection on trusted practices that followed the intervention in Florence, with the realization that “bookbinding skills, even at their most sensitive, were only a small part of a greater subject.”71 Modern book conservation—​after the flood—​considers books not just as supports for text, but rather as complex objects, the study of which can contribute to research efforts in cultural history, and therefore advocates the necessity to preserve as much original evidence as possible. From the beginning, it was clear that thorough documentation of the items before the intervention was a necessary step to both record evidence and the state of conservation of the object.72 Though Powell insisted in affirming that he “was only a bookbinder,” in his practice, he developed a prototype for a descriptive methodology of binding structures that is now shared by those currently interested in the archaeology of the book.73 This involves the careful description of materials, techniques, and structures, recording of the physical characteristics of the artifacts examined and statistical analyses of such information as well as illustrations, diagrams, and photographs. The new philological approach to conservation, focusing on preserving as much material evidence as possible, represents a clear cut with the previously common practice of book restoration and library bookbinding. Previous practices only aimed at making the objects usable again,74 and often, in the case of older books appealing to the antique market, applying unsympathetic procedures that inevitably resulted in further damage to the objects.75 As we have seen at the end of the previous chapter, there is a delicate balance between books as working tools and books as archaeological and historical artifacts that conservators strive to preserve and protect. This, however, can 67  Conroy, “English Bookbinders,” 39. 68  Conroy, “English Bookbinders,” 39.

69  Etherington, “Historical Background,” 22.

70  Ogden, “The Impact of the Florence Flood,” 1.

71  Bell and Clarkson, “Personal and Professional Reflections,” 75. For an overview of the history of book conservation see also Federici, “Note sulla conservazione.” 72  Scheper, The Technique of Islamic Bookbinding, 14–​15.

73  Bell and Clarkson, “Personal and Professional Reflections,” 75.

74  See chap. 1, “The Physical Preservation of Books” in this volume.

75  It should be noted that the philological approach was certainly not immediately adopted by all book conservators worldwide, and still there surely are unsympathetic practitioners restoring books following “the old ways.” In 1988, for example, Szirmai was forced to write a piece demanding that practitioners and librarians “Stop destroying ancient bindings;” an appeal that is sadly still relevant today (Szirmai, “Stop Destroying Ancient Bindings,” 1).

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create tension between conservation practitioners and book archaeologists on the one hand, and those most interested in books as tools to be used (and, indeed, also digitized for their content) on the other. The main issue is the interest of the first in preserving “books in their original or early bindings in original unsophisticated condition” as raw research material.76 The preservation of evidence can also necessitate the decision not to intervene, as “in its unrepaired state a damaged old binding may give useful information on early binding methods; it may, therefore, be best to keep it as it is, well protected in a flannel-​covered box, only cleaning the leather.”77 Book conservators, as book archaeologists, from mere skilled restoration/​binding technicians and almost mechanical executors, have become preservers of a kind of knowledge that is not always understood or considered as valuable as other sources of information.78 This tension between the book as a tool and the book as an artifact has carried over to the current efforts to digitize library collections.

Conservation for Digitization

As has been pointed out, conscientious conservators need to understand the history of the objects they work on, and their place in the broader ecosystem of archaeological evidence, to operate knowledgeably and with full awareness, or else risk deleting evidence irremediably, and possibly, in the long term, causing damage. Despite their certainly recognized knowledge, when it comes to digitization programs, just as was the case during earlier microfilm and analogue photography reformatting programs, conservators are considered necessary and useful technicians, but their knowledge of the artifacts (and of the limits of conservation practice) is not always considered. The literature on digitization in the archive and library world is exceptionally prolific—​in fact, already in 2003, Lindsay could assert that “few subjects […] have produced as many articles, books, guidelines, standards, manuals and checklists as digitization.”79 A  look at a number of the major publications on the subject discloses the multifaceted role played by conservators in digital image conversion projects; however, rarely does this role exceed that of preparation technicians. Among the people involved in digitization projects, conservators are often the most knowledgeable in regard to the physical characteristics of books and their deterioration: this practical knowledge allows them to assess potential damage and to establish effective preventive measures.80 Therefore, conservators are—​or should be—​involved in all phases of a digital conversion project, from the planning phase, to the activities before, during, and after scanning, including data and metadata generation and recording. List 4 illustrates the current usual conservation involvement. Not all projects include all these activities, but more 76  Pickwoad, “Museums of the Book,” 81; See also Pickwoad, “Library or Museum?,” 120–​21.

77  Lindberg, “Some Binding Problems,” 317–​18; See also Pickwoad, “Library or Museum?”; Scheper, The Technique of Islamic Bookbinding, 18–​19. 78  Scheper, “Hands-​on Research”; Scheper, The Technique of Islamic Bookbinding, 13–​17. 79  Lindsay, “Preservation Microfilming,” 47. 80  Korthagen et al., “Checklist 2.0,” 27–​28.

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and more the conservation department is becoming a fundamental actor for the selection and image capture of documents for digitization.

List 4. Definitions of core qualities of books as artifacts. I Project planning and budgeting phase –​ Internal communication and management: ● Contributing to the management system setup (fields and metadata) ● Set up a common language system (technical phrasebooks, guidelines, training, etc.) –​ Equipment: ● Contribute to the selection and adaptation of the digitization equipment –​ Environment: ● Contribute to the selection of the scanning setup and environment –​ Information management: ● Set up/​adapt database for record keeping and documentation II Before digitization –​ Object assessment: ● Assessing conservation fitness of object: fragility and risks ● Assessing opening characteristics (and maximum safe opening angle) ● Assess need for digiprep ● Assess special handling requirements –​ Object treatment: ● Prepare objects for digitization: securing pages and elements at risk –​ Object safety: ● Offer safe handling guidelines and training ● Check adequacy of scanning equipment and availability of special equipment (book cradles, etc.) ● Check environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, light) in all locations –​ Object documentation: ● Documentation of the state of conservation ● Documentation of the treatments III During digitization –​ Object safety: ● Assure safe handling (in presence or with previous training sessions) ● Assure use of special equipment to minimize damage (such as humidifiers, book cradles, etc.) ● Monitor adequacy of environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, light) –​ Object treatment: ● Repair objects that are flagged up as in need of pre-​scanning conservation treatment by the digitization team

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IV After digitization –​ Object assessment: ● Check state of conservation of objects (against pre-​scanning documentation) –​ Object treatment: ● Repair objects if damage has incurred during digitization, or if treatment had been postponed assuring a better information capture at the digitization stage –​ Object safety: ● Eventual re-housing: conservation envelopes, boxes, etc. –​ Object documentation:

● Documentation of eventual post-​digitization conservation treatments V Outreach and research –​ Outreach avenues: ● Contribute contextual information (blogs, videos, websites) –​ Research avenues: ● Consider potential research value within the objects (during survey, treatment phase) ● Seek collaborations to address research questions (heritage science, digital humanities) ● Publish contextual information (technical and academic) The first critical phase of a digitization program covers planning and budgeting. While in the beginning, conservators were not deemed necessary at this stage, it is now standard practice to include the conservation department from the beginning and to budget for conservation activities. This seems to have been the case in most projects since the late 1990s, at least in the USA and the UK,81 and it is also implemented worldwide by the Google Books project through a set of guidelines that are shared with all contributing institutions.82 This is, however, still not a general practice everywhere. Zanetti denounces a challenging situation in Italy, whereby public funding for conservation of library and archive materials has declined by more than 90 percent since 2002, with conservation and digitization activities competing for the same funds.83 Furthermore, in such an environment, 81  See NDLP, “National Digital Library Program,” 2–​3; Lindsay, “Preservation Microfilming,” 47–​48; NISO Framework Working Group, A Framework of Guidance, 87; Bülow and Ahmon, Preparing Collections, 17–​31; IFLA, “Guidelines for Planning,” 7; UNESCO Sub-​Committee on Technology, “Fundamental Principles of Digitization,” 2. See also Thompson-​Baum, chap. 4, “Building Relationships between Conservation and the Digitization Team”; Quandt, chap. 12, “Initiating the Manuscript Digitization Program.” 82  Google Books, “Google Books”; Battaglini, “Digitalizzazione e tutela.” 83  Zanetti, “Le ragioni di una crisi.”

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librarians and archivists, challenged by the increasing lack of resources, have been forced to consider digital conversion as a preservation activity, planning for reformatting and digitization projects without budgeting for conservation, since the documents that are digitized are also—​in their mind—​preserved. This dire situation has created a climate of resentment between conservators and those strictly involved in digitization projects.84 It is probable that this sad Italian situation, passionately described by Federici and Zanetti,85 is not an isolated phenomenon, despite the recommendations of international bodies, such as IFLA and UNESCO.86 Additionally, it must be noted that not all institutions that are involved in digitization programs have access to in-​house conservators, rendering this advisable inclusion of conservators in all phases of reformatting programs even more challenging.87 During the planning phase, conservators should be involved in the selection of the digitization equipment, in their adaptation, if necessary, and in the selection of the digitization space, to ensure that stable environmental conditions can be met and maintained.88 Another important set of tasks that should be considered from the beginning of a project is aimed at creating an efficient and cohesive working community. A  project management system should be created in collaboration with all the project’s stakeholders, so that all relevant pieces of information can be recorded within the appropriate fields, with a good metadata schema, and can thus be understood by everyone. Similarly, as in all interdisciplinary endeavours, it is essential to create a technical koine that is comprehensible for all parties involved. This can be achieved through different strategies: technical phrasebooks and guidelines, for example, or training, or, in fact, through the very process of creating a common management system, by discussing in detail the selection of the necessary fields and metadata, until a shared understanding is reached. Finally, there should be a precise method and stable resource to keep records and to document conservation activities. This may be integrated within the common management system if there is no other suitable database or methodology that is already in place.89 84  Federici, “Digitale.”

85  Federici, “Digitale.”; Federici, “Note sulla conservazione”; Zanetti, “La conservazione delle raccolte”; Zanetti, “Le ragioni di una crisi.” 86  IFLA, “Guidelines for Planning”; UNESCO Sub-​Committee on Technology, “Fundamental Principles of Digitization.”

87  For example, Korthagen and colleagues mention that half of the libraries included in their survey of digitization practices in the Netherlands and Belgium (Flanders) did not have in-​house conservators (Korthagen et al., “Checklist 2.0,” 17–​18). 88  Corbach, chap. 7, “Development of Suitable Imaging Techniques”; Quandt, chap. 12, “Initiating the Manuscript Digitization Program.”

89  Núñez Gaitán, chap. 3, “The Digitization Process”; Thompson-​Baum, chap. 4, “Conservation for Digitization”; Marzo, chap. 5, “The Planning Phases” and “The Project’s Workflow”; Corbach, chap. 7, “Technical Limits and Conservation Criteria in Digitization”; Quandt, chap. 12, “The Examination and Treatment of Manuscripts before Digitization” and “Incorporating Technical Information in the Online Catalogue.”

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Once a digitization project has been planned, there are several preliminary actions to be carried out before the actual scanning takes place. One important input from conservation is the collection survey and fitness assessment that aims at evaluating the fragility and risks of the items that are to undergo reformatting.90 The physical condition of the source documents can affect the conversion in different ways as these can set physical limitations on the possibilities of capturing information during a scan.91 Areas of particular interest in surveying collections for digitization are:

a. the opening characteristics of bound volumes, with the maximum opening angle that permits scanning without damage to the binding;92 b. the need for a set of minimal conservation treatments, sometimes referred to as “digiprep” (digitization preparation), aimed at securing the collections for handling during reformatting;93 c. highlighting special handling requirements for fragile items.94

90  See NDLP, “National Digital Library Program,” 3–​7; IFLA, “Guidelines for Digitization Projects,” 17–​20; Dean, “Digital Imaging and Conservation,” 134; Lindsay, “Preservation Microfilming,” 57–​50; Carignan et al., Best Practice Guidelines, 11; Ceynowa, “Mass Digitization for Research and Study,” 22–​23; Mijajlović and Stojanović, “Digitization Process,” 53; Bülow and Ahmon, Preparing Collections, 10–​11, 53–​59, 63–​89; DFG, “Practical Guidelines,” 7; Tomalak, “Digitising Manuscripts”; IFLA, “Guidelines for Planning,” 9–​10; Battaglini, “Digitalizzazione e tutela,” 143; Rieger, “Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials”; Korthagen et al., “Checklist 2.0,” 27, 32–​40. See also Núñez Gaitán, chap.  3, “The Digitization Process”; Thompson-​Baum, chap.  4, “Condition Assessment”; Marzo, chap. 5, “The Project’s Workflow”; Signorello, chap. 6, “The Pre-​Digitization Survey”; Corbach, chap. 7, “Assessing the Feasibility for Digitization”; De Stefani and Smith, chap. 8, “The Great Parchment Book Project”; Quandt, chap.  12, “The Examination and Treatment of Manuscripts before Digitization.” 91  IFLA, “Guidelines for Digitization Projects,” 17–​18.

92  See IFLA, “Guidelines for Digitization Projects,” 20; Dean, “Digital Imaging and Conservation,” 135; Bülow and Ahmon, Preparing Collections, 86; IFLA, “Guidelines for Planning,” 12; Rieger, “Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials.” See also Núñez Gaitán, chap.  3, “A Healthy Balance between Preservation and Use”; Marzo, chap.  5, “The Project’s Workflow”; Signorello, chap.  6, “The Pre-​Digitization Survey”; Corbach, chap.  7, “Technical Limits and Conservation Criteria in Digitization”; Quandt, chap.  12, “The Examination and Treatment of Manuscripts before Digitization.” 93  See IFLA, “Guidelines for Digitization Projects,” 20; Lindsay, “Preservation Microfilming,” 47–​50; Bülow and Ahmon, Preparing Collections, 10–​11, 109–​58; Tomalak, “Digitising Manuscripts.” See also Núñez Gaitán, chap.  3, “The Digitization Process”; Thompson-​Baum, chap.  4, “Conservation Methodology”; Marzo, chap.  5, “The Project’s Workflow”; Signorello, chap.  6, “Conservation Treatment Program”; De Stefani and Smith, chap. 8, “The Great Parchment Book Project”; Quandt, chap. 12, “The Examination and Treatment of Manuscripts before Digitization.” 94  See IFLA, “Guidelines for Digitization Projects,” 20; Bülow and Ahmon, Preparing Collections, 10; IFLA, “Guidelines for Planning,” 10; Korthagen et al., “Checklist 2.0,” 27–​28.

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Following the initial assessment, the items undergo treatment to secure pages and elements at risks, such as tears that may catch on other pages, or broken endbands or clasps, and so on, to prepare items for scanning.95 The contribution by Thompson-​Baum in this volume describes the evolution of the sets of treatments deemed necessary for digiprep at The National Archives (London, UK).96 In the past, bound volumes that needed reproduction and digitization were disbound to facilitate photography. For example, it was recommended to disbind and resew volumes on tapes to allow the opening of the textblock at 180 degrees for a more practical photographic capture.97 Núñez Gaitán, in this volume, for example, mentions how such a practice was commonplace in the past at the Vatican Library for photography and microfilming campaigns.98 Still, in 1998, guidelines from the US Research Libraries Group mentioned disbinding,99 when necessary, as a measure to simplify scanning procedures,100 and the same guidelines were advocated a year later by the digitization strategy of the Arts and Humanities Data Service in the UK.101 Disbinding or guillotining textblocks had been an almost standard library practice for materials that were not considered serviceable any more—​such as modern textblocks with crumbling acidic paper, or collections of newspapers—​and that were removed from circulation because 95  See RLG, “Worksheet Estimating”; AHDS, “AHDSDigitisation”; NDLP, “National Digital Library Program,” 3–​5; IFLA, “Guidelines for Digitization Projects,” 17–​18; Lindsay, “Preservation Microfilming,” 49; Mijajlović and Stojanović, “Digitization Process,” 53; Bacher et  al., “Image Processing,” 23; Bülow and Ahmon, Preparing Collections, 10–​11, 109–​58; DFG, “Practical Guidelines,” 7; IFLA, “Guidelines for Planning,” 12; Battaglini, “Digitalizzazione e tutela,” 144; NEDCC, “Preservation and Selection for Digitization,” 5; Rieger, “Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials.” See also Núñez Gaitán, chap. 3, “The Digitization Process”; Thompson-​Baum, chap. 4, “Conservation Methodology”; Marzo, chap. 5, “The Project’s Workflow”; Signorello, chap. 6, “Conservation Treatment Program”; De Stefani and Smith, chap. 8, “The Great Parchment Book Project”; Quandt, chap.  12, “The Examination and Treatment of Manuscripts before Digitization.” 96  Thompson-​Baum, chap. 4, “Conservation Methodology”.

