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For more about the treasures of Balliol’s library and archives please visit our new blog at Historic Collections @Balliol.
For all Library and Archives enquiries please contact the library
May 8, 2018 | Categories: update | Leave a comment
Q: I’m looking for archival material in Oxford – and maybe elsewhere – relating to [well known deceased literary figure(s)].
A: LMGTFY – almost.
The first answer is always, of course, do an internet search – try ‘oxford surname’ and see what comes up. If nothing obvious, try adding ‘archives’, ‘papers’ or ‘letters’.
Balliol College’s personal and family archives holdings are listed online, with links to images, at http://archives.balliol.ox.ac.uk/Modern%20Papers/modernmsssum.asp.
Biographies and other secondary material should mention the whereabouts of other primary sources; from the archives end though, you will want to be familiar with several national portals, as e.g. letters from your research subjects will turn up in the archives of correspondents’ archives, not their own.
- The National Archives Discovery catalogue now includes the former National Register of Archives and A2A entries, for UK archives outside TNA: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ (use Advanced, then Record Creator tab)
- The Archives Hub, for archives/personal papers/collections in (mostly) UK HE institutions: https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/
- The Location Register of Modern English Literary Manuscripts & Letters at Reading University: http://www.locationregister.com/
- AIM25, for archives/personal papers/collections in (mostly) Greater London repositories: https://aim25.com/
- JANUS, for archives/personal papers/collections in Cambridge college and university repositories: https://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/
- If your research subject has an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, there will be sections for Sources (i.e. secondary works) and Archives – these are often a handy shortcut to get started with, though don’t assume they are infallibly complete. The ODNB is accessed by subscription, but many HE institutions and UK public libraries provide access.
When you have done all these things, check with the Oxford archivists via the OAC address:
https://oac.web.ox.ac.uk/ – be sure to mention the sources you have already checked and the archives you have located, otherwise we will helpfully suggest them to you again!
Does all this sound obvious? good – but this is a genuine enquiry from a genuine researcher of the internet generation, and it’s far from unique.
April 18, 2018 | Categories: update | Leave a comment
Against ‘Iberic Crudity’:
Balliol MS 238E, Bodleian MS Douce 204,
and Laurentius Dyamas
Anna Espínola Lynn, MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture (Wadham College, Oxford), will be speaking on the transmission of style in fifteenth-century Catalan manuscript production.
All welcome! Feel free to bring your lunch. The talk will last about half an hour, to allow time for questions and discussion afterwards, and a closer look at the Balliol manuscript discussed.
Online images of Balliol MS 238E and of Bodleian MS Douce 204
Unlocking Archives is an interdisciplinary graduate seminar series of illustrated lunchtime talks about current research in Balliol College’s historic collections: archives, manuscripts and early printed books, and the connections between them.
Talks take place at 1pm in Balliol’s Historic Collections Centre in St Cross Church, Holywell. St Cross is next door to Holywell Manor and across the road from the English & Law faculties on Manor Road; directions http://archives.balliol.ox.ac.uk/Services/visit.asp#f.
Questions? anna.sander@balliol.ox.ac.uk.
April 6, 2018 | Categories: history of the book, manuscripts, talks & presentations, Unlocking Archives | Tags: history of the book, medieval manuscripts, Unlocking Archives | Leave a comment
Some numbers about archives & manuscripts activity during March:
- Number of enquiries: 41
- Total for 2017: 145
- Number of researchers in person (unique users): 7
- Number of person-days in the reading room: 9
- Collections consulted: Chalet, Rawnsley, college records (2), Monckton, Belloc, Jowett
- images created: 2400
- Productions (consulted by researchers in person or by the archivist in response to enquiries) – actual numbers may be slightly higher:
- 12 boxes – up to 5 files per box, not including
- 4 files – up to 200 items per file, not including
- 36 individual items from a single letter to a bound volume
Some of the topics of remote enquiries received in March:
- advice re archival sources and research
- advice re archival training and careers
- requests for permission to quote from or publish images of archival material
- requests for (new) digital images of college records and medieval manuscripts
- College portraits/art/chattels
- 1968 student protests
- Biographical research re / info on Balliol or related archives of
- people who were not members of Balliol
- T Good (Balliol 1626)
- W Craven, 6th Baron Craven (Balliol 1756)
- Benjamin Jowett (Balliol 1835) and Florence Nightingale
- JA Symonds (Balliol TT 1858)
- A Lang (Balliol HT 1865)
- A Toynbee (Balliol HT 1875)
- A Campbell (Balliol 1929)
- R Leach (Balliol 1952)
- KAH Gravett (Balliol 1955)
Enquirers and researchers should note that I resigned my post in early February and am currently completing the required 3 months’ notice. This is the last of my monthly reports to include numbers etc about enquiries and research at St Cross. As agreed in February, I have stopped taking new enquiries, requests for reprographics etc as of 1 April, and from the same date will no longer be dealing with researcher appointments, invigilation or productions and returns of material at St Cross. This is to make it possible for me to use the last few weeks of my notice period to ensure that pre-April enquiries, processing new accessions and other ‘essential but invisible’ tasks are dealt with as fully as possible before I leave. Details of the vacancy, and of interim and future staffing arrangements for the archives and manuscripts, will be posted on the Balliol College website in due course. Urgent enquiries and requests for research appointments should be directed to the Librarians until further notice.