97  Tape:  “As used on bookbindings, narrow, flexible strips of textile or thin animal skin such as parchment, used most often as sewing supports” (Ligatus Research Centre, “Tape”). Canart, Paracini Bagliani, and Werlen, “Rapport du Secrétariat,” 40.

98  Núñez Gaitán, chap.  3, “The Digitization Process.” See also Marzo, chap.  5, “The Project’s Workflow”; Corbach, chap. 7, “Facts and Figures.” 99  The RLG was a library consortium in the USA active between 1974 and 2006, when it merged with the OCLC (Online Computer Library Center, Inc.), a non-​profit cooperative organization, funded in 1967 in the USA, aimed at furthering access to the world’s information and reducing its costs (RLG, “Home”; Murphy, “RLG to Combine with OCLC”; OCLC, “About”). 100  RLG, “Worksheet Estimating.”

101  The AHDS, in operation in the UK between 1996 and 2008, was a national service established for the discovery, creation, and preservation of digital resources in and for research, teaching, and learning in the arts and humanities (AHDS, “Enabling Digital Resources”; AHDS, “Digitisation”).

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they had been converted to another format.102 Only a year later, however, in 1999, the National Digital Library Program of the Library of Congress (Washington, DC, USA),103 in collaboration with the Conservation Division, released a document on the “Conservation Implications of Digitization Projects” in which disbinding for digitization purposes is mentioned as a non-​recommended former practice.104 In 2003, Lindsay asserted that, while it may be suitable to take apart certain types of books, such as modern or stitched bindings,105 it would be unethical to disbind undamaged historical items for filming or scanning, since valuable information would be irrevocably destroyed.106 The same position seems to have been advocated by all subsequent guidelines and digital conversion strategies.107 Another important contribution by the conservation department is the handling guidelines and training that are offered to limit damage during all phases of digitization projects:  from moving large numbers of books from the stores, to handling the objects, and turning the pages safely.108 Along the same line, the conservation department should be consulted at the preliminary stage to check that the scanning equipment that is going to be used is adequate and will not inherently cause damage to the documents.109 For example, the use of glass plates to keep the originals flat during digital capture is generally considered risky because of damage that these can inflict on pages (especially illuminated manuscripts with flaking pigments) or the spines of books and their bindings. Newer book scanning devices minimize the pressure exerted by the glass plates.110 Similarly, damage can be circumvented by using appropriate equipment (such as book cradles, foam wedges, 102  NDLP, “National Digital Library Program,” 5. Tanselle denounces such a practice as still in vogue in the 1990s (Tanselle, Literature and Artifacts, 89–​95). See also chap. 1, “The Physical Preservation of Books” in this volume.

103  The NDLP is a digital library of reproductions of primary source materials to support the study of the history and culture of the United States (Library of Congress, “National Digital Library Program”). 104  NDLP, “National Digital Library Program,” 5.

105  “Bindings in which the leaves or gatherings of a book are held together to create a single bookblock by stabbing thread or thongs through the inner margin of an entire bookblock” (Ligatus Research Centre, “Stitched Bindings”). 106  Lindsay, “Preservation Microfilming,” 49.

107  See, for example, Bacher et al., “Image Processing,” 23; Bülow and Ahmon, Preparing Collections, 122–​23; IFLA, “Guidelines for Planning,” 12.

108  See NDLP, “National Digital Library Program,” 2, 7; Dean, “Digital Imaging and Conservation,” 134–​36; Bacher et  al., “Quality Management,” 19; Bülow and Ahmon, Preparing Collections, 168; IFLA, “Guidelines for Planning,” 10–​12; Battaglini, “Digitalizzazione e tutela,” 144; Rieger, “Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials”; Korthagen et al., “Checklist 2.0,” 27–​28. See also Núñez Gaitán, chap. 3, “A Healthy Balance between Preservation and Use”; Thompson-​Baum, chap. 4, “Conservation Methodology”; Marzo, chap. 5, “The Project’s Workflow”; Corbach, chap. 7, “Technical Limits and Conservation Criteria in Digitization.” 109  Korthagen et al., “Checklist 2.0,” 27–​28. 110  IFLA, “Guidelines for Planning,” 12.

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humidifiers, etc.), and conservators should assure that enough safety devices are at the disposal of the scanning teams.111 The environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, light) of all locations where the documents are to be stationed during the project should also be checked by the conservation department to limit drastic and damaging fluctuations.112 Included in the conservation activities is the essential documentation phase, today considered a basic requirement of any conservation program,113 that records the state of conservation of the items.114 Generally, detailed records are kept of any conservation treatment and intervention; when it comes to large-​scale digitization projects, however, documentation is reduced to the minimum, with thorough information only recorded for more complex treatments.115 The job of the conservators does not stop during scanning. The conservation department carries on ensuring safe handling practices are in place, especially for items flagged as particularly fragile during the preliminary survey and documentation,116 while also checking the safety of all equipment used and monitoring the environmental conditions.117 Sometimes, objects can also be flagged up for repair by the photography team. These then need to be treated before any scanning can take place, either in situ or 111  See NDLP, “National Digital Library Program,” 3–​5; IFLA, “Guidelines for Digitization Projects,” 17–​18; Lindsay, “Preservation Microfilming,” 49–​50, 55–​56; Bülow and Ahmon, Preparing Collections, 9–​10, 91–​107; IFLA, “Guidelines for Planning,” 12; Korthagen et  al., “Checklist 2.0,” 27–​28. See also Núñez Gaitán, chap. 3, “The Digitization Process”; Corbach, chap. 7, “Development of Suitable Imaging Techniques”; and Quandt, chap. 12, in this volume. 112  See NDLP, “National Digital Library Program,” 4; IFLA, “Guidelines for Digitization Projects,” 17–​18; Dean, “Digital Imaging and Conservation,” 135–​36; IFLA, “Guidelines for Planning,” 12; Rieger, “Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials.” 113  Aleppo, “160 Years of Conservation Documentation”; Fischer, “Goethe-​ and Schiller-​Archive, Weimar,” 93; Scheper, The Technique of Islamic Bookbinding, 14–​15. See also Velios and Pickwoad, chap. 9, “Cultural Heritage Documentation.”

114  See RLG, “Worksheet Estimating”; AHDS, “Digitisation”; Korthagen et al., “Checklist 2.0,” 28. See also Núñez Gaitán, chap.  3, “The Digitization Process”; Thompson-​Baum, chap.  4, “Condition Assessment”; Marzo, chap. 5, “The Planning Phases.”

115  See Lindsay, “Preservation Microfilming,” 51; Bülow and Ahmon, Preparing Collections, 10, 147–​48. See also Núñez Gaitán, chap.  3, “The Digitization Process”; Thompson-​Baum, chap.  4, “Condition Assessment.”

116  See NDLP, “National Digital Library Program,” 2; Dean, “Digital Imaging and Conservation,” 134–​36; Bacher et  al., “Quality Management,” 29; Bülow and Ahmon, Preparing Collections, 12; IFLA, “Guidelines for Planning,” 12; Rieger, “Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials”; Korthagen et al., “Checklist 2.0,” 27–​28. 117  See NDLP, “National Digital Library Program,” 4–​5; IFLA, “Guidelines for Digitization Projects,” 17–​18; Dean, “Digital Imaging and Conservation,” 135–​36; Lindsay, “Preservation Microfilming,” 49–​50, 55–​56; IFLA, “Guidelines for Planning,” 12; Rieger, “Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials.” See also Toth, chap. 11, “The Archimedes Palimpsest at the Walters Art Museum” and “The Syriac Galen Palimpsest at the Vatican Apostolic Library”; Quandt, chap. 12, “Initiating the Manuscript Digitization Program.”

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back in the conservation studio. Such an approach may also be part of a strategy to carry out conservation as a reactive procedure to the demands of the digitization team, but it has been proven counter-​productive.118 After scanning, as described by Núñez Gaitán, Marzo, and Signorello in this volume, the objects are usually checked against the pre-​scanning documentation. This is done to assess the damage that may have occurred during digitization (thus informing later conservation decisions), and to signal the need for further conservation that the object may still require after the minimum intervention carried out with digitization in mind. Sometimes, to ensure that the best quality of data can be captured during photography, treatments such as lining or facing with reinforcing tissue are postponed and performed only after scanning; with, as customary, detailed documentation of each treatment being recorded. The items can then be re-​housed for long-​term preservation in new protective envelopes and boxes.119 One aspect that is often forgotten is the precious contributions that conservators can provide to the project through additional contextual information. These can be as simple as blog posts aimed at illustrating particular conservation issues or procedures, or fuller conservation descriptions included as part of a project’s website. Even more desirably, these could include data sets, databases, and scientific publications on both specific conservation practices and particular binding structures or other materiality aspects that became overt during conservation.120 As we will see in more detail, it is in these special contributions that those untransferable features highlighted in the previous chapter can be at least partially captured and included in the information that is digitized and made available through the creation of digital surrogates. Digitization also offers a great opportunity to assess the research value of the items and seek out potential collaborations with other professionals (heritage scientists, digital humanists, and so on) to address research questions and issues that cannot be solved with routine conservation or digitization.121 Digitization projects have a deep influence in conservation departments and their activities, and conservators had to change their approach to tackle large-​scale digital conversion.122 As seen, conservation treatments for preparation to digitization differ in methods from customary item-​based conservation practice, as it is aimed solely at securing the artifacts long enough to withstand handling during photography, obscuring and altering the visual appearance as little as possible. Conservators must consider how the items will be handled during imaging and must enable the capture of information 118  See Bülow and Ahmon, Preparing Collections, 155–​58. See also Thompson-​Baum, chap.  4, “Guidelines and ‘Flag-​Up’ Approach”; Marzo, chap. 5, “The Project’s Workflow.” 119  See NDLP, “National Digital Library Program,” 7; Dean, “Digital Imaging and Conservation,” 137; Bülow and Ahmon, Preparing Collections, 13; Korthagen et al., “Checklist 2.0,” 27–​28.

120  Scheper, “Hands-​on Research”; Korthagen et al., “Checklist 2.0,” 27–​28. See also Marzo, chap. 5, “Conclusions”; De Stefani and Smith, chap. 8, “Conclusions.” 121  Signorello, chap.  6, “Research Potential”; Terras, chap.  13, “Advanced Digitization and Conservation” and “Conclusions.”

122  Tedone and Miller, “Archives Conservation Discussion Group 2011”; Rieger, Preservation in the Age of Large-​Scale Digitization, 29–​31. See also Thompson-​Baum, chap. 4, “Building Relationships between Conservation and the Digitization Team.”

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which would otherwise be obscured or indecipherable.123 Similarly, digitization efforts can influence the nature of conservation treatments, as, for example, described by DeStefano,124 where a collection of albums at the Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington, DC, USA) were disassembled from their original bindings and re-​inserted as post-​bound textblocks to facilitate access to and photography of the collection.125 Conservators are certainly not opposed to adapting to the requirements of digitization projects; however, the community has raised concerns about the possibility of a diminished need for conservation after scanning has taken place. For example, in 2006, a survey that was circulated among Norwegian paper conservators showed how the majority viewed digitization as a threat, not an opportunity,126 and similar concerns, motivated by funding issues, have been raised in Italy by Zanetti.127 If it were to become common practice to value also the informational input that conservators can provide, by integrating the data accumulated in their documentation records, as we will see, digital surrogates would be more comprehensive, and conservators would likely feel less threatened by digitization projects.

Digitization for Conservation

We have seen how conservation has shaped itself to answer the need for large-​scale digitization projects that are now commonplace in archives and libraries. This has sometimes created tension and resentment in the sector because of the apparent contrasting goals of conservation and digitization. On the one hand, the digitizer is focused on producing the best reproductions that are possible with the technology at their disposal, while, on the other, the conservator concentrates on safeguarding the object by respecting the limitations imposed on the process by its physical properties.128 Despite this, digital conversion can also create opportunities for conservators, and help understand, capture, and communicate objects and their materiality. One evident opportunity posed by reformatting projects is represented by the need to survey the materials before scanning:  this allows going through entire collections, a task that is highly desirable as it permits checking the status of the items and prioritizing future interventions, but that is otherwise rarely possible because it is so time-​ consuming.129 Federici, however, points to a possible side effect:130 despite the initial 123  Lindsay, “Preservation Microfilming,” 47–​49. 124  DeStefano, “Treatment,” 80–​84.

125  Post-​binding refers to a binding made up of a left and right board connected with screws or rivets through the textblock (DeStefano, “Treatment,” 82). Gracy and Kahn, “Preservation in the Digital Age.” 126  Ramsholt, “Digitization”; Bülow and Ahmon, Preparing Collections, 19.

127  Zanetti, “La conservazione dellle raccolte”; Zanetti, “Le ragioni di una crisi.” 128  Korthagen et al., “Checklist 2.0,” 28.

129  Bülow and Ahmon, Preparing Collections, 18–​19. Signorello, chap.  6, “Research Potential,” illustrates how this is particularly true for digitization projects involving smaller collections. 130  Federici, “Digitale,” 4.

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controls on all items, in order to save time and money, librarians may be tempted to stop checks on digitized collections, since the information has been captured already, and the conservation of the originals may fall out of sight. This is linked, as illustrated above, and described by Zanetti,131 to the situation whereby conservation and digitization are forced to battle for the same pot of money. Such circumstances should be avoided at all costs, and it should be made clear that digital conversion does not equal preservation, and that the digital reformatting of the contents of books does not equal conservation.132 The original object, in its physicality, remains the sole repository of all material information, and as such it should be preserved for as long as feasibly possible. However, photographs and digital surrogates can also provide precious information on the deterioration of the material, as they freeze in time the appearance of the state of conservation of an item at a specific date, thus becoming invaluable documentation tools. This information can inform preservation needs, as well as salvage textual and visual evidence that, in the meantime, has been irremediably lost.133 Conservators have documented their work with photographs for many years, but only recently have they become aware of the advantages offered by high-​resolution images and, more so, by professionally acquired photographs. For this reason, in 2017, ICOM-​CC, the Committee for Conservation of the International Council of Museums, has established a triennial working group on Documentation (2017–​2020) specifically concerned with: the use of digital technologies in the documentation of objects; the promotion of imaging techniques to improve documentation in the field of conservation; the role of imaging techniques in documentation as a tool for examination; and the documentation procedures for cultural heritage, also looking at the digitization of conservation documentation records (for enhanced use), and the standardization of terms used in the documentation of cultural heritage with the development of a specific glossary.134 Similarly, reformatting procedures can help preserve the original items by restricting further access to them after digitization and referring the users to the surrogates instead. After some calculated damage during scanning, the books can be withdrawn, only to be made available for scholars interested in those features that are not captured by standard digitization.135 It cannot be forgotten that digitization also has the opposite effect: through the availability and easy accessibility of the surrogates, more people become familiar with the materials owned by memory institutions, leading to more people requesting to see the 131  Zanetti, “Le ragioni di una crisi.”

132  Scheper, The Technique of Islamic Bookbinding, 16.

133  Endres, Digitizing Medieval Manuscripts, 3–​5, 47–​66; Muñoz Viñas, Contemporary Theory of Conservation, 102–​3. 134  ICOM-​CC, “Documentation Working Group.” On the use of imaging as documentation, see also Núñez Gaitán, chap. 3; Signorello, chap. 6, “Digitization Workflow”; France, chap. 10, “Conservation Spectral Imaging in Action”; Toth, chap. 11, “The Archimedes Palimpsest at the Walters Art Museum” in this volume.

135  Pickwoad, “Library or Museum?”; Scheper, The Technique of Islamic Bookbinding, 18; Korthagen et al., “Checklist 2.0,” 14.

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original items. This is especially true for scholars whose interests are focused on aspects that are not generally captured by traditional cataloguing, but that can be observed—​at least partially—​in a digital copy.136 Digitization can also achieve things that are not possible with the original sources, or with standard conservation, and, if carried out carefully, can record and extract information without disturbing or destroying the original, or parts of it. Digitization can transcend originals.137 Firstly, the ease of access and availability of digital surrogates permit scholars to access data from anywhere, even if in preparation for a visit to the library for research into untransferable features. One other way in which digital surrogates can be more than the originals is represented by the extraordinary magnification permitted by high-​resolution imaging.138 Details in manuscripts and illuminations, for example, can be studied with thorough care, to the point that even some level of artifactual characteristics can be investigated on these high-​definition, high-​magnification images. To this, one should add the facility with which one can annotate, draw together, organize, and access dispersed research materials that have been digitized by various institutions.139 This can be particularly important for fragmentary materials.140 One major technology that, in recent times, has empowered scholars greatly in this manner is the implementation of the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) adopted by memory institutions the world over.141 The framework, recognizing the fundamental importance of image-​based resources for research and scholarship on cultural heritage, promotes through a set of APIs an “interoperable technology and community framework for image delivery” that allows images from any compliant image server to be loaded and combined by the end-​user.142 This allows the user, for instance, to compare easily, and over the web, high-​resolution images of documents from different institutions. Furthermore, IIIF images may have associated text, either from automated OCR (optical character recognition),143 text transcriptions, or annotations, thus affording full textual search and metadata. The IIIF Presentation API leverages the shared canvas data model,144 whereby each page of a document corresponds to a canvas, “a two-​dimensional rectangular space […] 136  Korthagen et al., “Checklist 2.0,” 14–​15. See also Núñez Gaitán, chap. 3, “Digitization for the Common Advantage of Scholars.” 137  Conway, “Rationale for Digitization,” 10.

138  Endres, Digitizing Medieval Manuscripts, 2. 139  Korthagen et al., “Checklist 2.0,” 16.

140  See, for example, University of Fribourg, “Fragmentarium.” 141  IIIF, “International Image Interoperability Framework.”

142  An application programming interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools designed to allow the development of applications that can utilize or operate in conjunction with a given item of software, set of data, website, etc. (OED, “Application, n.”).

143  OCR is defined as the identification of characters by means of equipment that scans them photoelectrically and reproduces them in electronic form (OED, “Optical, Adj. and n.”). 144  Sanderson and Albritton, Shared Canvas Data Model 1.0.

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that represents a single logical view of some part of the physical item […] one Canvas per side of a page.” The canvases/​pages are ordered in sequences, and the whole representation of the object is gathered together within a manifest, an aggregation of all elements that make up the description of the facsimile. This view is consistent with the idea, familiar to most reformatting activities, that books can be represented as collections of single two-​dimensional images arranged in sequences without any stated connection among them as if they were floating within the constraints of their binding. This model lacks the double sheets that make up the codex and their being gathered together at the spine to actually function as a bound book. The fluidity of the digital medium, however, consents to rearrange and reorganize the pages of documents to represent any wanted configuration, also beyond the constraints of the original object. Conservators will not disbind books for the sole sake of playing with or rearranging its leaves, but digital pages can be rearranged in any order, and one could, for example, reposition them into the format in which they would have been printed.145 A project that takes advantage of this is VisColl.146 Conceived by Dot Porter (Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies—​SIMS, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA) in the early 2010s, VisColl models and visualizes the structure of books in codex format, allowing the representation of very complex structures, also by rearranging the digital representations of the pages of books to show conjoined leaves. Specialized scientific imaging techniques can recover, record, and digitize characteristics of the original items that would otherwise be lost with traditional digital conversion practices. Advanced spectral imaging can be used to digitally recover details obscured by age, use, and damage.147 Generally used to recover deleted or faded texts from palimpsests and manuscripts, spectral imaging systems also provide a non-​ destructive tool for research into paper, parchment, and other objects within cultural heritage institutions.148 Spectral imaging data can be harnessed to characterize materials and their deterioration for conservation purposes—​for example, to check the efficacy of treatments (before and after conservation) and to measure over time the state of deterioration caused by light exposure, or corrosive inks and pigments, before the effects are visible at the macroscopic level.149 High-​resolution digital microscopy provides insights into small-​scale features, such as loss of pigments or inks, microfractures, and degradation signs.150 Reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) is another specialized 145  Kirschenbaum and Werner, “Digital Scholarship and Digital Studies,” 420.

146  Porter, Campagnolo, and Emery, “VisColl”; Porter, Campagnolo, and Connelly, “VisColl”; Campagnolo et al., “Virtually Disbinding Codices.”

147  Spectral imaging is a method for acquiring image data over a series of wavelengths across the light spectrum (Giacometti et al., “The Value of Critical Destruction,” 101). See also the contributions by France and Toth in this volume. 148  France, Emery, and Toth, “The Convergence”; France, “Spectral Imaging”; Garside, Beltran de Guevara, and Duffy, “The Repercussions”; Korthagen et al., “Checklist 2.0,” 23–​26. 149  France, “Spectral Imaging,” 195.

150  Garside, Beltran de Guevara, and Duffy, “The Repercussions,” 202–​3.

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photographic technique that can capture and reveal the shape and structural information of an object that would otherwise be missed in traditional photography.151 RTI images can, for example, reveal the presence of flaking pigments on an illumination, or the occurrence of otherwise invisible scoring on the surface, making it an invaluable tool for the conservator.152 RTI imaging can be combined with other techniques, such as spectral imaging, to enhance the feature detection capabilities of the system.153 Since 2013, the RICH (Reflectance Imaging for Cultural Heritage) project at KU Leuven has been developing a series of imaging modules (referred to as microdomes) intended explicitly for the study of books.154 The tool was designed with the input of conservators to minimize any potential damage to the items during imaging.155 The unique design allows imaging the gutters of books; this, for example, permits applying the microdome to the study and characterization of sewing threads, information that is generally lost in traditional imaging.156 X-​ray photography has been used for decades to examine book boards and their lacing patterns and computed tomography (CT or CAT) scans have been used to analyze particularly important items such as the cover of the St. Cuthbert Gospel and its unique decoration technique.157 As seen in Toth in this volume, some pages of the Archimedes Palimpsest were imaged at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.158 Although not imaging techniques, archaeometric methodologies have also started to be applied to books and documents as newer research and investigation avenues;159 and these are evidently also applicable to conservation research. For example, scientists have been analyzing the odour of paper as a diagnostic tool for conservation purposes in

151  RTI is a computational photographic method that captures a subject’s surface shape and colour from the information derived from multiple digital photographs, shot from a stationary camera position, and light projected from a series of different known directions. When the technique was invented in 2000 by Tom Malzbender and Dan Gelb at the Hewlett Packard Laboratories, it was known as polynomial texture mapping (PTM) (Cultural Heritage Imaging, “RTI”). Malzbender and Gelb, “Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTM) Research”; Beckett, “Picturing the Past.” See also Terras, chap.  13, “Encouraging Interdisciplinary Dialogue,” and note 59 of chap. 13 in particular. 152  Schroer, “Advanced Imaging Tools.”

153  Watteeuw et  al., “Imaging the Topography of Illuminations and Bookbindings”; Perre et  al., “Towards a Combined Use of IR, UV and 3D-​Imaging”; Watteeuw et al., “Light, Shadows and Surface Characteristics”; Vandermeulen et al., “Bridging Multi-​Light & Multi-​Spectral Images.” 154  Watteeuw and Vandermeulen, “RICH Project.” 155  Korthagen et al., “Checklist 2.0,” 23–​26.

156  Duminuco, “The Investigation of Sewing Threads.”

157  Pollard, “Some Anglo-​Saxon Bookbindings”; Duffy, “A CT Scan”; Pickwoad, “Binding,” 50–​54. 158  SLAC, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource.

159  Archaeometry is defined as the application of modern scientific and technical methods to the interpretation of archaeological remains (OED, “Archaeometry, n.”).

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nineteenth-​ and twentieth-​century works,160 or the molecular make-​up of parchment and its DNA to identify species, but also to reveal clues about the manufacturing process, and, possibly, the deterioration of the medium.161

Transferring Untransferable Features

The digitization techniques described so far create, by direct acquisition, virtual representations of original items. Digitization by direct acquisition of information, however, and, admittedly, the general fruition of digital surrogates through computer screens and other devices, fail to engage senses beyond that of sight, even though, indeed, digitization techniques can offer a much more potent visual perception than possible through human eyes.162 As noted in the previous chapter, however, there are untransferable features—​or features that are not easily transferred (onto a new medium)—​that characterize material objects and that assign a certain kind of value to them: these features and value are not conventionally captured and represented in digital surrogates. These go beyond the impossibility to transfer the aura of the original, famously described by Benjamin.163 There are characteristics of books that scholars interacting with the originals perceive with their other senses, often acting in concert with sight and among themselves. These are, for example, the smell of paper or parchment, the feel of certain materials or hidden and hard-​to-​see features like the bumps of board lacings, the weight and thickness of pages, boards, and whole books, or the sound of parchment, board, and wood. A significant consequence of an object analysis inspired by the framework advanced in Chapter  1 is the fact that these features would become overtly essential information sources, making the impossibility of capturing them in digital surrogates manifestly problematic. In the Introduction we have advanced the concepts of physicality, defined as the infinite set of physical attributes that make up the reality of the object, and of the materialities of books, pointing to the fact that these are emergent properties that result from human mediation and interpretation in an act aimed at the identification and discernment of information.164 Drucker broadens this vision by distinguishing between the literal book:  the traditional idea of the codex made of bound pages in a finite, generally fixed, sequence; and the phenomenal book: the process of meaning production that depends on the dynamic interaction of the user/​reader with the object.165 Books, therefore, should not be understood as inert physical things that can be captured through 160  Strlič et  al., “Material Degradomics”; Fenech et  al., “Volatile Aldehydes”; Kirschenbaum and Werner, “Digital Scholarship and Digital Studies,” 422.

161  Fiddyment et al., “Animal Origin of 13th-​Century Uterine Vellum”; Beasts2Craft, “Beasts2Craft”; Fiddyment et al., “So You Want to Do Biocodicology?” 162  Wilcox, “Introduction: The Philology of Smell,” 3.

163  Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” 164  Hayles, How We Think, 91–​92; Shep, “Digital Materiality,” 326. 165  Drucker, “The Virtual Codex,” 221.

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digital technologies, whose only limit resides in their technological advancement, but rather as products made anew through the very activity of each interaction: their essence is to be understood, like materiality, as an emergent property. Drucker’s model of the phenomenal book has significant consequences for literary studies and the virtual interactions with literary products in digital editions and e-​books, but the same consequences apply to the idea of the digitization of the book as an object, leaving their textual content aside. The phenomenal book changes with each new interaction because of the emergent quality of its materialities, and this means that no virtual representation can be the definite one, even if no more technological advancements were possible. Digital representations should therefore not be conceived as static and complete, but should instead allow new data, new representations, to be added, cumulatively, as new readings emerge. Even if the problem of the production of these cumulative digital objects were trivial, still the problem of capturing the untransferable would remain. One property that mostly escapes traditional photography is the small-​scale three-​dimensionality of the objects. That a book is a three-​dimensional object is known and is very clearly seen in photographs, usually with scales in the field of view that allow putting the object within a dimensional framework, thus permitting the assignment of relative and absolute size qualities. Less evident, in fact typically concealed by the very act of photography, is the waviness of parchment and paper, and their thickness, the subtle indentation of the pen, of the scoring tool, of the stamp, or the protuberance of the sewing slips under the pastedown, and so on. Raking light photography can help in showing surface features, and RTI systems permit highlighting and imaging them with an incredible level of detail, even allowing one, just like high-​resolution digital microscopy, to measure and compare them. This level of digitization is achievable by direct acquisition with specialized techniques that are not always routinely applied, for obvious reasons of time constraints, in digitization projects, leaving these transferable features as untransferred. A  step further is taken by full three-​dimensional digitization through photogrammetry,166 laser scanning, CT scans, or other methodology. Endres, for example, celebrates the level of materiality that can be digitized through 3D imaging and its application and interaction through virtual reality systems.167 Other material features that require special imaging techniques are those that reside in the thickness of the materials or the density of the fibre-​distribution patterns, such as watermarks and laid-​and-​chain lines on paper, the scraping marks on parchment,168 or 166  Photogrammetry is a technique to record and generate three-​dimensional objects from series of calibrated photographs of the object in question. The system uses SfM (structure-​from-​motion) and MVS (multi-​viewpoint stereo) algorithms, informed by the knowledge of camera calibration and pose, to build a dense point cloud in virtual space (Kasser and Egels, Digital Photogrammetry; Cultural Heritage Imaging, “Photogrammetry”). See also Terras, chap.  13, “Encouraging Interdisciplinary Dialogue,” and note 59 of chap. 13 in particular. 167  Endres, Digitizing Medieval Manuscripts.

168  Vnouček, “The Parchment of the Codex Amiatinus.”

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tooling marks. Watermarks have been captured through a series of specialized imaging techniques. Thomas L. Gravell developed a contact method using light-​sensitive Dupont Dylux® Proofing Paper and ultraviolet light.169 Beta and electron transmission radiography have also been used for years, though posing radiation issues.170 Other methods turn to traditional or spectral photography and transmitted light.171 Raking light and RTI can also capture these elusive features in particularly clear cases just as they can acquire and show the indentation of decorative tools on leather covers. Traditionally, however, watermarks have also often been hand-​drawn in transmissive light and then digitized. Similarly, the method of choice for recording tooling marks and stamps are hand rubbings and their digitization.172 X-​rays and CT scans are also to be mentioned in the list of specialized imaging techniques capable of capturing, through direct acquisition, information hidden in the three-​dimensionality of material objects. As noted, X-​ray photography helps in the analysis and identification of book boards and their lacing systems, revealing features that can otherwise only be guessed through other, often elusive, visual and tactile features found in the originals.173 Micro computed tomography brings this X-​ray vision to another level, revealing invisible, hidden, or hard-​to-​see three-​dimensional materials and features such as sewing patterns or sandwiched components. The application of CT scanning techniques to bookbinding structures is still at the experimental stage. It will be exciting to see to what extent these can be applied to precisely identify structures and features in complete bindings.174 Table 5 summarizes the examples of advanced digitization techniques for the transfer onto the new medium of these elusive characteristics of books; the list, by the very nature of materiality as an emergent feature, is not, and cannot be, exhaustive and complete. For the most part, however, binding structures and elements can be described and digitized without necessarily turning to advanced imaging techniques. Just as informative objects can be studied through informative representations, as seen above, documents can also be digitized indirectly, through modelling, databases, and metadata to represent and describe their structure and materiality.175 When we want to study 169  Allison, “How to Make Contact Prints.” 170  CAMEO, “Beta Radiography.”

171  France and Toth, “Spectral Imaging for Revealing,” 1452; Vestigia, “The Austrian Watermark Imagining System.” See also France, chap. 10, “Spectral Imaging Utilized for Conservation Purposes.” 172  For example, see the rubbings in Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Einbanddatenbank. 173  Pollard, “Some Anglo-​Saxon Bookbindings.”

174  Micro CT scanning is a technology that will be investigated as part of “The Book and the Silk Roads,” a project funded by The Andrew W.  Mellon Foundation and led by Professor Alex Gillespie and co-​principal investigators Professor Suzanne Akbari and Sian Meikle at the University of Toronto (Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, “The Book and the Silk Roads”; DeMarco, “An Open Book”). 175  See, for example, the Babylonian Tablet Collection at Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History (Yale University, “Digitization | Babylonian Collection”). See also Geismar, “Defining the Digital”; Geismar, Museum Object Lessons.

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Table 5. Examples of advanced digitization of traditionally untransferable features.

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Feature

Digitization methods

Waviness of parchment/​ paper

Raking light photography, RTI, photogrammetry, 3D scanning.

Watermarks, chain and laid lines

Gravell’s contact method: light-​sensitive Dupont Dylux® Proofing Paper and ultraviolet light; beta radiography; electron transmission radiography; transmitted light (traditional and multispectral photography). Hand tracing (then scanned).

Indentations and protuberances (pen, scoring tool, stamps, etc.)

Scratching marks on parchment Inks and pigments

Stains and surface dirt Paper odour Material origin (parchment species, DNA, etc.) Blotting sand

Book boards and lacing patterns

Sewing patterns, gathering and binding structures Sewing threads

Raking light photography, RTI, photogrammetry, 3D scanning, high-​resolution digital microscopy. Manual rubbings (then scanned).

Transmitted light photography.

Multispectral imaging. Scientific analyses (XRF, FTIR, FORS, etc.). Metadata. Densitometer, multispectral imaging. Scientific analyses (XRF, FTIR, FORS, etc.). Metadata.

Scientific analyses (gas chromatography, mass spectrometer, etc.). Metadata.

Biomolecular techniques of proteomics and genomics. Scientific analyses. Metadata. Mineralogy and geological analyses. Metadata. X-​ray photography. Metadata.