– Anna Sander, Archivist & Curator of Manuscripts
April 2, 2018 | Categories: reports | Tags: reports | Leave a comment
I post brief monthly statistics here, but for readers who just can’t get enough archives news, there’s a weekly update on Facebook as well. Here’s the roundup for Hilary Term, January-February:
HT1: Happy New Year! This week in the archives, catching up on holiday enquiries, rounding up December enquiries and statistics, generally hanging the shingle out again as all services resume as normal.
HT2: this week in the archives, it’s a ‘quiet’ week as far as researcher bookings go. So in between thumb-twiddling sessions, I’ll just be finishing up holiday enquiries and reprographics requests; December, January & 2017 statistics on the blog; starting the term’s campaign of cataloguing modern personal papers collections & posting their fonds-level descriptions to the (new and improved) Archives Hub; assembling Docs in Focus features for the Library and facsimile displays for the antechapel; and starting to clear the office in case of work on pipes and electrics later…
HT3: this week in the archives, tutors planning classes using early printed books and late medieval manuscripts, a planning session for one of those classes, and flooring repairs in the repositories.
HT4: this week in the archives, just one reader booked, so, more accessioning and cataloguing. Forward in February!
HT5 : this week in the archives, a new accession to the RM Hare papers; a Balliol graduate student teaching a class based on manuscripts and early printed books; researchers looking at the Hunt, Rawnsley, McKail and Nicolson papers, college records and medieval manuscripts; and a conservation consortium management committee meeting for me. No wonder I’m only getting round to updating on Tuesday!
HT 6: this week in the archives, researchers for the Jowett, Rawnsley and Caird papers and college records; a school visit; servicing of the fire suppression system; planning a spring exhibition with several graduate student curators; and the termly Library Committee meeting.
HT 7: this week in the archives, I handed in my resignation in early February and will be leaving Balliol at the end of April, after more than 13 years, and returning to my home country of Canada after nearly 20 years away. Stay tuned for updates about modifications to archive services during the transition period. But for now, there are enquiries to answer!
HT 8: this week in the archives, researchers for the Jowett archive, Chalet papers and college records. March is the last month I’m taking new enquiries and requests for reprographics, as I wind things up in preparation for leaving at the end of April, so send them in soon!
HT9: this week in the archives, a researcher looking at college records and my last AGM at the Oxford Conservation Consortium. It’s a short week for me, as I’ll be in Cambridge on Friday at a symposium celebrating wider access to Parker on the Web, an extraordinary resource for all students of medieval manuscripts. No more paywall! https://theparkerlibrary.wordpress.com/…/parker-news-acces…/ March is the last month I’m taking new enquiries and requests for reprographics, as I wind things up in preparation for leaving at the end of April, so send them in soon.
The University is now in Vacation, but archives are busy: this week researchers are consulting records of the Chalet des Anglais, material relating to Hilaire Belloc, and the Rawnsley papers. My roundup of tweets from Friday’s brilliant Parker Library on the Web symposium in Cambridge is online (until May, when Storify dies) at http://bit.ly/2HLaYDH March is the last month I’m taking new enquiries and requests for reprographics, as I wind things up in preparation for leaving at the end of April, so send them in soon.
Easter Vacation (University sense): this week in the archives, researchers for the Rawnsley, Jowett and Belloc papers and some other individual items. From next week, please send all enquiries, requests for reprographics and requests for appointments to carry out research on the archives and manuscripts at St Cross to library@balliol.ox.ac.uk. The librarians are providing interim cover; future staffing arrangements for St Cross will be noted on the college website in due course. I will not be dealing with any new instances of these after this week, as I need the last few weeks of my notice period to leave everything as free of loose ends as is ever possible in an archive.
March 28, 2018 | Categories: update | Leave a comment
Some numbers about archives & manuscripts activity during February:
- Number of enquiries: 49
- Total for 2017: 105
- Number of researchers in person (unique users): 11
- Number of person-days in the reading room: 14
- Collections consulted: Medieval mss (3), Chalet, Hill, Hunt, Jowett (2), Nicolson diaries, Rawnsley, College records (2)
- images created: 800
- Productions (consulted by researchers in person or by the archivist in response to enquiries) – actual numbers may be slightly higher:
- 13 boxes – up to 5 files per box, not including
- 11 files – up to 200 items per file, not including
- 6 individual items from a single letter to a bound volume, not including
- 8 medieval/early modern ms codices
Some of the topics of remote enquiries received in February:
- requests for permission to quote from or publish images of archival material
- history of the Founders/Balliol family
- requests for (new) digital images of college records and medieval manuscripts
- Arnold & Brackenbury Society history
- College livings (ecclesiastical patronage)
- Chapel architecture
- College portraits/art/chattels
- Biographical research re / info on Balliol or related archives of
- people who were not members of Balliol
- C18 – early C20 College servants
- Henry Savage (Balliol 1621)
- Oliver Strachey (Balliol HT 1893)
- AK Overend (Balliol 1895)
- RWP Palmer (Balliol 1908)
- Alan Strode Campbell Ross (Balliol 1925)
- JR MacLean (Balliol 1927)
- Roy Harris Jenkins (Balliol 1938)
- JS Rennie (Balliol 1939)
- John Nigel Rowe (Balliol 1941)
- SJ Goldstein/Gould (Balliol 1942)
- Hyam Zandell Maccoby (Balliol 1942)
- Donald Michie (Balliol 1945)
Enquirers and researchers should note that I resigned my post in early February and am currently working the required 3 months’ notice. Details of the vacancy, and of interim and future staffing arrangements for the archives and manuscripts, will be posted on the Balliol College website in due course.