Micro CT scans (experimental applications). Metadata. RTI (microdome). Metadata.

a material object, we initiate an abstraction, categorization, and modelling process.176 This process allows us to select only a restricted set of its characteristics, and to work with these models of reality. When we want to communicate a description of such an object, we use a similar strategy: we can use representations or models of reality that 176  Cohen and Lefebvre, Handbook of Categorization.

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convey a restricted set of characteristics of the physicality of the object for which they stand.177 Modelling is a fundamental activity for the abstraction—​and digital fruition—​ of reality. Modelling activities take different forms, among which are representation and diagrams.178 Typically, representation models of material objects take the form of descriptive or database schemas, with precise metadata and controlled vocabularies. Databases have also been used to record information on bookbindings, especially in the field of conservation.179 Book archaeology inquiry—​as seen, a discipline essential to the conservation of bookbinding structures—​follows a set of methodological principles, stepping stones towards the ultimate goal of the discipline: the interpretation of extant objects to provide information on the context in which books are produced, that have been so expressed by Grujis:180 a. A detailed and accurate description of the physical aspects of the book being investigated; b. A synthesis based on the description outlining the evolution of books; c. A comparison of the evolution with the content of the item in question.

The first two steps of this process are substantially equivalent to the interpretation of the object according to the model advanced in the previous chapter, and to the interpretative framework that would result from the application of the model to series of books. The third step, instead, represents the critical stage of reconnecting the material object and its physical interpretation with its content, a step that could otherwise be overlooked by the straight application of the proposed framework. The ability to describe books in detail and accurately is, therefore, the basis from which any other scholarly activity can stem. These descriptions need controlled and normalized descriptive vocabularies, scientific terminologies that may convey the structures of the artifact in question, and well-​defined description protocols.181 Digital databases, coupled with well-​developed models and controlled vocabularies, have the potency to support the creation of, and peruse, those “detailed and accurate descriptions” that are needed as first essential steps in book archaeology studies, and conservation surveys. The model behind VisColl permits the description of complex gathering structures and manipulation of the data for visualization, presentation, and research purposes. Similarly, book archaeologists have developed rigorous methodologies to record bookbindings and their structures within databases, thus implementing systematic examination methods 177  Sebeok, Signs.

178  McCarty, Humanities Computing, 22.

179  Ravenberg, “A Data Model.” See also Núñez Gaitán, chap. 3, “The Digitization Process”; Quandt, chap. 12, “Incorporating Technical Information in the Online Catalogue”; and Velios and Pickwoad, chap. 9, in this volume. 180  Gruijs, “Codicology or the Archaeology of the Book?,” 104.

181  Ouy, “Quelques problèmes”; Szirmai, The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding, xi–​xii.

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specifically designed for books.182 This way, every book is described in the same manner, while the normative nature of the descriptions guides both compiler and reader through a commonly understood hierarchy of information. A successful example of the use of a hierarchical database for storing data on bookbinding structures and their state of conservation is the database of the St. Catherine’s Library Conservation Project (Sinai, Egypt), devised by the Ligatus Research Centre, University of the Arts London.183 At first, the conservation and binding survey was performed utilizing paper-​based forms,184 which were subsequently translated into an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) schema to record bookbinding structures directly through electronic forms.185 Applying the same methodology utilized for the generation of automated collation diagrams for VisColl, this author compiled a series of scripts that took the information recorded in the database and automatically transformed it into a series of diagrammatic line drawings. These diagrams grant better communication because of the innate immediacy of diagrams for spatial information and of the general use of diagrams and sketches to communicate bookbinding structures on the part of conservators and scholars.186 The fact that these drawings could be automatically generated through algorithms testifies to the efficacy of the Ligatus description model, since visual means of communications and computer algorithms are both unforgiving, and any shortcoming of the schema would make the drawings impossible to produce, or else, meaningless. Just as in the case of VisColl’s collation diagrams, the immediacy of these diagrams makes the information recorded within the database more easily understandable and communicable, especially for the less computer-​savvy conservator (becoming an essential tool of digitization for conservation needs). Furthermore, these diagrams can highlight problems with the data being recorded and can be implemented as a visual data validation system, resulting in better data being recorded within bookbinding description databases.187 182  See Federici and Houlis, Legature bizantine vaticane; Federici et  al., Scheda di censimento; Houlis and Pescalicchio, Scheda di censimento; British Census Project, A Guide to the Census; Federici and Pascalicchio, “A Census”; Grosdidier de Matons, Hoffmann, and Vezin, “Le recensement des reliure anciennes”; Sharpe, “The Catalogue of the Coptic Bindings”; Sharpe, “Observations on Data Collection”; Pickwoad, “The Condition Survey.”

183  Velios and Pickwoad, “Current Use and Future Development”; Velios, “Hierarchical Recording of Binding Structures.” See also Velios and Pickwoad in this volume. 184  Pickwoad, “The Condition Survey”; Velios and Pickwoad, “Collecting Digital Data on Paper”; Velios and Pickwoad, “Current Use and Future Development”; Velios and Pickwoad, “The Database of the St. Catherine’s Library”; Velios and Pickwoad, “Collecting and Managing Conservation Survey Data”; Velios and Pickwoad, “An Optimised Workflow.” 185  Bray et al., “Extensible Markup Language.”

186  Campagnolo, “Transforming Structured Descriptions”; Campagnolo, XSLT Scripts. The system will be further developed as part of the aforementioned “The Book and the Silk Roads” project at the University of Toronto. 187  Campagnolo, “Errata (per Oculos) Corrige.”

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Currently, Ligatus, as described by the contribution by Velios and Pickwoad,188 is developing a framework for the integration of bookbinding and conservation databases built on semantic web technologies. This is the kind of untransferable data that very rarely is recorded or made available during digitization projects, leaving behind important information that may be readily used through the same interfaces that deliver digital surrogates to the end-​users. As noted, conservators enjoy an intimate relationship with books and documents, which gives them a unique perspective on their materiality and on what can be read and understood from it. Documentation is a fundamental activity of modern book conservation, whereby notes on the materiality of books and documents are recorded as an almost daily occurrence.189 Historically, these records resided in paper archives, and, today, most departments have switched to digital documents and ad hoc databases.190 Despite this, when it comes to digitization projects, conservators are only rarely consulted for their understanding of the objects and asked to contribute metadata and information.191 The conservator’s role is undoubtedly that of the object custodian, but a recognition of the comprehensive knowledge they can provide could greatly enrich the scope of digitization projects. Conservators are not the only actors whose knowledge and output are not always included within digitization products. Heritage scientists, for example, collect an incredible amount of data on the materiality of objects that eludes direct acquisition digitization systems and that is nonetheless not always included, as data sets and as interpretations, within traditional digitization projects. Examples of these data are the odour of paper or the molecular make-​up of parchment and its DNA mentioned above, for example, but also pigment and ink composition, other molecular and substance analysis, the analysis of blotting sands,192 and the microbiome of books.193 All these data sets represent aspects of the materiality of books that are otherwise untransferable to the digital medium. Only the scientific data, their metadata, and their interpretation allow them to be brought as additional data and information on the new medium. Most importantly, scientific investigations can help translate matters of subjective connoisseurship into objective interpretations, rendering of the uttermost importance the sharing and the inclusion of such data in digital surrogates.194 In recent times, several digitization projects have begun running blogs to update on their progress, and often, these encompass contributions from the conservation department, showing their activities, and revealing the inner workings of books and documents 188  Velios and Pickwoad, chap. 9.

189  Scheper, The Technique of Islamic Bookbinding, 14–​15. See also France, chap. 10, “Summary.”

190  Ravenberg, “A Data Model.” Also Velios and Pickwoad, chap.  9, “Cultural Heritage Documentation.” 191  See Quandt, chap. 12, “Incorporating Technical Information in the Online Catalogue.” 192  Milke, “Geomaterials in the Manuscript Archive.” See also note 28 in this chapter. 193  Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, “Mikroben als Sonden der Buchbiographie.” 194  Fagin Davis, “Manuscript Road Trip.”

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to the general public. Marzo, in this volume, describes an instance of these blog posts for the British Library/​Qatar Foundation Partnership;195 also the Great Parchment Book project, described by De Stefani and Smith, and Melissa Terras,196 showcases a successful blog that followed in detail the major activities, conservation included, of this dynamic and complicated venture.197 These blogs are first examples of platforms where the different professionals involved come together, all contributing information and knowledge. Green describes how the interaction with the object on the part of the scholar—​but also the conservator—​can be crystallized into social media, allowing the audience to perform a sort of vicarious “hands-​on” engagement with the book.198 Such virtual encounters resemble the engagement with old books through their depictions in mosaics, paintings, and statues advocated by eminent binding scholars to understand old structures and materials.199 In the future, it is hoped that this kind of collaboration—​ now limited to outreach efforts—​may flourish and expand to the other activities of digitization projects, and in more formal contributions to the literature and the collective knowledge base. A dialogue between conservators on the one hand, and digital content providers, digitizers, and researchers on the other, would foster better models capable of recording more untransferable information. In turn, these models would highlight further avenues of research, thus capturing and delivering digitally even more data, and leading towards the creation of “digital cultural objects” (DCOs) that are much more usable and feasible as digital surrogates of historical books.200 These would allow scholars to easily access information on the original documents and help construct a better history of the book.201 While certainly not to be considered as complete substitutions of the original items, DCOs do transcend them in certain respects. As Benjamin has already pointed out analyzing the effects of (analogue) mechanical reproductions, these permit forms of interaction, meaning, and information recovery and retrieval that are not possible in the case 195  Marzo, chap. 5, “The Project’s Workflow.”

196  De Stefani and Smith, chap. 8; Terras, chap. 13, “Case Study 1: The Great Parchment Book.”

197  Another example are the contributions by the Vatican Library’s Conservation staff for the Polonsky Foundation Digitization Project (Polonsky Foundation Digitization Project, “Il compito del Laboratorio di Restauro”; Polonsky Foundation Digitization Project, “Ricomposizione a libro montato”). See also Marzo, Hoffman, and Borghese, “Behind the Scenes”; Library of Trinity College Dublin, “Preparing the Book of Dimma.” Scheper discusses the contributions by conservators to the literature through blogs, advocating also for engaged and formal venues (Scheper, “Hands-​on Research”). 198  Green, “Digital Manuscripts as Sites of Touch.”

199  See, for example, Clarkson and Sharpe, “Some Representations of the Book”; Pickwoad, “Reading Bindings: Bindings as Evidence”; Duffy, “Books Depicted in Art”; Boudalis, The Codex and Crafts in Late Antiquity; Pickwoad, “@nicholaspickwoa Pinterest Board.” See also Herman, Le livre enluminé. 200  France, “Spectral Imaging,” 190.

201  See also Terras, chap. 13, “Conclusions.”

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of the originals.202 The Great Parchment Book project—​described here by De Stefani and Smith, and also by Terras—​is an excellent example of a digital product that is a lot more than a copy, one that functions—​as would be desirable and beneficial for all DCOs—​in tandem with the originals. Furthermore, new technologies, in the future, will likely allow the recovery and capture of even more (today untransferable) information that is traditionally missed and lost in current digitization processes. There are unquestionable conflicts of interest between conservation and digitization. The concerns of the preservation of artifacts and physical evidence in all forms are met by the need to image the documents to capture textual information and visual evidence at the best-​quality standards possible. For instance, fragile and damaged materials may present too many risks of further damage to allow scanning, or there is the issue of conservators being generally contrary to the use of glass forced onto bound volumes for better and easier photography. New scanners are devised to counteract this problem, and there is constant considerable progress in photographic and lighting techniques, but these can only partially compensate for the loss of image quality compared to completely flat and steady pages placed under a glass plate.203 Despite this divergence, conservation and digitization can consider their objectives as parallel and complementary, not as incompatible and in competition. Since the beginning of the century, the almost positivistic vision of digitization as the main actor for the preservation of human knowledge (through reformatting) has yielded to a more pragmatic approach that also considers the limits and drawbacks of digitization. The importance of the artifact and its physicality, compared to what information can be currently captured digitally, has been recognized, and no institution would today discard digitized documents, deeming the original artifacts as superfluous. Digitizers understand that what cannot be captured today, as the technology advances, could be easily digitized in the future, and the sole repository of such information resides in the physicality and materiality of the original items. These should be the premises of any digitization project, and the common ground between conservation and digitization. In turn, digital surrogates can tackle issues and questions that cannot be addressed with the original item or through traditional conservation; in this manner, digital products can transcend the material objects that they represent, facilitating particular uses and knowledge acquisition.

202  Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” 220–​22. 203  Bacher et al., “Image Processing,” 23; IFLA, “Guidelines for Planning,” 11–​12.

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Case Studies The following chapters showcase a series of case studies that highlight, through the hands-​on experience of the authors—​in their own words and style—​the ways in which the conservation and digitization balance is maintained in different institutions and settings for the production of digital products without compromising the physicality of the documents. Each chapter narrates the background and results of several projects centred on the digitization (or computerization) of documentary cultural heritage, intended, as described in the Introduction, in the broadest sense—​that is, a process that includes not only routine or advanced imaging activities, but also any action aimed at rendering data that represent a material object into the digital, and at making this data machine-​ processable and usable. The authors were given a set of guidelines that, without being too prescriptive, could help them in writing their contributions in a consistent and logical manner. Thinking back to the onset of a particular project, they were asked to consider the issues and challenges that had to be faced, what problems were encountered, and what compromises and amendments to the original plan had to be implemented to accommodate unforeseen problems and to guarantee the success of the venture. In particular, they were asked to consider: ● What kinds of relationships were established between the team of object experts (conservators, object curators, etc.) and that of the digital data experts (photographers, data curators, database engineers, online content managers, etc.)? Did the relationship change during the project? ● Was there any contact with colleagues in other institutions to seek advice and/​or exchange information and/​or develop standard practices? ● What were the practical solutions that were developed and adopted during the project to ensure its success? Were these ideal solutions or compromises? ● What lessons were learned? How would these influence similar projects in the future? ● Were any publishing avenues (blogs, journal articles, etc.) set up to share ideas and experiences? Were these produced in partnership with all stakeholders?

The case studies cover a wide range of projects and have been selected to represent different kinds of institutions and provide examples of a wide breadth of practices:

1. Conservation towards Large-​Scale Digitization at the Vatican Library Ángela Núñez Gaitán, Head of Conservation, Vatican Apostolic Library (Vatican City)

An ongoing very large-​scale digitization program (~82,000 manuscripts) in a world-​renowned institution, part of the IIIF Consortium. Digitization is for the Vatican Library an extension of its core mission to preserve the manuscripts for the benefit and use of scholars.

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2. Large-​Scale Digitization at The National Archives Catt Thompson-​Baum, former Senior Conservation Manager—​Digitization Services, The National Archives (London, UK) The development of “conservation for digitization” services for large-​scale commercial digitization programs at a national institution. This flexible approach can be adapted to projects involving more than 100,000 items.

3. British Library/​ Qatar Foundation Partnership and the Digitization Project: A Case Study about Conservation Processes within Mass Digitization of Library Material Flavio Marzo, formerly Conservation Manager, British Library/​Qatar Foundation Partnership, British Library (London, UK)

Setting up an extensive digitization program for heterogeneous materials with a dedicated conservation team by way of external funding in a national institution. Marzo notes how technical descriptions of bindings, materials, and structures can be inserted within the objects’ descriptions by the conservator, to then be used by the curators in their cataloguing efforts.

4. The Digitization of Medieval Western Manuscripts at Wellcome Collection Stefania Signorello, Conservator, Wellcome Collection (London, UK)

A digitization program focused on a specific collection (335 medieval Western manuscripts) in a research library. Especially in smaller-​scale projects such as this, the pre-​digitization survey offers an excellent opportunity to look for the research potential embedded in the collection items.

5. Caring for the Object during Digitization of Written Heritage: The Strategy of the Herzog August Library Wolfenbüttel Almuth Corbach, Head of Collection Care and Conservation, Herzog August Bibliothek (Wolfenbüttel, Germany) The management of the reformatting program of a research library, with particular attention to the care of the physical items and the pursuit of strict image-​ quality standards. Considering the long tradition of reproduction at the library, Corbach emphasizes how it is the reformatting process that needs to adapt to the demands of the object, and not the other way around.

6. The Great Parchment Book Project Caroline De Stefani, Conservation Studio Manager, and Philippa Smith, Head of Collections, London Metropolitan Archives (UK)

A bespoke advanced imaging digitization project. An example of a “slow digitization” approach, aimed at addressing issues not otherwise resolvable with physical conservation with the creation of digital surrogates that transcend the original.

7. The Development of the Language of Bindings Thesaurus Athanasios Velios and Nicholas Pickwoad, Directors, Ligatus Research Centre, University of the Arts London (UK)

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Description of specialized computerization techniques to digitize untransferable features and the potential of semantic web technologies for the preservation and digitization of information on bookbindings, and their materials and structures.

8. Spectral Imaging to Aid Preservation and Conservation of Cultural Heritage Fenella G. France, Chief, Preservation Research and Testing Division, Library of Congress (Washington, DC, USA)

The use of multispectral imaging as a digitization technique to capture information on the materiality of documents and how this can be applied to assist the conservator’s job.

9. Multispectral Imaging for Special Collection Materials Michael B.  Toth, President and Chief Technology Officer, R.  B. Toth Associates (Virginia, USA)

The issues and challenges of the implementation of multispectral imaging on special collections and high-​profile items, and the role of the conservator in assisting and safeguard the items, while also gaining new knowledge on their physical make-​up and state of conservation.

In their accounts, the authors of the case studies address a series of themes that should by now be familiar to the reader. One main concern that is brought up on many occasions is the complexity of balancing the preservation of the items with the meaning embedded in their materials and structures, on the one hand, and, on the other, the uses of books as tools and the necessity of capturing high-​quality images for reproduction purposes without inflicting irreparable damage. Pre-​digitization surveys, the selection of appropriate equipment, and effective manual handling training are essential tools to safeguard this balance. Bound volumes are checked and selected (or rejected) as digitization candidates on the basis of their opening characteristics and all items are carefully chosen according to their capacity of being handled safely:  if too fragile or in too poor a condition, they need to be set aside, awaiting full conservation or the arrival of new equipment and technologies. Because of time constraints, items generally undergo minimal stabilization treatments, but, in any case, invasive conservation procedures, such as disbinding, that would render the volumes more easily digitizable are now avoided to circumvent any loss of historical evidence. The best way to ensure the protection of the original items is to include conservation from the planning phase and to involve the conservators in all stages of the reformatting workflow. Although today, routine digitization is not considered as an actual preservation practice, as microfilming and reformatting procedures for brittle paper books might have been in the past, it cannot be denied that a certain amount of information is preserved. For example, photographs, digital or analogue, capture the (appearance of a) state of conservation of an item at a precise date, so inks and pigments that have flaked off or burned through the substrate are still visible, or new lacunas or areas affected by mould or insect infestation retain, in the picture, their original

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look. Similarly, textual information is captured and communicated through digital surrogates, and it can be enhanced through advanced imaging. Also, once digitized, it is hoped that these items may be handled less; although there is evidence that the use of digitized collections increases since the reformatting process makes public and overt resources that were previously difficult to find. As noted, there are characteristics of books that cannot be transferred onto the digital medium through standard digitization. However, some of these characteristics, which in the past would not have been included in cataloguing descriptions, are somewhat apparent in the digital surrogates, especially since, increasingly, all visible components of the volumes to be digitized are photographed—​not just text, but also including stubs, endleaves, bookmarks and inserted material, edges, and covers. Unless a need to see the original is clearly stated, most institutions will address users to the digital surrogate before granting access to the original. Digitization is also seen as a research opportunity, since pre-​and post-​digitization surveys allow conservators to handle and see significant numbers of books. This is particularly true for smaller-​scale projects, where time constraints are less pressing, but it can, nonetheless, be mostly applicable to any project, despite the minimal documentation and metadata that is recorded. Digitization projects also offer a critical opportunity to share technical knowledge and to create rich resources, through blogs, videos, and websites, but also scientific publications, and by disclosing database records to colleagues and researchers. This, however, highlights a grave problem inherent to technical descriptions of bindings, namely the lack of a consistent and recognized terminology and methodology and the related difficulty in sharing and integrating data sets. It is hoped that the pioneering work of Velios and Pickwoad may curb this situation. Advanced imaging can be applied to books to tackle more than just legibility problems, such as the recovery of the undertext in palimpsests, or reading hidden and faded texts, or bringing to light underdrawings. These specialized techniques can help digitize otherwise untransferable features, and help conservators in their job, or even obtain, virtually, results that would be impossible with traditional conservation, thus transcending the possibilities of the original artifact. Projects involving advanced imaging tend to be even more inter-​ and cross-​disciplinary than routine digitization ventures, and one theme that is evident in all case studies is the need for synergetic relationships between all stakeholders, and the difficulties that need to be overcome to work in a liminal space. One of these issues is the communication between all professionals involved. A way to tackle this is to create a common language and understanding so that everyone is on the same page, and the model introduced in Chapter 1 aims at being a means to help to create this common language by focusing on common goals and the shared object of research. Also very important is that professional training takes into account the need to develop interdisciplinary and networking skills, so as to lessen any communication and misunderstanding issues.

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CONSERVATION TOWARDS LARGE-​SCALE DIGITIZATION AT THE VATICAN LIBRARY

ÁNGELA NÚÑEZ GAITÁN* THE VATICAN LIBRARY, ever since its foundation in the mid-​fifteenth century, has had as its primary tasks the protection and preservation of its collections, while also making them freely available to scholars.1 These cardinal concepts have been easily adapted to the new technologies for greater dissemination and preservation of the Library’s cultural heritage. Already in the nineteenth century, faced with the concrete danger of being unable to stop the ongoing deterioration of the palimpsests that had been treated with Gallic acid in order to read the undertext, photographic techniques were selected as a means to at least fix in time the status quo of the text of the most damaged manuscripts. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the internal photographic laboratory was formed, leading to the creation of a new professional figure that would develop over time.2 Due to the tragic circumstances of the first half of the twentieth century in Europe, the creation of photographic surrogates acquired a supplementary function: should the originals be destroyed, the images preserved in different venues could at least preserve the textual transmission for the future generations. With this purpose in mind, safe storage to collect microfilm copies of most manuscripts was created across the Atlantic Ocean.3 In 1975, the Vatican Library organized the interlibrary conference Conservation et reproduction 1  In the document (Iamdiu decrevimus), dated April 30, 1451, the new papal library was to be set for the common advantage of scholars (pro communi doctorum virorum commodo): up to that point the papal collections had been for the exclusive use of the Papal Court, but Pope Nicholas V, who also contributed his own private library, made them available to external scholars too. In the Papal Bull Ad decorem militantis Ecclesiae, dated June 15, 1475, Pope Sixtus IV confirms the purpose of the library as it had been expressed by the founder: for the benefit and honour of learned men (eruditorum…virorum commodum et honorem) (Piazzoni, “Introduzione,” 15–​16). 2  From the onset, alongside standard photography, advanced spectral techniques—​e.g., ultraviolet, infrared, and Röntgen ray (i.e., X-​ray) photography—​were also developed. As time passed, the photographic equipment for spectral imaging evolved, and the Library continued to keep up to date with the available technologies. Today, the photographic laboratory is equipped with various and performant technologies, just as various as the material preserved in the Library. For a history of the photographic laboratory of the Vatican Library see Schuler and colleagues (Schuler, “Il laboratorio fotografico”; Schuler, Fontana, and Falcioni, “Oltre il visibile”).

3  The Knights of Columbus Vatican Film Library, at the Pius XII Memorial Library, Saint Louis University, Missouri, USA (Saint Louis University Libraries, “Knights”).

* Head of Conservation, Vatican Apostolic Library (Vatican City). Translated into English by Alberto Campagnolo.

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des manuscrits et imprimés anciens, once again bringing to the forefront photographic surrogates of manuscripts and early printed books.4 In 1994, in collaboration with IBM and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, the Library took its first steps towards digitization, scanning a sample of 150 manuscripts taken from its most famous holdings.5 In time, the photographic campaign was gradually extended to the rest of the collections. At the dawn of this new century, a new technology is now expanding considerably the means to disseminate the Vatican’s library heritage: the digitization and the publishing of the resulting images online through the web.

A Pharaonic Endeavour: The Complete Digitization of the Manuscript Holdings

The Vatican Library has planned to digitize all the manuscripts in its collections. This is a pharaonic undertaking, as there are about 82,000 manuscripts to digitize, the majority of which are bound in codex format. What is most unsettling, perhaps, is not the sheer quantity, but, above all, the high quality of the items involved in the project, as this is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding collections of manuscripts in the world—​not only because some of these are objectively important for the history of humanity, but also, and foremost, because of their antiquity. Shrewdness is necessary to preserve the integrality of any volume undergoing handling and digitization, but this is even truer when dealing with manuscripts, due to their physical characteristics and their intrinsic unicity. For this reason, the need for substantial and indispensable involvement in the project on the part of the conservation department of the Library becomes logical and evident. The quantity of manuscripts to digitize is contingent on political choices and the objectives of the project. The aim is not the creation of a digital library, since it is not viable to provide the whole set of metadata for each image, and neither for each volume. Staging such a process in tandem with the image capture would require an enterprise of titanic scale—​beyond pharaonic—​unsustainable due to the time and the resources that it would require.6 For these reasons, the project was conceived as a sort of long-​term 4  Among the discussion topics, those at point II, “Restoration and Photography,” are of particular interest:

● Does the restoration workshop have its own photographic archives that provide information on the state of the manuscripts before, during and after the restoration? ● Is it expected that a restored manuscript will be photographed for the Internal Photographic Archives before being re-​bound? ● Are new bindings made in such a way that the manuscript suffers as little as possible from photographic reproduction?

The answer was to encourage re-​sewing on tapes, so as to allow the textblocks to open at 180 degrees without damage (Canart, Paracini Bagliani, and Werlen, “Rapport du Secrétariat,” 40). 5  Schuler, “Il laboratorio fotografico,” 109.

6  It has been calculated that, so far, only about 20 percent of the manuscripts have been catalogued in a manner that would satisfy current standards.

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digital preservation. To achieve this, the Vatican Library has pioneered the use of the FITS (flexible image transport system) file format, a format created in the 1970s by NASA for the preservation of images and astronomical data acquired during the space missions.7 The great advantage of this format is the fact that it is non-​proprietary, free, gratuitous, without capacity limits, and devised to record data in three and four dimensions; it is also updated every six months.8 Despite these premises, with time and with the technological progress, in particular concerning data usage and interoperability, the project is gradually becoming closer to a digital library, with virtual copies available online accompanied by metadata and cataloguing information. The Vatican Library is actively involved in the IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) project.9 This is a growing community of research and digital libraries that have come together to produce an interoperability technology offering researchers the possibility of seeing, comparing, manipulating, citing, and annotating images. The magnitude and variety of manuscript collections preserved at the Vatican Library have also influenced the choice of large-​scale digitization technologies. From the outset, the choice of scanners fell on a kind that would guarantee the highest image quality coupled with software to ready the images for long-​term preservation, while reducing capture time by photographing two pages at one time, a factor not insignificant for a project that will require years to be completed. These scanners have the advantage of offering tilting supports that move gradually as the book is opened. However, they also require the books to be opened at 180 degrees, not an ideal situation for their preservation:  this has prompted the conservation department to add some supports that would make it possible to use the scanners, while at the same time limiting the opening of the books at maximum 130 degrees. All the volumes that could not be opened that much, because of mechanical or conservation reasons, for the time being, have been excluded from digitization. The exclusion is only limited, as it is hoped that in the course of this long project—​currently, about 2,000 volumes are digitized each year10—​there will be the opportunity to buy scanners that allow books to be opened at less than 130 degrees, while still maintaining the required image quality.

7  It is estimated that the complete digitization project will require forty petabytes of storage. On FITS, see NASA, “FITS Standard.”

8  The implementation of this format for cultural heritage has been possible thanks to the collaboration with Giuseppe di Persio and Riccardo Smareglia, researchers in astrophysics, and Luciano Ammenti, director of the Centro Elaborazione Dati (Center for Data Processing) of the Vatican Library. For a more in-​depth discussion of FITS and the Vatican Library see Allegrezza, “Analisi del formato FITS.” 9  IIIF, “International Image Interoperability Framework.”

10  At present, there are nine scanners and twenty-​seven operators working in shifts of maximum five hours.

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A Healthy Balance between Preservation and Use At the beginning of the project, the first obstacle that needed to be overcome was that of our own biases—​we were fully aware, as only conservators can be, of the amount of damage that can be inflicted upon documents by people accustomed to books, as they forget the actual age of the artifacts they hold in their hands. No antique object is so handled and used as codices that are four hundred, eight hundred, or more than a thousand years old. Moreover, there is—​perhaps, optimistically, there was—​a tendency to adapt manuscripts and rare books to our modern needs, asking for invasive conservation treatments, so that they could be handled as if they were modern books, without ever so slightly taking into account the loss of historical information and evidence resulting from any conservation treatment. Old books should not adapt themselves to our needs; it should be the other way around. Our natural protective approach towards books and their broad preservation needs, at times, clashed with the approach, natural still, of our colleagues from the photography department, who aimed at the highest image quality, as close as possible to the originals. This conflict was overcome through an active and very respectful mutual collaboration. Obtaining the best image possible (with perfect colourimetry, at the highest resolution,11 and long-​term digital preservation of the images) in one—​and, desirably, unique—​capture means not having to repeat, for many years, the process, avoiding extraordinary stress to the volumes. Furthermore, this helps to reduce the handling of the originals, thus contributing to their preservation. Therefore, as conservators, we have considered the scanning of each book as if it were a common—​albeit exhaustive—​ use in the reading room, with the advantage of being able to enforce precise handling requirements for each and every volume (note the emphasis on “each and every”). On the other hand, conservators are continuously faced with problems that inevitably require compromises, starting from the apparent conflict between preservation needs and the use of the collections within the Library, already described by Father Franz Ehrle,12 and so summarized:13 “There has to be a healthy balance between the care of preserving the books and the care of allowing them to be used.” 11  The images are captured at 400–​800 native dpi.

12  Prefect of the Vatican Library from 1895 to 1914, and then cardinal librarian (1929–​1934). He called the interlibrary European meeting of 1898, known as the Conference of St. Gall. On the Conference see Ehrle and Biagi:  Ehrle, “Die internationale Konferenz”; Ehrle, “In Sachen der internationalen Konferenz”; Biagi, “Della conservazione dei manoscritti”; Biagi, “La Conferenza Internazionale di S. Gallo.”

13  “Today, with great freedom, the use of manuscript treasures is granted to those who request it, enabling it as much as possible, and, in this century of railway travel, in a month, or better still in a week, these are being used more times than what it used to be in a century. However, this generosity is just and right only when coupled with the careful preservation of such treasures, lacking which, it would result in great damage for the future generations. There has to be a healthy balance between the care of preserving the books and the care of allowing them to be used” (Ehrle, “Della conservazione,” 25).

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The photographers trained all the scanner operators for what concerns the capture techniques and quality standards that are generally followed by the Vatican Library (and that have not been lowered during this large-​scale digitization project). In addition, the conservators trained them for what concerns the safe handling of the volumes, and also to increase their sympathy towards manuscripts.14 The selection of the manuscripts from which to begin the project was established by the head of the manuscript division of the Library according to the following criteria: ● The relevance of the manuscript. Priority is given to those manuscripts labelled as Reserved, that is, those whose use, because of their importance, is most restricted and must be justified and approved by the division head. Being able to make these immediately available through surrogates enables their study and their long-​term preservation needs. ● Collections that are less studied and known. The online digital image surrogates contribute to their study and foster original discoveries within not so well-​known collections. ● Collections that are most studied, to facilitate their remote use and comparative studies. In 2010, the first OCR trials on manuscripts were attempted at the Vatican Library, although with limited results: digitization would certainly foster progress in this field. ● At times, those volumes that presented conservation problems have been selected for digitization specifically to enable access to the text without having to handle them afterward (pending challenging conservation treatments). In these specific cases, the dialogue and collaboration with the photography department became fundamental to achieve the best capturing technique, with the help and constant presence of the conservator.15

The Digitization Process

The digitization process begins with us, at the conservation laboratory, inside the Vatican Library. Each book selected for digitization comes through the laboratory, where its conditions are checked, and it is then prepared for safe digitization with minimal 14  To ensure best results, the digitization project follows the same procedures to warrant high image quality that are applied for photography in general in the Library. Standards are therefore uniform and close to the best-​practice procedures for the photography of rare books and manuscripts that are published in the literature, e.g., the IFLA or the DFG guidelines, etc. Colour management and post-​production are managed according to valid and uniform techniques; each page is interleaved with white paper and, after capture, the images are double checked to guarantee the capture of master files with the lowest degree of error possible. For imaging technical details see Schuler, “Il laboratorio fotografico”; Schuler, Fontana, and Falcioni, “Oltre il visibile.” 15  The most challenging cases were shoot utilizing two cameras mounted on special stands that allowed adequate and safe opening of the volumes.