– Anna Sander, Archivist & Curator of Manuscripts
March 1, 2018 | Categories: reports | Tags: reports | Leave a comment
Last week I had the privilege and huge fun of planning and teaching a class with Stephanie Solywoda, Director of the Stanford Program in Oxford. We were talking about medieval Oxford – town, gown and especially books…
Stanford people get up close and personal with medieval manuscripts – here we are discussing the complicated layout of this Aristotle manuscript, and the functions of illuminated initials other than just being amazing – navigation, mnemonics, sometimes didactic or humorous (or even inexplicable) comment on the main text.
Colours and lines are still bright and sharp after 7 or 8 centuries – it’s hard to imagine someone spending the weeks or months it would have taken to copy this text out by hand. Not to mention manually justifying every line while keeping letter spacing consistent, using abbreviations and having to allow for imperfections in the parchment interrupting the writing space.
Bindings on the other hand, may not last so well – note the spine break in the manuscript above.
Old books, new technology – online gateway to Parker on the Web, and a modern facsimile of the ancient Book of Kells that lets us safely handle a binding using medieval techniques.
Kells facsimile – not strictly related to Balliol’s special collections (alas, no early Irish manuscripts here) but a facsimile is a wonderful teaching resource. The pages feel like the modern shiny light card they are, but they faithfully reproduce weight and thickness of parchment, dirty smudges at the edges, the way some fugitive pigments show through to the other side of a page (e.g. lower right of this opening) and even the holes in the original. These Stanford students will be visiting the real Book of Kells, the centrpiece of a dedicated exhibition, at Trinity College Dublin later in their time in the UK, so this was particularly apposite.
Some recently conserved administrative documents from Balliol’s history, contemporary to the books displayed, were on show to demonstrate the differences in layout, hands and contents between academic texts and legal records.
Balliol’s Foundation Statutes of 1282, still with the original seal of Dervorguilla de Balliol, in their new mount and box from OCC. Like nearly all legal documents of the time, this is in formulaic, heavily abbreviated medieval Latin, but we were able to find the word ‘Balliol’ in several places in the text (and a full transcription and translation was available 😉 ) We talked about the evolution of early college statutes, the similarities and differences between colleges and monastic houses, the heavily religious language of the statutes and the practical stipulations included.
Balliol’s historic seal matrices and modern impressions – all featuring female figures, like the foundation statutes. St Catherine is the College’s patron saint, and we talked about the college chapel system and the fact that Balliol had a side chapel dedicated to St Catherine in St Mary Magdalen church – just outside Balliol’s walls – before it received permission (and had the funds) to build its own chapel.
Another beautifully mounted document, two copies of the Bishop of Lincoln’s permission to Balliol College to build its own chapel.
An opening from the first Register of College Meeting Minutes (1593-1594) showing formal but more workaday recordkeeping in the College, still in Latin but often with English phrases or sections, annotations, amendments and crossed out sections.
MS 301 has a typical layout for legal and Biblical manuscripts, with a central section, here decorated, of the main text to be studied in larger hand, and surrounding layer or layers of formal commentary plus shorter notes and personal reader annotations toward the outer edges. (No, the book is not hanging over the edge of the table – it’s the camera angle!)
Details of the decoration in that central section, showing rubrics (headings in red), regular red and blue penwork initials and still-familiar paragraph/section marks, plus more pigments, white highlights, and gold leaf on the most important initial.
A plainer study text, made for university use and leaving plenty of room for commentary and annotations to be added.
We enjoyed these whimsical doodles, turning initials into faces so full of character they might be portraits – or caricatures. They may also have had mnemonic and navigational value, particularly in a manuscript without folio numbers, as was usual. The manuscripts are foliated now, but most foliation is either early modern and/or 20th century.
The oldest document (ca. 1200) in the College Archives has been mounted to allow it to be displayed without damaging it; I also had two C14 legal documents out for the students to handle, and so we could talk about seals, seal attachment, and pre-signature authentication methods.
A mounted charter with pendent seals, still with their green and red silk cords intact. The conservators’ inner box cover includes photographs of the reverse of the whole document, the seal and the label, as well as a caption. Instant display without having to disturb a fragile manuscript.
For extra resources and further reading, I had a small selection of the College’s modern printed books on archives and manuscript studies topics out as well. The Manuscript Book compendium has recently been translated from Italian and is a brilliant resource for eastern as well as western manuscripts.