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conservation treatments. These are recorded in the conservation database.16 However, to speed up the process, the database forms are not filled in entirely, as is customary for any other conservation treatment. In this instance, the bibliographic information is limited to call number and measurements, the condition is fully recorded, but there is no conservation planning, and the conservation treatments are recorded when the volume needs intervention before digitization. The last section, for the final inspection, is recorded solely when the books are back from digitization: after scanning, each volume is returned to the conservation laboratory for a final check, so as to examine the full process. The final inspection is crucial as it is a meeting point for both departments. During the initial phases of the digitization project, the post-​digitization checks and the acknowledgment of damage incurred during scanning have allowed us to assess the conservation issues of the scanners that could not be pre-​emptively recognized and addressed. During these last few years of experience, we have defined with greater caution which volumes should be selected for digitization, and, in tandem with the colleagues from Photography, we have revised and adjusted the shooting procedures, and perfected the handling instructions for the operators. Communication was also monitored and continuously improved, and we can now say that we have reached a satisfactory degree of precision and accuracy. We have developed a technical phrasebook to uniform the descriptions and the instructions between conservators and digitizers, improving and speeding up communication. Of fundamental importance is a software interface in common with the operators. Conservation communicates with the digitizers through a web-​based managing software called Inside, which has been developed by colleagues from the Library’s IT department, with input from Conservation and Photography. The system manages the workflow of the entire 16  The conservation record form, created at the Vatican Library in 2009, complete with digital photographic documentation, entails five sections: bibliographical description, condition, conservation planning, conservation treatment (with special care in recording the materials and products utilized), and final inspection before releasing the item back to the store after conservation (and digitization). The information recorded in the forms is organized in a database that will be available in the manuscript data archiving and consulting system, already in place at Vatican Library, called InForMA (Informatics for Manuscripts and Archives). InForMA is built in an open-​source Java/​ XML-​based software that can be easily managed through a web interface. It is a well-​constructed database for the description and the research of manuscripts and archive items, and it is consistent with international standards (TEI-​MS for manuscripts:  TEI, “TEI (Ch. 10)”; and EAD for archive items: Library of Congress, “EAD”). The search engine can find every single piece of information that is recorded in the conservation forms, increasing the chances of historical and statistical research about conservation in the future. Our objective was to build a database in which to collect the complete information about the conservation treatments carried out from the beginning of the twentieth century up to now, and onwards. We will also manage the legacy information contained in the old registers, where the conservation works had been recorded since 1919, in addition to the information gathered in detailed documents in use from 2000 to 2009 (Grimaccia, “The Vatican Library Conservation Workshop”).

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project. In this system, the conservators signal all the characteristics of each volume that may be problematic, including damage that is already present and handling instructions. The conservators decide the maximum opening degree of each volume, whether the scanning glass pane may or may not be used, and if the presence of a conservator is required during scanning. Conservators can also decide to declare volumes unfit for digitization when these could be irremediably damaged during photographic capture. These books will be digitized in a second phase, after demanding conservation treatments have been carried out. In our constant fight against time, without letting our guard down for what concerns the preservation needs of the volumes, we have decided to set aside a fair number of items, postponing their scanning. We are, however, still looking to the future with confidence for all those volumes that would not be fit for the whole digitization process because of their precarious conditions and their structural characteristics. Having to allow for a 180 degree opening during scanning has influenced our work significantly, for example in the selection criteria and handling instructions. However, as a consequence of the rebinding campaigns of the Vatican collections during the twentieth century, thousands of books had been resewn on tapes and can therefore be safely opened at 180 degrees without problems.17 Without a doubt, the peculiarity of this venture resides in the fact that it is a large-​ scale manuscript digitization project conceived, planned, and managed exclusively making use of the skills found inside the institution, from the beginning to the end. The continuous cooperation between the photography and the conservation departments of the Vatican Library, but also with the IT department and all internal divisions of the institution, is paramount to the success of the project. Any digitization project, small or large, cannot be conceived without close collaboration and constructive dialogue among conservators, digitizers, and IT specialists. Only in this manner can conservation become truly of support to digitization (and vice versa), and not merely accessory to it, or even optional. There is also another critical factor in such a long project, namely the constant search for funding that may keep alive the dream of accessing online all the manuscripts of the Vatican collections.

Digitization for the Common Advantage of Scholars Despite the clear advantages brought forward by digitization, there is a general concept that often escapes. Keeping in mind that the digital information about a manuscript is only partial, as said before, because the materiality of the object, fundamental to a significant number of research fields, is left aside, we should remember that having the information at our disposal does not mean possessing the knowledge. The research activities and analyses that lead to the integration of the information and the reconstruction of 17  See note 4 (in this chapter).

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the history and significance of historical items, in fact, must remain a substantial complement to the process of knowledge and culture production. The tendency, now widespread, to think that the sole fact of having immediate and easy access to information would automatically make us “more knowledgeable” can easily lead us to think that such a large mass of data would in itself be cultural heritage. In this manner, we would lose sight of the dense network of connections that documents have with the historical and cultural context from whence they came. Despite this, through images and the transmission of texts, the primal function of books is preserved. Scholars interested exclusively in the text are aided by modifiable digital images that allow also seeing what cannot be perceived with the naked eye. In some instances, traditional digitization is integrated with spectral imaging data of some pages to address compromised legibility: palimpsest pages, pages heavily damaged by mould or leaves that had been lined and faced with translucent tissue in the nineteenth century to reinforce the paper corroded by the acidity of the inks. Codicologists and book archaeologists may—​and, optimistically, should—​cooperate firsthand in the preservation of the materiality of books, evaluating which consultations need to be necessarily conducted on the originals for their research interests, and which may be done through surrogates. It is evident that no image will ever be a substitution for the original items, since rare books, and, even more so, manuscripts, are the objects of book archaeology studies. Much historical information conveyed by the materiality of books cannot be communicated through two-​dimensional images:  from the evident example of the thickness of the writing support to the more refined, but no less critical, odour of the pages. For this reason, the Vatican Library does not expect, as a consequence of the digitization project, to prevent manuscripts from being used, but only to reduce their direct usage, preserving a little longer their physicality and materiality. Our desire, to conclude, is that the digital dissemination of the Vatican collections may contribute to increasing the study of our manuscripts, also attracting scholars to our reading rooms, thus continuing to promote, in an even more accentuated manner, our motto pro communi doctorum virorum commodo.18

18  See note 4 (in this chapter).

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LARGE-​SCALE DIGITIZATION AT  THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

CATT  THOMPSON-​BAUM* THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES is the repository of the official record of the government of England and Wales. It holds records from all government departments dating back to the eleventh century. There are government documents in other collections, from a time when ministers kept their papers when they left their government role, but from 1838 when the first Public Records Office Act was created, records created for government business belonged to government. From that date, and through further permutations of the Act, The National Archives (TNA) and its previous incarnations have retained the official record of government. The Public Records Act governs, among other things, the statutory functions of preservation and access to government records, and digitization is a key tool for both as well as vital revenue generation. This chapter focuses on mass commercial digitization of collections, rather than individual record capture for researchers in our reading rooms.

Surrogate Production and Data Creation

TNA holds over 220 kilometres of government history at the time of writing, an amount that increases each year as more records are opened by the government under transparency legislation, which dictates that records are opened to the public after a twenty-​year period. Records are stored both on-​site and at an off-​site facility. Any open record can be requested for digitization, and the collections are valuable for both academic and family history research. Digitization is an expensive, resource-​intensive process, with multiple complex work streams surrounding the image capture itself to create the final digital product. The record sets at The National Archives are rarely consistent; media, condition, size, colour, and format of individual documents can vary greatly even within the same volume or file. Additionally, client requirements vary, so solutions to each work stream must be tailored to each project. The National Archives has created surrogates from original documents since the 1960s using microfilm and began creating digitized records from its own collection of microfilm in the early 2000s, the largest of which was the 1901 census released in January 2002. This was swiftly followed by the creation of digital images of the Prerogative Court  

* Independent Accredited Conservation Manager and Collections Consultant, UK.(Formerly Senior Conservation Manager—​Digitization Services, The National Archives [London, UK].)

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of Canterbury Wills (1389–​1858) and the First World War Medal Index Cards, both from existing microfilm. They were among the earliest institutions to move to digital capture processes from original records, with the first large-​scale digitization of National Archives-​held records in 2006, when Board of Trade Incoming Passenger Lists from 1870 to 1960 (BT 26) were digitized and made available online by a third-​party commercial publisher. Information held in The National Archives’ collections is of huge interest to a wide range of audiences interested in British, colonial, social, government, and family histories, among others. The data held at TNA can also be broadly categorized into two types: structured and unstructured data; and broadly speaking, there are two primary audiences: academic researchers and family history researchers. Industries have grown up around these two categories, and the rise of and the ability to disseminate information via the Internet have created a boom, both in the genealogy and academic online markets. Information held at institutions such as TNA has commercial value, and digitization is a very complex and expensive process. The result is a symbiotic relationship whereby commercial companies pay for all of the inherent costs in digitizing National Archives content to gain an edge over rivals and create revenue in a competitive marketplace; in turn, the Archives benefits through increased access to their holdings, preservation of their collections, and royalty generation. In addition to The National Archives developing relationships with leading academic and genealogy publishers to digitize content, it also digitizes collections on behalf of other countries’ government record offices, often former colonies interested in the official government record during the colonial era, as well as other interested parties from a variety of institutions around the world.

Building Relationships between Conservation and the Digitization Team As with all collections of diverse provenance, and particularly with working collections, documents have often suffered a range of historical damage through poor-​quality materials, storage, and handling prior to accessioning by TNA. There was recognition during early large-​scale projects, such as the immigration and emigration record sets and digitization of the first census from original records as opposed to microfilm, that there were elements of the condition and format of the records that would require conservation involvement. The big challenge in the first few years of digitization was getting the message to other internal and external project stakeholders that conservation was a vital and beneficial process. Some early projects were planned with conservation as an afterthought, so involvement in early projects, such as the BT 26 series digitization project, was relatively minimal with a survey conducted by members of collection care focusing primarily on types of fastenings and whether they needed to be removed for image capture, as opposed to the condition of the papers. Condition was considered much more in subsequent projects, with procedures being drawn up to make the process more robust.

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Conservation is typically the first process in any project and provides numerous benefits beyond simple condition improvement. Aside from stabilizing the document, conservation guarantees maximum legibility of the image, provides a more efficient image capture rate as the documents are easier to handle, and ensures that the documents are not presented to the public in poor condition in the image, helping protect the reputation of the relevant institution as appropriate guardians of their collection. When digitization started at The National Archives, responsibility for conservation in relation to digitization sat within the preservation team of the collection care department. It was managed by the Preservation Officer alongside their other responsibilities, and they established the initial procedures with the Head of Preservation. By early 2009, there were three large-​scale ongoing commercial digitization projects, and project conservators were now employed as the requirement for staff outstripped in-​house resource. The number of projects continued to grow, with numerous smaller projects being requested alongside larger-​scale ones. By mid-​2009, it was clear that a dedicated role was required to manage the number of digitization projects. This new role, the Digitization Support Conservator, sat within the preservation team and managed the larger digitization projects as well as undertaking surveying and conservation work of the smaller projects. A key benefit of the new role was that only having digitization as a focus meant that more time could be spent building crucial relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including the commercial partners themselves and the image capture teams. A particular early focus was to ensure conservation was involved at early stages of planning projects, and there is now an institution-​wide, robust planning process with conservation at the beginning. The other primary public relations work was to build relationships with the commercial partners to ensure they understood the importance and benefit of conservation to their product, as they would be paying for the conservators and conservation is a non-​negotiable process in the project. Many early projects, particularly those with genealogy partners, involved single record sets that were consistent in layout, format, and material, and which were often in relatively good condition. These “easy” record sets needed little, if any, conservation and were the natural choice for early digitized content. The narrative data required by academic partners did not lend itself quite so well to this, so early projects, such as digitization of the Tudor State Papers, covered multiple record sets across the collections and needed much more conservation resource. As time went on, projects became more complex, often involving multiple record series, with individual files or volumes cherry-​ picked from series, as well as the projects covering large runs of a single series. At the same time, projects were increasing in scale, so typically the numbers of itemized catalogue references (volumes, tagged files, maps, etc.) included in one project number in the thousands, or in some case tens of thousands, as opposed to hundreds as was once the case. These exponential increases soon meant that available space in the conservation studio had been utilized and conservators were working increasingly in the digitization areas alongside the imaging technicians. While having the conservators work directly next to the scanning teams was useful to build relationships and trust, the conditions for conservation work in these areas were inadequate, uncomfortable and inefficient;

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there was no proper lighting, benches, or seating and all materials required were stored in the collection care studio a building away. This, combined with a vastly different way of working from the main collection care functions and the ever-​increasing demand for digitization, led to a radical solution: in 2011 the digitization conservation function was moved out of collection care and into the commercial services department in which all other functions of digitization resided. The move consolidated the various digitization processes, embedding conservation into the digitization team to form a close relationship. A separate studio was built next to the scanning teams to ensure close collaboration and create proper working conditions for the conservators with their own stock of relevant materials and equipment. To ensure that commercial pressures would not diminish the standards of conservation undertaken in this new setting, and to ensure that conservators in a different department would still benefit from professional development opportunities and have support from fellow conservators, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was drawn up between collection care and commercial services. To safeguard the preservation standards of the collection, collection care retained a formal oversight over projects and approved treatment once surveys had been carried out. In reality, treatment varies little due to the minimal nature of conservation for digitization, but this process preserved a vital link between the two conservation teams and ensured that the smaller team had influential backing should tensions arise with the commercial teams. To date, the strong relationships built up between the digitization conservation team and the other stakeholders have proved the key to making this unnecessary, but it is an important insurance policy.

Conservation for Digitization As conservation for digitization at TNA is non-​negotiable and must be paid for by the commercial partner, it was recognized early on that a pragmatic approach must be taken while maintaining ethical standards of collection care. Conservation for digitization is done with only digitization in mind. The treatment is to make documents stable enough to withstand the physical handling through the digitization process and to reduce the risk of further damage. Longer-​term preservation is not a factor in the decision-making, and repairing all damage is not appropriate. After digitization, when images are available online, readers are directed to the image and the physical documents put into the off-​site storage facility. Readers cannot access them without making a case to the relevant department head. With these parameters in mind, there are very clear guidelines for what to repair or treat, and what not to. With the best will, it is impossible to ensure that no damage occurs during digitization, particularly when documents are already fragile. Conservators can repair, but damage to items cannot be reversed and will always retain an inherent weakness. The principle of conservation for digitization is to minimize the risk of damage posed by physical handling during the process. Building a strong communicative relationship with the imaging operators is crucial so that if damage does occur, there is a dialogue with conservators. This way, the conservator can assess the cause and put safeguards in

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place for the future. A conservator working on digitization projects should always spend time sitting with operators to see the process, and if possible, try it themselves, to understand the challenges and limitations faced by the capture team. This will also allow the conservators to make sharper, more relevant judgments on what damage to focus on. For simplicity, damage in the early days of TNA digitization conservation is put into one of two broad categories:  minor and major. Minor damage was not treated, while major damage was. Although this remains true the terminology is no longer used. This is because initial guidelines for these damage categories referred to the size of the damage—​for instance, a tear of more than an inch was repaired, but if smaller, was not. In reality, and as the type of material requested for projects has become more varied and complex, this is too simplistic. The judgment must be made in the context of the individual document being assessed. A  tear of a particular size and location on one page may extend during handling whereas the same damage on another page may not because the type and condition of the page may be very different, even within one file or volume. Considerations such as whether the page is bound in some way, or whether it is a loose page that turns freely, affect the handling. So many factors contribute to how any individual document or page behaves that standardizing guidelines leads to erroneous judgment and puts documents at risk. Guidelines and “Flag-​Up” Approach

One of the reasons that these guidelines were sometimes used was so that scanning operators could be asked to flag up the damage they found for the conservator, negating the need for a full pre-​scanning condition survey. There are a number of reasons why this is an unfavourable approach:

1. The operator does not have the material knowledge to make the correct judgments and, therefore, does not flag up the right damage to the conservator. Even with training and printed guidance by the conservator, this has proved to be the case time and again. 2. The operator has an entirely different focus and priority. They have strict image-​per-​ hour capture rates set and are under pressure to meet these. Interrupting their work to consult a conservator prevents them from meeting these targets with the result that they do not. 3. They do not value conservation for preservation reasons so will continue their work if they think they can get a good image that will not fail the capture company’s image quality assurance (QA) process. They will only raise a query if something is very difficult for them to handle or if they cannot get a good image, so most damage that should be repaired to reduce risk is ignored. Some early projects at TNA were done as operator “flag-​up” projects, but these have been eliminated because a wealth of evidence built up showing that damage was not being flagged up for precisely the reasons above. Retaining control over who can handle the documents and reserve the right to have people removed if they put documents at risk was crucial. There were some rare unfortunate instances where this was implemented

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because guidance on flagging up damage and handling training had been disregarded by a scanning operator. There are some very minor processes that are more efficient for the operator to carry out, but these are limited to unfolding a simple turned corner, or taking out fasteners such as treasury tags, paper clips and split pins, as long as a conservation tool is not required. In addition to the risks posed by unqualified people attempting the work of conservators, there are additional benefits to having a conservator pre-​survey a collection before scanning commences. If an operator stopped their work to highlight damage to a conservator, and the conservator took the documents away to be treated, the scanning workflow would be continually interrupted, making progress difficult. Equally, the conservator time would be impossible to plan. Having a survey ready means that every item that needs work has a time allotted to it, and the conservation workflow can be planned and tailored to meet the scanning schedule. Equally, anything identified as not requiring conservation can go straight to the capture team. Conservation Methodology

At The National Archives, the team that conserves records for digitization is made up entirely of qualified conservators with a specialism in books or paper. This is the minimum requirement for the team. A Conservation Manager manages the team and projects on a day-​to-​day basis, with a Senior Conservation Manager overseeing the whole team, working on both operational and strategic requirements. The project team members are on contracts, which allows flexibility in managing a resource level appropriate to the number of projects and the amount of staff required to deliver them. The methodology is simple for digitization conservation. Mould cleaning is done for any suspected mould, whether considered inactive or active. All mould-​affected items are treated in the contamination room on a vacuum table using a Museum Vac. If the paper has significantly weakened due to mould, it is consolidated and resized using Klucel® G to strengthen for handling and interleaved if necessary. Surface dirt is cleaned using a smoke sponge if text is obscured. Likewise, creases are flattened only if the text is hidden. Repair is done if there is a real risk that handling will extend existing damage even with proper handling. Most mechanical damage is caused by handling through use so is typically along the tail and fore-​edges of documents. Bearing in mind that these are the prime areas to be handled during digitization, against pressured targets, they tend to be the main focus for treatment. In the early days of digitization conservation at TNA, repair of mechanical damage was typically done using splints of appropriate weight Japanese tissue and wheat starch paste. These were left to dry between Bondina® and blotter and dried under a weight, locally. When a project started in 2010 to digitize the World War One Unit War Diaries (series WO 95), a collection comprised of 5,500 boxes containing maps, photographs, and drawings along with the diaries themselves, a pilot project was undertaken to find a more efficient method to reduce the estimated twelve years it would take to conserve the records. Various workflows and methods were tested, but one showed a significant advantage. Adapted from an article by Eliza Jacobi et  al. on “repairs on iron

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gall inks,”1 the use of Japanese tissue with a remoistenable coating of gelatin proved to be much quicker to apply, much quicker to dry, and reduced the need for blotter, Bondina® and weights, allowing the conservators to work through a box or volume much quicker. A pilot project showed that the conservation would be reduced by three years from the original twelve year estimate, and the method was adopted. This became the default technique, using 3 percent gelatin and a variety of weights of Japanese tissue as appropriate, typically 5, 10, and 16 gsm. Sheets of tissue are coated with the gelatin and applied to Melinex® and then scored into splints of the required size. Each splint can be individually peeled off and the gelatin reactivated on a small moist pad of blotter. There are some papers to which this method will not stick, so the more traditional technique is also used if necessary. For large lined rolled maps, methylcellulose is typically used in a traditional way, rather than paste or gelatin, as it is more flexible. Conservation for digitization is not only about repair; all operators are given document handling training before they can work with the collection and renewed every year at a minimum. The training includes guidance on handling items with all types of seals and pigments as well as the numerous formats and materials. Many document beds come with integral supported glass that is lowered to hold the document in place. Glass and Perspex are not allowed in direct contact with seals and pigments due to pressure and static, so advice is given on how to scan more difficult documents such as these in a safe way. One of the reasons that a conservator is advised to gain knowledge of the various types of imaging equipment used in digitization is to understand the limitations and impact so that they can provide advice to prevent damage. Condition Assessment

Tailoring the workflow is crucial in a digitization project; conservation is just the first of a number of processes that must be delivered within a specific timeline and budget. Accuracy in estimating the total amount of work required and which documents need conservation is important for project and financial planning. At TNA, the content for every project undergoes condition assessment by the conservators. If there is a large group of catalogue references from an individual series, the first step is a “spot check,” during which 10 percent of the list is investigated quickly to establish format, material, media, and whether there are any condition issues. If there are none, the list is approved immediately for scanning with no conservation intervention. If there is any damage that would need attention within the parameters of digitization, a full survey of the list is required. This is also true of content lists that contain references to a small number of items from a range of document series. The full survey records the condition issues and assigns the time that each file, box, or volume will take to repair. The date and name of the conservator who both surveys and conserves are recorded in the form, which doubles as the treatment records; it is impossible to fully document every page in digitization projects as millions are checked and conserved each year. The form enables tracking and audit of project progress at any 1  Jacobi et al., “Rendering the Invisible Visible.”

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stage, and establishing whether estimated times are being met, and correcting issues at an early stage if not. The form also enables efficient management of workflow. All documents identified as not requiring conservation can be separated and passed on to the scanning team as appropriate to the project; sometimes before the conserved items, sometimes after, and sometimes a mix. The techniques used are adaptable in scale so can be flexed whether a project involves ten items or one hundred thousand.

A Successful Model

The relationship and communication built up with the operators are crucial in working together. It is important to control the flow of documents, as ordering more than necessary puts a strain on the available storage in the scanning area, and conflicts with potential orders from readers. Maintaining flexibility in the workflow is crucial as things often change during a project, requiring a shift in approach. Documentation and training are also kept flexible and updated as new things are learned. The team is encouraged to contribute ideas about techniques, methods, and materials, and new ideas are trialled. The intention is that the team is always abreast of, and in keeping with, the latest conservation materials, techniques, and approaches. Over the years, TNA have become acknowledged leaders in conservation for digitization and conservators at other institutions often consult the author when approaching their own digitization projects. TNA project team members are often newly qualified conservators, and the training they receive is recognized and sought after by other conservation managers when they apply for positions for the next stage in their career development. Many institutions have adapted The National Archives’ digitization conservation model for their own purposes, and in 2014, the author undertook a benchmarking exercise to ensure their practice was still at the pinnacle of ethical and professional standards. As a result of recent directorate changes, after a period of more than five years, the team has been reunited with their collection care colleagues under the same department. Despite the change in line management, the teams maintain their separate studio and continue to share office space with their commercial colleagues in order to maintain their relationship with the rest of the digitization team, continuing to capitalize on the strongly established relationship with close communication and collaboration. TNA has successfully shown that a conservation team can be embedded within a commercial department, separate from collection care. In fact, it would not have been possible to develop this model of digitization conservation had this separation not taken place for a period, precisely because of the very different focus and working methods of the two teams. This model has maximized efficiency and strengthened relationships to ensure that within the Archives’ program of mass digitization, the preservation of the collection is at the forefront and that the integrity of the original record remains paramount, providing a gold standard to other organizations.

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BRITISH LIBRARY/​QATAR FOUNDATION PARTNERSHIP AND THE  DIGITIZATION PROJECT: A CASE STUDY ABOUT CONSERVATION PROCESSES WITHIN MASS DIGITIZATION OF LIBRARY MATERIAL

FLAVIO MARZO* A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN the British Library and the Qatar Foundation was started in 2012. The Qatar Foundation is a state-​run non-​profit organization focusing on education, scientific research, and community development, and it is within the context of this partnership that a digitization project was also launched in 2012. During the first phase of this collaborative project, in October 2014, the Qatar Digital Library—​a new, bilingual, online portal providing access to previously un-​ digitized British Library archive materials relating to Gulf history and Arabic science manuscripts—​was launched as part of the agreed deliveries of the project.1 The project was then extended into a second phase until the end of 2018, with the goal to upload over a million pages of historical material related to the Gulf, in addition to the 500,000 images including maps, photographs, manuscripts, letters, but also audio and video files already undertaken in the partnership’s first phase. The BL/QDL Partnership and the Digitisation Project are still running today and plans have been made for further extensions.

The Planning Phases

From the beginning, the conservation strand of the project was rooted in the planning process. A new conservation studio with a team of three conservators was set up within the spaces rented by the Qatar Foundation on the sixth floor of the British Library’s main building, where all the people employed to work for the project were placed. During the first few weeks, contacts were made with other institutions where digitization projects had been previously established. Great support, especially in the scoping for the type of materials and equipment needed, was given by the conservation team involved in digitization preparation at The National Archives in Kew, where 1  Qatar Foundation, Qatar National Library, and British Library, “Qatar Digital Library.”

*  Managing Conservator, Cambridge Colleges’ Conservation Consortium (Cambridge, UK). (Formerly Conservation Manager, British Library/​Qatar Foundation Partnership, British Library [London, UK].)

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Catt Thompson-​Baum had been the conservation manager: she generously shared her knowledge acquired in years of dealing with digitization workflows and the conservation preparation requirements.2 A very comprehensive document (“Guidelines for Conservation”) detailing the project’s policies and procedures, revised many times since then, was also compiled during the first few months of the project. Based on a risk assessment approach, this document was compiled taking into consideration all the different aspects of the digitization workflow, not only to foretell and mitigate the risks related to the handling involved during those processes, but also to define conservation practices with our stakeholders—​namely curators, the main British Library conservation department, and the project’s board. This document became a record for the materials and standardized techniques applied when treating items:  a handy reference for the conservation treatment record, which was consequently kept to a minimal and efficient level.

The Project’s Workflow

Items scoped from the British Library collection for the project are brought to the floor on a weekly basis and immediately condition assessed. Based on the parameters agreed within our “Guidelines for Conservation,” the items are conserved and stabilized if needed, and eventually moved to the following workflow stage when ready. SharePoint, a Microsoft online collaboration tool that is highly customizable, and requires relatively little technical expertise to administer, is the online system that we all use to record the information related to the item processed, to track its physical and virtual location within the project workflow, and also all the activities and deliveries of the project. The software was acquired and customized to our needs, with tailored menus and fields related to the different strands of the workflow. I will be describing and using this system as a framework to explain what we, conservation, have been doing and also to talk about the implementations that have been happening during the last few years and possibly the lessons learned preparing and conserving library material for digitization. On the left of the screen, as seen in Figure 6, are represented all the different strands of the project with their customized menus, arranged in the sequence as they are within the project workflow, preceded by a couple of tracking/​searching tools. The macro highlights the specific part of the menu dedicated to Conservation, with the sub-​fields representing our internal workflow steps. When clicking on one of those headings the items that are in the specific view/​workflow stage appear; they will move to the following view (Foliation) only after having been processed, and the required boxes having been filled. When clicking on an item a series of fields appear ready to be edited. The information and features collected in those fields are the results of lengthy discussions, and various reviews and implementations happened during the five years of work. They are, in 2  Editor’s Note: see also Thompson-​Baum’s contribution in this book.

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Figure 6. Snapshot of the main page of SharePoint.

Figure 7. Conservation Assessment page.

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fact, the result of a continuous confrontation with the other colleagues involved in the project in order to make them understand the interdependences between conservation and the rest of the project, and to customize our condition assessment so to make it meaningful, as useful as possible for everybody, and time effective. The information that we collect is as follows. Location

Knowing the physical location of the items is, obviously, an essential tracking requirement, but one that is, logistically, not necessarily as straightforward an operation as it may seem. At the beginning of the project, a new storage area, located within the floor where we work, was set up with new metal shelving. The shelving was organized into bays named after the different workflow stages. The idea was that when items were brought to the floor, their physical location was to match the workflow stage they were at, moving along accordingly, this to help, also visually, to track the production flow. This idea was soon dismissed since it resulted in constant misplacement of items and consequent waste of time in retrieving them. It was, however, agreed—​even after reorganizing the storage area to a new system, whereby each item was assigned to a single permanent location—​that conservation would keep its own condition assessment bay to make it easier for us to retrieve the items as soon as they arrive at the floor and carry out the condition assessment. After the assessment is done, and the items needing conservation have been treated, they are placed on a specific shelf (1E) from where they are subsequently collected by the appointed library assistants and moved to their permanent location that will not change until the end of the digitization workflow. Assessed by Date /​Shelfmark

These are self-​explanatory fields to be filled as part of the basic information we want to store into the database. IOR Neg

Certain items have old numbers related to previous microfilm campaigns written on the folders in which they are stored: we collect and record these when we re-​house the items and consequently produce a new label that we apply onto the new folders. On the labels, we re-​group and collect all the available information related to the item being re-​housed. Housing

We record, choosing from a drop-​down menu, if items are provided with an enclosure or if they need a new one; the options are: ● Housed ● Needs new housing

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One of the main challenging issues we had to face was how to deal with items that presented fastenings and treasury tags, or restricted openings due to tight bindings or inappropriate sewing styles, that were compromising access to the writing, thus impairing the full readability and imaging of the text. Those are common and very sensitive issues when digitizing fastened or bound material, and ours is only a specific example of how those can be addressed. As a general rule, we do not disbind items to facilitate digitization, but we also agreed that in certain specific cases, the dismantling of bound volumes could be acceptable. Files from the India Office Collection, that is, 90 percent of the material that we digitize, is composed mostly of loose-​leaf items, frequently fastened with all sort of devices going from metal pins to treasury tags made of string with metal endings. There are, however, also bound volumes sewn with stabbed-​through, overcast sewing, which frequently compromises the book opening and the full access to the written text. We agreed to remove, and not replace, treasury tags and metal fastenings, to reduce the risk of damaging by sawing the fragile paper when turning the pages and also to remove the risk of damage to adjacent pages caused by sharp or rusty metal fastenings. To mitigate the risk of dissociation, misplacements of pages within loose sheet files, and theft, we house the disbound items in new folders and adhere a label to the new folder where we indicate that the items are now loose leaves and that a surrogate is available. The foliation for all the files processed within the project is consistently carried out by the curatorial team at the ‘Foliation’ stage, immediately after the conservation treatments. Binding Status

This field was designed to give three options to choose from: ● Bound ● Loose leaf ● Mixed

These types of formats are not used to describe the style of binding, but only to record, for the photographers, the format and arrangement of items allowing them to organize their own workflow, choosing, depending on the type of format, the right photographic equipment.

Binding Style

Fifteen options have been given within this box: ● ● ● ● ● ●

Stitched in boards Stitched pamphlet Sewn in boards Case bound Pamphlet binding File

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Post-​bound guard book Photo album Islamic with flap Islamic without flap Islamic/​Western hybrid Other Not known Drawing Map

These styles of bindings were chosen as the most representative and common to be found within the collection we have been and are processing. The terminology was borrowed from the bookbinding terminology thesaurus published by Ligatus on their website.3 The tick-​box option gave consistency to the data collected and provides easier retrieval and use of the information collected. Covering Material

Also recorded at the assessment stage, only for documentation purposes, is the style and type of covering. This field was populated with the following eleven options to choose from: ● Full leather ● Half leather ● Quarter leather ● Full cloth ● Half cloth ● Quarter cloth ● Paper ● Parchment ● No covering ● Other ● N/​A

As before, the number of options was kept to a minimum and chosen from the most common typologies present within our material. Fastening

This field was created to record the presence and type of fastenings; these are the options to choose from: 3  Editor’s Note:  see Velios and Pickwoad in this volume. Ligatus Research Centre, Language of Bindings Thesaurus.