Links to relevant projects:
February 5, 2018 | Categories: conservation, digitisation, display, exhibition, history of the book, manuscripts, outreach, St Cross church, talks & presentations, teaching | Tags: manuscripts, seals, stanford, students | Leave a comment
Some numbers about archives & manuscripts activity during January:
- Number of enquiries: 56
- Total for 2017: 56
- Number of researchers in person (unique users): 6
- Number of person-days in the reading room: 8
- Collections consulted: Medieval mss (3), College records (2), Rawnsley papers
- images created: 1200
- Productions (consulted by researchers in person or by the archivist in response to enquiries) – actual numbers may be slightly higher:
- 11 files – up to 200 items per file, not including
- 12 individual items from a single letter to a bound volume, not including
- 27 medieval ms codices
Some of the topics of remote enquiries received in January:
- college portraits and other works of art
- college heraldry
- correct citation/referencing for archival materials
- requests for permission to quote from or publish images of archival material
- requests for (new) digital images of college records and medieval manuscripts
- 17th century vocabulary for silver plate
- WW1 minutes of College Meeting
- WW1 and post-WW2 diaries
- Boat Club history
- Biographical research re / info on Balliol or related archives of
- people who were not members of Balliol
- C18 – early C20 College servants
- RW Raper (Balliol TT 1861)
- Sir J Conroy (Balliol 1890)
- H Belloc (Balliol HT 1893)
- HS Malik (Balliol 1912)
- RH Glover (Balliol 1915)
- I Stitt (Balliol 1917)
- TH Tylor, Fellow (Balliol 1918)
- F Huxley (Balliol 1946)
- FJ Lindars (Balliol 1949)
February 2, 2018 | Categories: update | Leave a comment
Some numbers about archives & manuscripts activity during December:
- Number of enquiries: 33
- Total for 2017: 726
- Number of researchers in person (unique users): 5
- Number of person-days in the reading room: 5 (out of 8 days open)
- Collections consulted: Jowett archive, college records, medieval mss, Conroy archive, Malcolm papers
- Productions (consulted by researchers in person or by the archivist in response to enquiries) – actual numbers may be slightly higher:
- 13 boxes containing from two bound volumes to 4 thick files of individual items, not including
- 1 file – up to 200 items per file, not including
- 9 individual items from a single letter to a bound volume, not including
- 1 medieval ms codex
- No of non-research visitors: 25
- exhibition open, with curator’s introduction, Q&A and discussion, for:
- current Balliol Fellows, guests and staff
- archivists & librarians from other Colleges
- members of the Oxford Conservators’ Group
- private visitors, including Old Members of Balliol
Some of the enquiry topics received in December:
- college portraits and other works of art
- requests for permission to quote from or publish images of archival material
- requests for (new) digital images of college records and medieval manuscripts
- Biographical research re / info on Balliol or related archives of
- people who were not members of Balliol
- C18 – early C20 College servants
- G Abbott (Balliol 1581)
- H Savage (Balliol 1624/5)
- CSC Bowen (Balliol 1853), later Baron Bowen
- HCK Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne (Balliol 1863)
- GO Roos (Balliol 1887)
- AW Pickard-Cambridge (Balliol 1891)
January 22, 2018 | Categories: reports, update | Tags: reports | Leave a comment
I post brief monthly statistics here, but for readers who just can’t get enough archives news, there’s a weekly update on Facebook as well. Here’s the roundup for Michaelmas Term, starting in late September:
MT -1: the University is counting down and gearing up for Michaelmas Term. This week in the archives, a reader for the medieval manuscripts and visitors to the exhibition. Blog posts for the exhibition catalogue continue #mss2017. It’s the last week of September, so time for the monthly enquiries roundup and statistics post as well.
MT0 – This week in the archives, everybody else is busy getting ready for the new term, and I’m finally having a holiday 😀
MT1: Happy New Year for all those opening a fresh new academic calendar! This week in the archives: researchers for medieval manuscripts and some non-Browning material in the Browning papers, the librarians host Brookes University publishing students, and I kick off the year of Bruce’s Brunch, a series of lunchtime talks on all manner of subjects for Balliol students, hosted by the Chaplain. And the small matter of catching up after a week away.
MT2. This week in the archives, researchers for the Monckton and Jowett archives and medieval manuscripts. I’m continuing to post extended versions of the manuscripts exhibition catalogue entries on the blog: https://balliolarchivist.wordpress.com/category/mss2017/
MT3 – this week in the archives, researchers for medieval manuscripts, Caird papers and TH Green papers. The momentary ‘lull’ means I can catch up a bit on productions and reprographics, and complete physical arrangement of two (relatively) small subfonds. It’s also the time of year for college-wide refresher training in the use of ladders and fire extinguishers.
The medieval manuscripts exhibition continues: ‘Change and Decay: A History of Damage and Conservation in Balliol’s Medieval Manuscripts’, curated by Balliol’s Archivist and Curator of Manuscripts, Anna Sander, includes more than 20 of Balliol’s 300+ original medieval manuscript codices and a number of contemporary documents from the College records, and highlights a decade of work on the archives and manuscripts by the team of professional conservators at the Oxford Conservation Consortium, of which Balliol has been a member since 2006.
Individual and group visitors are very welcome most times, by appointment. Visiting hours are normally Mon-Fri 10-1 and 2-5; appointments aren’t meant to be exclusive, it’s just that the exhibition and reading room are in the same space, and we need to plan ahead to ensure that visitors and researchers are here at different times. Please come! More about the manuscripts exhibition at https://balliolarchivist.wordpress.com/ #mss2017
For tutors planning a visit with students, there is also space, and time available, to hold a class (of up to about a dozen) in the middle of the nave, i.e. surrounded by the manuscripts on display.
Directions: http://archives.balliol.ox.ac.uk/Services/visit.asp#f
Contact: anna.sander@balliol.ox.ac.uk
MT 4: This week in the archives, researchers for the Morier, AL Smith, Strachan Davidson,Ernest Walker and AC Badley papers. Balliol MCR visits the medieval manuscripts exhibition and we launch a Special Collections Challenge series with them; the librarians host the English Faculty 18th Century Seminar at St Cross; I visit the ‘C19 medieval revival’ session of the Rare German Books seminar; we join other college librarians and archivists at the university’s Graduate Thesis Fair.
MT5: This week in the archives, lots of tutors and students coming to look at (and talk about) the medieval manuscripts exhibition! First one today, topics covered: tiny writing, huge printing, marginalia, pigment ingredients, seal attachment, authentication methods for charters, manuscript reuse as binding waste, manuscript navigation, vandalism, conservation materials, gothic binding structures. Not necessarily in that order! No researchers booked this week as at least half of every day has a visiting class. October’s report is on the blog: https://balliolarchivist.wordpress.com/…/monthly-report-oc…/
MT 6 – this week in the archives, researchers for the AL Smith and Jowett papers, and medieval manuscripts; a Balliol alumna brings classes from two other colleges to look at early printed books; a Balliol Fellow and a Professor of Medieval German Lit & Ling hold workshops based around the medieval manuscripts exhibition. There is a new Remembrance Sunday display in the antechapel and I’m preparing a termly report covering more than half the year!
MT7 This week in the archives, researchers for medieval manuscripts, Urquhart papers and Oppenheimer papers; discussions about digitization and cataloguing software; conservators visit the exhibition of medieval manuscripts; termly reports; and a maintenance check for the rolling shelving.
MT8: This week in the archives, the medival manuscripts exhibition remains open by prior arrangement to visitors through next week. There are researchers booked in to look at early modern manuscripts, the Strachan-Davidson papers and medieval manuscripts; individual and group visitors coming to the exhibition; the termly College Library Committee meeting; and the Oxford Conservation Consortium’s AGM. And, somehow, December.
MT9 – this week in the archives: exhibition visitors; researchers for the Malcolm papers, college records, Conroy archive, Jowett archive, and medieval manuscripts; November statistics and termly (May-November) report appearing on the blog.
This is the last week to see the medieval manuscripts exhibition at St Cross and also the last week of 2017 for research appointments. The former will be put away, and the latter will resume in the week of 15 January. It will be possible to request appointments for the new year during the closed period – plan ahead and get your place booked early.
December 13, 2017 | Categories: update | Leave a comment
A century ago: extracts from a few pages of Francis Fortescue (‘Sligger’) Urquhart’s personal photo albums, covering the Summer Term of 1917.
There were still Balliol men coming into residence each year during the War: surprising as it may seem now some were overseas students; others were precluded from active service, e.g. Aldous Huxley; most were putting in time before their commissions came through, and the student numbers by the end of each summer term were much lower than in Michaelmas. In addition, the officer cadets billeted at Balliol, Keble and elsewhere for training were welcomed and made to feel part of ‘their’ colleges by the few Fellows still resident.
Urquhart was one of only three dons in residence at Balliol throughout the War, and his unbroken series of informal photographs shows the incongruous juxtapositions of academic, civilian and military life during the period. This post shows a selection reflecting the outward and visible changes made by the war in Oxford, mainly within Balliol.
Many of the officer cadets who spent weeks or months training in Oxford had good memories of their time there. This lighter side of wartime experience easily became family stories that could be passed down. My enquiry records show that some officer training periods have evolved in family legend into full Oxford degrees, several generations of retelling later! The ‘party of sight-seers’ in one photo is visiting New College’s cloisters – is Urquhart acting as their tour guide? Even the pictures of ‘trench digging on Cumnor Hill by 6 OCB A Company’, in their shirtsleeves under a bright Oxfordshire sun and the beady eye of Captain Lang, look worlds removed from the reality, fast approaching for these men, of the mud of Flanders and France.
Individually, the photos are mostly sunny snapshots of happy moments; as a collection, however, the very quality of ‘Oxford idyll’ that seems escapist and almost irresponsible in such a serious time forms not only a fascinating glimpse into an important chapter in Oxford’s history, but a vivid and very personal memorial to lost youth and potential, compiled by a tutor noting the deaths of too many friends and former students.
3 views of John Beverley Nichols. JBN was admitted to Balliol, with Urquhart as his tutor, in Hilary Term (spring term, i.e. January) 1917, and almost immediately entered the Army as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Labour Corps. These photos, only a page apart in the album, show his rapid transition from civilian to military life. Nichols detested everything about the war and his military experience, and was deeply bitter about his father’s curtailment of his Oxford education once the war was over. Nichols does not mention his brief 1917 Oxford period in his memoir The Unforgiving Minute, which indicates that he went straight from Marlborough College to officer training in Cambridge. Balliol Archives FFU 7.50H, 7.52F, 7.52G.