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Substrate

The presence of different types of supports within files or volumes was also considered to be an interesting feature to be recorded, and five options were given: ● Paper ● Parchment ● Textile ● Photo ● Seal Media With the type of media, only two options were considered of interest for the project: ● Printed ● MSS (manuscript)

Approximate Dimension It was decided that the size of items would be recorded, but not to describe the object in detail—​rather only to provide photographers with the approximate size, thus helping the scoping for devices and to plan meaningfully and timely the workflow for the team. This field was consequently populated with seven options using standardized measurements: ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 U/​S (undersized)

Foldout Capture /​Number of Foldout /​Foldout Dimension These three fields were added at a later stage when it became clear that the presence of foldouts within a file was quite relevant information to be gathered and shared within the project at an early stage. It was decided that foldouts needed to be imaged both folded and unfolded, with all the customized requirements related to the foliation, naming, and metadata for those files ready for when they would be uploaded onto the portal. This was considered important in order to provide the public with the truest reflection of how

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the original document appeared and how it would have been used in the past. It was quite a challenge to define what foldouts actually are: folded pages are commonly present within bound and loose files, but these are not necessarily “foldouts.” It was decided, after lengthy discussions among the appointed curators, the photographic team, and conservation, that foldouts were only those folios that required more than the expected two images (of the recto and the verso of a folio) to be imaged, or where the size of an item, when unfolded, required to be imaged in a different way than the rest of the items (that is, by using different image capture equipment). Items that were partially folded to fit into files when stored in folders or bound into volumes were not identified as foldouts. The dimensions of the foldouts are here re-​recorded only by average size (A4, A5, etc.). Map Flattening Required

This field has been recently removed from the assessment view but remains one of our internal workflow stages. The presence of maps within files or bound volumes, and the way those items need to be processed, has always been a challenge, and the way we have been dealing with them needed to be reviewed several times. Sometimes maps need to be flattened before they can be successfully imaged. This is due to the distortions caused by the folds and the consequent difficulties in focusing. Since items need to be foliated and catalogued before imaging, maps cannot be flattened at the beginning of the workflow, when conservation is normally carried out, since this would make them impossible to be safely and easily handled and moved around by the curatorial team. We also realized that it was very challenging to decide when distortions were actually so pronounced as to compromise the quality of the images. This decision was then moved further down along the workflow and assigned to the imaging team that, at the final stage of imaging, after testing the equipment and setting the cameras up, could call for our support and eventually ask for the map to be flattened, tracking the changes through the agreed SharePoint view. When items are identified as requiring flattening, they are removed from the workflow and treated; once ready, the information is recorded and passed onto SharePoint. Treated maps can be at that point collected by the appointed photographer and imaged. After the maps are imaged, they are returned to us and folded back inside the file. In a few cases, maps made from fragile support could not be folded back and needed to be removed from the files and stored flat elsewhere. Maximum Opening Angle

Bound volumes can have restricted opening due to tight sewing or because of fragile covers. In this field, we record the suitable maximum opening angle, and the options are: ● ● ● ● ●

90° 100° 120° 160° 180°

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Depending on the opening angle, the photographers choose the most appropriate type of device and setup, ranging from flat scanners (180 degrees) to customized book cradles for cameras placed on photographic stands (less than 120 degrees). Treatment Needed

If conservation treatments are needed, we record it here: ● Yes ● No

Damage /​ Treatment Within this field, we record, choosing between standardized treatment options that were identified to be the most common, what we do to the items. The ten options to choose from are: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Fastening removal Treasury tag removal New enclosure/​barrier Disbind Dry clean Treat maps Flatten sheets Tears repair Spine repair Reinforce sewing

Estimated Time

At the assessment stage, we give an estimated value of the time we think the treatment will take. Conservation Notes

This is the only free-​text box that we have within SharePoint. We use it to explain in detail the treatments that were carried out, to provide descriptions of specific binding and structural features of items, also to be used by curators for their catalogue entries, and all the information that we consider relevant when more detailed documentation is needed. Conservators use this space when items are identified as in need of special handling, specifying the issues and precautions needed in handling them (brittle paper, board detached, etc.). This box is also used by other colleagues within the project when items need to come back to the studio because they have been identified, along the workflow, to be in need of further conservation.

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Object Status

This field is where we give to items, using a traffic-​light colour-​coding system, a status. There are four options to choose from: ● ● ● ●

Green Yellow Orange Red

These boxes are also triggers, within SharePoint, and by assigning one of these statuses the item moves accordingly within SharePoint. Green means items are fit for safe handling, and they can progress to the following workflow stage (Foliation). Yellow flags items in need of conservation treatments, and so these are moved to our following internal workflow stage (Treatments Required) and kept there until the treatments are carried out and the proper boxes filled within SharePoint. Orange was added at a later stage and identifies items that can move forward within the workflow, but that need careful handling, the specific instructions being provided within the “Conservation Notes” box. Red marks items that are unfit and that cannot withstand safely the required handling expected during processing or that present other problems, such as a compromised opening that would impair the imaging process, and therefore, also the quality of the final surrogates.

Treated by /​Treatments Date /​Treatment Time

These are self-​explanatory fields where we collect information for data gathering purposes only. Conservation Emergency

This field was added into SharePoint at a later stage. One of the duties that conservation also performs within the project is providing handling training for members of staff as soon as they join the project. This not only is an effective tool to promote and maintain best practices that are up to the required standards, but it is also a great opportunity for us to explain what conservation does within the project. This way, we gain understanding and support from everybody working within the project. The creation of this field was the practical consequence of this. The pace of the project—​and most digitization projects—​can be quite demanding, and item processing at the condition assessment stage needs to be kept swift and efficient. There is a chance that we can sometimes miss damages, mostly pins or paper clips. The fact that our colleagues are aware of what they should be expecting and the level of conservation that we carry out becomes our quality assurance step. This is especially true for the foliation team that follows conservation. So, when someone along the project encounters something that is not as it should be, they can choose, using SharePoint, to move the item back to conservation, thus temporarily removing it from the workflow. The item is promptly treated and moved back to the previously allocated owner and workflow stage.

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Post-​condition assessment is carried out on an item-​by-​item level. This is also the time when labels are placed on folders where items have been dismantled, or fastenings have been removed. This has also been an opportunity to monitor the condition of the items. It is with pleasure that I can assure, after all these years, that our collaborative approach has achieved brilliantly its aim of ensuring that items are not damaged along the process, or by all the handling involved.

Conclusions

Communication has been the greatest tool to implement processes and make our work effective and productive. This project, possibly progressing into a third stage, has been a unique opportunity not only to process and make available archival and library material previously difficult to access, but also a very interesting learning experience for all the people involved. Its unique setup, where all the strands shared the same working spaces, has created an ideal environment, one where sharing of knowledge and expertise happened in a natural and very productive way. Practicalities also had the chance to be dealt with efficiently because of the physical proximity of the people involved. In the first phase of the project, as part of the deliveries agreed with the Qatar Foundation, the Qatar Digital Library website was designed and launched—​this was a fantastic opportunity to showcase the richness of the different experts involved in the process of producing online surrogates.4 The use of new virtual media, such as web pages, blogs, and Twitter accounts, supported by the expertise present within the project, has given a chance to share the very diverse knowledge present on the floor. This enriched the online surrogates through the production of content pieces that helped the online users to understand and better enjoy the items now available through the portal. Conservation is prominently represented on the website with tutorial videos and articles about the history of bookbinding, its craft, and other related topics. It is absolutely vital for the good result of a project like this one to allocate time at the planning stage to look into the workflow and evaluate risks and possible challenges. Full and thorough condition assessment cannot always be done for entire collections. However, only a professional conservator can estimate the suitability of items from the physical point of view, envisaging and estimating the professional support that might be needed for their preparation, and this is not a secondary aspect when planning and allocating resources. Conservation also has finally understood that it is its own responsibility to prove its purpose and value within these contexts, shifting from more static bench-​based activities to a more holistic approach of mass intervention. The new approach proves that conservation can become an integrated part of the workflow, supporting and facilitating the process, minimizing, with its unique understanding of the items and their physicality, the risks related to digitization processes and their handling. 4  Qatar Foundation, Qatar National Library, and British Library, “Qatar Digital Library.”

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THE DIGITIZATION OF MEDIEVAL WESTERN MANUSCRIPTS AT WELLCOME COLLECTION

STEFANIA SIGNORELLO* THE LIBRARY at Wellcome Collection in London holds an important and distinctive collection of medieval Western manuscripts in Latin, Greek, and vernacular languages related to medicine and health. The collection, of parchment and paper items, includes not only bound codices but also unbound documents, folding calendars, and scrolls. The subject material ranges from theoretical medical texts and compendia of information about plants and animals, to works on alchemy, astrology, and magic, as well as collections of recipes and healing charms. This reflects the breadth of the understanding and practice of medicine in the Middle Ages:  information about the natural world, magic, and astrology informed thinking about the human body and enabled medical practitioners to diagnose, prognosticate, and administer treatments. The Library has approximately 335 Western manuscripts dating from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries. In 2014, as part of its wider digitization program, the Library started digitizing this collection, aiming to digitize all manuscripts that were sufficiently robust to be imaged. The project is currently ongoing. The digitized manuscripts, freely accessible online, are creating a rich and detailed resource for historical researchers, conservators, heritage scientists, and others who are interested in these remarkable objects. Before digitization commenced, an item-​by-​item conservation survey of the collection was carried out to assess the suitability of each manuscript for digitization, especially with respect to its overall condition and the opening angles permitted by its binding. Pre-​digitization surveys were subsequently standardized by the library digitization support team, and this project was in many ways a pioneering exemplar for special collections digitization at Wellcome Collection. This chapter will discuss the curatorial context for the digitization project, the pre-​digitization survey, the post-​digitization preservation and conservation work, and the research potential of the project.

Curatorial Context

Prior to digitization, work was undertaken to develop the framework within which the digitized manuscripts would be hosted. The platform for hosting digital content, now called the viewer, was at this time known as the player. The Library’s medieval and early modern specialist worked with colleagues in the digital team to formulate a list of required enhancements to Goobi, the back-​end system for ingesting and processing the * Conservator, Wellcome Collection (London, UK).

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images that appear in the viewer. These enhancements took into account the needs of manuscript researchers and enabled viewers to navigate between separate texts within a manuscript. Goobi already had the capacity for recto-​verso foliation to be added to a digitized manuscript. The digitization project also influenced other aspects of work at the Library. Staff had long been aware that the online catalogue records for the medieval manuscripts, based on a printed catalogue from 1962, required improvement. Since the catalogue metadata would become more visible when viewed alongside each digitized manuscript, a manuscript specialist was employed on a contractual basis in 2014 to enhance a number of catalogue records. This catalogue enhancement work underwent a second phase in 2016–2017. In 2014 the Library’s medieval and early modern specialist was developing plans for a blog channel on the Library’s website devoted to medicine and health prior to 1700. She selected a number of manuscripts related to the blog’s first theme, “Sex and Reproduction,” to be photographed in the initial batches of the digitization project. When the blog channel became live in mid-​2015, links to these digitized manuscripts in the viewer were embedded within blog posts.1 Once digitization was underway, from early 2015 staff from the Library’s collections and research department, including archivists and the medieval and early modern specialist, undertook the digital editing of the images in Goobi, adding foliation and structure, as well as checking that images were not duplicated or missing. The Library’s web team also ensured that information about the digitization schedule was posted online and updated regularly, to prevent researchers from travelling to the Library to consult manuscripts that were temporarily unavailable. Once a number of digitized manuscripts were accessible online, the medieval and early modern specialist liaised with one of the web editors to create a web page describing this new digital collection.

Digitization Workflow

Regarding the logistics of the project, the movement and the status of all items, initially digitized in batches, were tracked by the digitization support team in cooperation with the conservation team and the photographers. The batches were at some point considered too restrictive for the photographers, not giving them enough flexibility to be able to plan their work depending on the speed of the shooting and the opening angles that determined which piece of equipment had to be used and when, thus preventing the smooth workflow of the project. The manuscripts were subsequently individually selected for digitization, ensuring a balance between complex and fragile items and those that could be digitized more quickly. Some manuscripts had to be taken out of scope completely because of their very tight opening angles, and because the conservator responsible for this collection was reluctant to have an invasive approach involving the releasing of the bookblock from the cover and removal of the spine linings, even in later bindings that, although not original, are nevertheless historical. As will be mentioned 1  Editor’s Note: for example, Wellcome Library, “Early Medicine.”

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later, when conservation treatments would actually prevent the loss of original material, extremely vulnerable manuscripts were temporarily taken out of scope until full conservation treatments could take place. Fragile manuscripts that were nonetheless not at risk of loss were not treated until their digitization had been completed. The digitization of the manuscripts was carried out by highly skilled and experienced in-​house photographers. They used medium-​format cameras to produce high-​ resolution images, with a variety of equipment which allowed them to photograph items at different opening angles, from 180 degrees (for parchment rolls or single leaves) to 90 degrees, using the well-​known conservation book cradle. The images, in TIFF format, were uploaded directly into Goobi by the photographers after post-​processing. The photographers would accept a task in Goobi for each manuscript using the manuscript’s shelfmark as a reference number, which ensured that the images were automatically assigned the correct metadata. The Pre-​Digitization Survey The survey assisted the conservator responsible for the medieval Western manuscripts collection, in flagging both items whose damage needed to be stabilized prior to digitization, and those that could safely be treated after imaging. Trust in the handling and professional skills of the photography team and good communication with the photographers was at the base of all the conservator’s decision-​making. Without such trust, she would have needed to follow a more conservative approach, taking more manuscripts out of scope and doing more pre-​digitization treatment. Because of her confidence in the photographers, the conservator was often able to avoid pre-​digitization intervention, especially useful when there were good practical or research reasons for doing so. For example, wherever a conservation treatment could obscure textual information, such as iron gall ink affecting the paper and showing minor perforation of the supporting media, paper repairs in those areas were postponed until after digitization had taken place. Only when they could not be avoided, for example in the presence of severe iron gall ink or copper-​green perforations, were conservation treatments completed prior to the manuscript’s digitization. Such was the case with MS.270, a herbal with large green and leafy areas painted in a variety of shades and tonalities of copper green. Both small and large brittle green fragments became detached from the paper support of the bookblock over time because of the acidity of the pigment, and in some cases, layers of fragments were lying inside the bookblock in random order. In other areas, the paper support, still partially attached, was in danger of detaching completely when caught by the fragments. Sorting the fragments, and placing and securing them in the correct areas, was necessary both to allow the viewing of the manuscript with no visual gaps or missing areas in the images of the plants and to avoid the risk of more losses in those areas. Non-​aqueous conservation treatments were carried out in a manner that was visually sympathetic to the manuscript, using as little Japanese paper as possible, which was toned slightly so that its creamy colour would not interfere with the enchanting images of the herbal. The photographers were made aware of the condition of the manuscript, which after

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conservation was still considered vulnerable and given restricted-​access status for its long-​term preservation. More extensive paper repairs might have made the book more robust for safer handling in the reading room but using a smaller amount of contemporary conservation material and restricting access to it was seen as an ethical compromise to ensure the manuscript’s longevity. A traffic-​light system was initially used to flag books that: needed preparation for digitization (amber), did not need any conservation work (green), or required conservation assistance in the photographic studios (yellow). A  relatively small proportion of manuscripts was considered out of scope (red), either until conservation work and stabilization could take place or because they could not be digitized safely at a reasonable cost with the current technology at our disposal. High-​profile items such as folding almanacs and scrolls were not included in the survey but were still part of the project. They were photographed in the presence of the conservator so that she could provide assistance with the awkward handling of these manuscripts. A short film showing the opening of each leaf of one of the medieval folding almanacs of the collection (MS.8932 which will be referred to again later in the chapter) was produced by the photographers to enhance the online experience of the viewing of this artifact, by providing additional information about how the structure of the folding almanac functions.2 It was felt that although the static high-​resolution images provide a high level of detail of the surface of the artifact and its intricate embroidery, part of the online experience would have been diminished by not showing how it opens and is handled. Also, due to the extreme fragility of this manuscript, providing online visual information on how it opens will minimize the need for the physical unfolding and folding of the parchment leaves, therefore ensuring the preservation and extended useful life of this artifact. The manuscripts were initially digitized in batches of fifteen to twenty items, and prior to their imaging, the conservator met with the photographer in charge of that batch to discuss any issues with specific items. For objects particularly vulnerable and difficult to handle, either partial or full conservation handling assistance during digitization was recommended, for example in the case of long and stiff parchment rolls, in order to avoid unnecessary and intrusive conservation treatments. The initial survey contained information on approximate foliation, binding issues, opening angle (