‘A party of sight-seers, March 1917’ – a group of officer cadets and their training officers in the cloisters at New College. Balliol Archives FFU 7.50I
‘Malik, French Red Cross, Summer term 1917.’ Hardit Singh Malik was one of four Sikh pilots in the RFC/RAF), and the only one of the four to survive. Francis Urquhart had been his Balliol tutor, and it was through him that Malik joined the French Red Cross in 1916 – as a stepping stone to the French Air Force, as at that time the new Royal Flying Corps did not accept non-white officers. In 1917 that colour bar was broken, again through Urquhart’s intervention, and Hardit Singh Malik became a pilot in the RFC, later the RAF. This photo may date from a visit a little earlier in the year, just before Malik’s transfer. Balliol Archives FFU 7.52A
Academic and military lives collide: Victor Mallet (Balliol 1911) studied Modern History at Balliol under NS Talbot and AL Smith, signed up with the Cambridge Regiment in September 1914 and served in France 1915-16. He is shown here on leave (or perhaps on business?) from Ireland in 1917 receiving his degree in BA gown and hood, with Army uniform, complete with cane, instead of subfusc and mortarboard. The Mallet family’s archive is held in Balliol’s Historic Collections Centre. Balliol Archives FFU 7.52C
At one point during the term Sligger visits the Cambridge home of Baron Anatole von Hügel (1854-1928) . Von Hügel, a fellow alumnus of Stonyhurst College, had set Urquhart something of an example when, in 1895, he had been a leading figure in the repeal of the Papal prohibition on Roman Catholic membership of Oxford and Cambridge. Balliol Archives FFU7.54B & C
Nevile Barclay plays the organ in Balliol Hall. Barclay enlisted with the 8th London Regiment in May `915, aged 17, and worked in the Foreign Office until November 1918. He enrolled at Balliol in 1916 but his course was much interrupted by war work; he eventually completed his degree in 1921, but did not formally take the BA and MA until 1926. He and JB Nichols became friends during Nichols’ postwar stint in Oxford. Balliol Archives FFU7.54D
The regular Sunday Concert series established by Benjamin Jowett in 1885 continued well into the War, until June 1915, but was then replaced with less formal concerts for which there were no programmes. This coincides with the occupation of Balliol’s premises by No. 6 Officer Cadet Battalion; hundreds if not thousands of Army officer cadets came through Balliol on training courses lasting up to three months.
‘W Robinson in hospital.’ There is no W Robinson of the right vintage at Balliol. Who is W Robinson? a member of another college? someone from the Roman Catholic schools? a former officer cadet stationed at Balliol for training? His dressing gown and slippers on the lawn are reminiscent of similar, yet very different, photos taken at Urquhart’s Chalet in the French alps only a few years earlier. And who took this photo? Urquhart usually notes photographers of individual prints other than himself -though he does not mention whether they used his camera or their own – but from the shadow, whoever took this photo was in uniform. And which hospital is it? from the indications of a downhill slope in the background, I’ll guess it’s in Headington. Balliol Archives FFU 7.54I
‘Trench digging on Cumnor Hill by 6 OCB, “A” Coy. Cap. Lang, Seiler, Velho, Sharp, Shaw, Evans, Darling.’ Urquhart has probably walked out to Cumnor, a regular walking destination of his, to visit the ‘Balliol’ cadets of 6 OCB practising – in what looks like very dry earth indeed – for the mud of France and Flanders. This is one of very few photographs indeed of officer cadets with identifications. Notice Velho’s khaki apron, carefully belted at the right length to protect his kilt. Balliol Archives FFU 7.55B
‘A Company Lecture’: instead of the usual scene of Balliol students taking a break from the Library or celebrating the end of their Finals, here an Army instructor addresses several dozen officer cadets sitting on the grass in front of the ivy-covered Hall in the Garden Quad. This photo appears to have been taken from the top of the Library tower. Balliol Archives FFU 7.55C
Maurice Leonard Jacks (Balliol 1912) had been a student of Cyril Bailey, in Classics, immediately before the war, and one of the early Presidents of the Balliol Boys’ Club. After serving as a 2nd Lieutenant (the most common rank for young University men signing up as junior officers) in the King’s Royal Rifles 1914-16, he was wounded in France in November 1916. As a result, he did not return to battle but became Captain of C Company, No.4 officer Cadet Battalion, based at Keble College in Oxford. This meant he was just up the road from his old friend Urquhart, as well as close to the Jacks’ new family home at Shotover Edge. Jacks and Urquhart collaborated to provide cadets on their days off with walks and explorations by canoe of the surrounding countryside – experiences of Oxford summers in which, except for partial uniform, they could temporarily leave wartime behind. Balliol Archives FFU 7.55K
Balliol Archives FFU 7.57E
This album can be viewed in full online here.
December 12, 2017 | Categories: update | Leave a comment
A selection of images from the Michaelmas exhibition of medieval manuscripts at St Cross is now on public view in the antechapel in Broad Street:
December 12, 2017 | Categories: digitisation, display, exhibition, manuscripts, photos | Leave a comment
Today I took down the medieval manuscripts exhibition. Thanks to all who visited! It went well – a report will appear in the new year, and of course blog posts etc will continue to appear, and will remain, here on the blog.
Dismantling an exhibition is not something that’s usually documented, perhaps because it’s such an anticlimax. But it’s a good task for the end of the year, leaving everything safely back in storage and the decks cleared for new adventures.
cases open
cases empty
Exhibits resting, returning to their normal closed shape. Doesn’t look like enough to fill every case in the place!
foam wedge book supports, for much future reuse
one book box occupying most of a big table
biggest and smallest codices displayed
…and back to the repository…
December 11, 2017 | Categories: exhibition, update | Tags: #curatorslife, behind the scenes, collection care, exhibitions | Leave a comment
Some numbers about archives & manuscripts activity during November:
- Number of enquiries: 59
- Running total for 2017: 693
- Number of researchers in person (unique users): 11
- Number of person-days in the reading room: 16
- Collections consulted: Morier, Jowett, AL Smith, Mallet, JL Strachan-Davidson (2), college records, medieval mss (3), David Urquhart, Francis Urquhart, Francis Oppenheimer
- Productions (consulted by researchers in person or by the archivist in response to enquiries) – actual numbers may be slightly higher:
- 17 boxes containing from two bound volumes to 4 thick files of individual items, not including
- 16 files – up to 200 items per file, not including
- 14 individual items from a single letter to a bound volume, not including
- 51 medieval ms codices
- No of non-research visitors: ca 140
- images created: 800
- events: with colleagues, staffed the College Archivists’ stand at the Graduate Thesis fair
- exhibition open, with curator’s introduction, Q&A and discussion, for:
- Balliol MCR (15)
- tutor & students from Harris Manchester (15)
- mentor & trainees from the Bodleian Conservation department (8)
- tutor & students from Mansfield (4)
- Dept of Education (4)
- senior tutor & students from MCMRS (7)
- tutor & students from Oxford MSt in Medieval Studies (13)
- tutor & students from Balliol English (8)
- OCC conservators (6)
- tutor & students from Dept of History of Art (7)
- Bodleian Libraries’ & Oxford Brookes SCONUL trainees (15)
- private visitors (12)
- total 114 (at least)
Some of the enquiry topics received in November:
- advice re archival sources and research
- advice re archival training and careers
- requests for permission to quote from or publish images of archival material
- requests for (new) digital images of medieval manuscripts
- Balliol’s holdings of pre-800 and 17th century manuscripts
- a Balliol tartan!
- Biographical research re / info on Balliol or related archives of
- people who were not members of Balliol
- C18 and early C20 College servants
- R Scott (Balliol 1835)
- JA Spender (Balliol 1881)
- A Entwisle (Balliol TT 1863)
- GM Hopkins (Balliol TT 1863)
- B Entwisle (Balliol TT 1869)
- F Oppenheimer (Balliol 1890)
- JHR Grenfell (Balliol 1906)
- LU Kay-Shuttleworth (Balliol 1906)
- EJ Kay-Shuttleworth (Balliol 1908)
- GW Grenfell (Balliol 1909)
- RP Haldane (Balliol 1911)
- HS Malik (Balliol 1912)
- L Fleming (Balliol 1922)
- NM Roger (Balliol 1929)
- A S-R Pyper (Balliol 1935)
- OD Pratt (Balliol 1938)
- CB Hobhouse (Balliol 1928)
- NAM Grant Duff (Balliol 1928)
December 5, 2017 | Categories: reports, update | Tags: reports | Leave a comment
This report covers the Archivist’s work May-November 2017.
A) Enquiries, researchers & visitors
May
- Enquiries: 60
- Researchers – unique users: 5
- Seats occupied: 7
- Collections consulted in person: Oriental mss, western medieval mss, Jowett papers
- Files produced May-Sept: 33 boxes, 83 files, 50 items and 74 mss
- Visitors (non-research): ca. 20
June
- Enquiries: 62
- Unique users: 4
- Seats occupied: 4
- Collections consulted in person: Nicolson diaries, college records, medieval mss (2)
- Visitors (non-research): ca. 55
July
- Enquiries: 54
- Unique users: 11
- Seats occupied: 16
- Collections consulted: Monckton (4), Morier, college records, Strachan-Davidson, Clough, medieval mss, David Urquhart
- Visitors (non-research): ca. 50
August
- Enquiries: 44
- Unique users: 6
- Seats occupied: 12
- Collections consulted in person: Monckton (2), medieval mss, TH Green, Rawnsley, Jowett
- Visitors (non-research): 3
September
- Enquiries: 61
- Unique users: 3
- Seats occupied: 5
- Collections consulted in person: College records, medieval manuscripts (3)
- Visitors (non-research): 400+
October
- Enquiries: 55
- Unique users: 10
- Seats occupied: 13
- Collections consulted in person: College records, medieval mss (3), Browning, Nicolson, Monckton (2), Jowett, TH Green, Caird, RBD Morier, AL Smith
- Files produced: 20 boxes, 14 files, 61 items and 24 mss
- Visitors (non-research): ca. 55
November (incomplete at the time of reporting)
- Enquiries: 43
- Unique users: 8
- Seats occupied: 15
- Collections consulted in person: College records, medieval mss (3), David Urquhart, Jowett, TH Green, RBD Morier, AL Smith, Oppenheimer, FF Urquhart
- Files produced: 6 boxes, 3 files, 11 items and 34 mss
- Visitors (non-research): 110+
Period totals
- Enquiries: 379
- Unique users: 47
- Seats occupied: 72
- Files produced: 53 boxes, 97 files, 101 items and 98 mss
- Visitors (non-research): 860+
2017 running totals
- Enquiries: 677
- Unique users: 79
- Seats occupied: 116
- Visitors (non-research): 920+
*Files produced: one production slip may record anything from a single item to a complete box. These numbers tell more about the amount of fetching and carrying involved than about the volume, breadth or detail of material consulted. The number includes material consulted by the archivist while researching responses to remote enquiries as well as those produced to researchers in person.
– A box may contain up to 10 bound volumes or 6 files containing several hundred individual items. Numbers of boxes given do not include files.
– A file may contain up to 200 items. Numbers of files given do not include items.
– Individual items may range from a single letter to a bound volume. Numbers of items given do not include medieval ms codices.
A sample of research topics, by researchers in person and remote enquirers, from the reporting period:
‘I am assessing materials available and avenues of research on the history of the church of St Lawrence Jewry.’ (May)
‘[I would like to consult] the archives of James Justinian Morier… I am particularly interested in any correspondence, diaries or drawings/paintings relating to his accompanying the British intervention in the Russian-Iranian agreement that led to the signing of the treaty of Gulistan on the 24th October 1813.’ (June)
‘I am writing a book about the 1848 revolutions and I am interested in Arthur Hugh Clough, Arthur Stanley and Benjamin Jowett.’ (July)
‘I am looking in letters sent from India for evidence of health and health care in C19 India.’ (August)
‘I am looking for evidence of payments made in connection with the plates contained in Oxonia Illustrata to David Loggan, the engraver, ca 1670-1675, either by the colleges or by the dedicatee (Sir Henry Littleton).’ (September)
‘My research work relates to the Anglo-American expatriate circle around Katherine Bronson in Venice during the 1880s.’ (October)
A digest of remote enquiry topics is now included in the monthly blog reports as well.
B) Arrangement & description and collection care
Lists by JHJ; edited and posted online by Anna:
- Letters of Muriel Hatherley Rendell, later Cathcart
- Papers relating to St Mary’s Portsea during WW1 (Hilda Pickard-Cambridge & OA Hunt)
- Papers of AC Bradley, Fellow of Balliol
- Courtenay Peregrine Ilbert (1841-1924), Balliol 1860 (Fellow 1864, Bursar 1871-1874)
- Papers of Francis Oppenheimer
- Papers of Peter Lyne re St Cross Church
Papers of AF Giles (Balliol 1936), 100+ fascicled letters to his parents while a student at Balliol and active in student politics and the Union, 1936-1939 (2 volumes & 3 mounted photos). Listed by Anna and posted online.
The Caird Papers have been physically numbered to correspond with JHJ’s relisting and better descriptions. The TH Green, David Urquhart and Morier Family papers have additional descriptions and clearer numbering. and improved physical numbering.
Medieval mss: boxing more than 100 manuscripts for the first time resulted in the need to adjust some of the shelving on N5. Shelving changes, shelf check and updated finding aid are complete.
Conservation: treatment of several medieval manuscripts was completed over the summer in preparation for the MT exhibition. In particular, MS 354 (Richard Hill’s commonplace book) has had key repairs to the sewing structure and badly softened page edges, and has been reboxed to replace an old non-acid free Maltby’s box. While it is still fragile and requires careful and minimal handling, it is now safe to produce for (a very limited number of) researchers again.
Engagement
Social media
- Facebook: 1003 Likes. Weekly updates, links to blog posts, notices of events, etc.
- Twitter: 2172 total Tweets, 1602 followers
- Blog: 30 new posts
Image management
- Oxfile (OUCS) – used 24 times Sept-Oct, total 339 times, to send images, externally and within college, across archival collections.
- I have been working with Emma Stanford and her successor at the Bodleian to correct some old (1997-2000) errors and missing images in the Balliol sets on http://image.ox.ac.uk/ , as the old site will be taken down once the contents have been checked and added to http://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ .
- Images created: 20K. More than 111K images on Flickr and 2.75 M views.
Outreach & Events
May
- Anna & Gabrielle – handling workshop for Balliol English students
- Unlocking Archives talk: Nikki Tomkins (OCC) on conserving Nicholas Crouch books for Wellcome project
- Watford Girls’ Grammar school groups – manuscripts activity (repeat visit but new activity)
June
- Bodleian archives & mss trainees – tour & careers talk (repeat visit)
July
- Oxford Research & Innovation Support Conference delegates – general tour (recommended)
- Dr Juliana Dresvina & students from St Peter’s College Summer School at Magdalen College – medieval manuscripts workshop
September
- Open Doors – 7th year, medieval mss exhibition open, 300+ visitors
- Balliol Society Weekend – medieval mss exhibition open
- Evensong for the patronal feast of St Cross
- Exhibition continues open all Michaelmas term
- Visit to exhibition and service of Evening Prayer by participants in college incumbents’ conference
October
- Antechapel displays and ‘Document in Focus’ features in Broad St Library, prepared by Anna, continue
- Bruce’s Brunch talk by Anna re college history & special collections
- Individual visitors to exhibition including Fellows and Old Members
November
- with colleagues, staffed the College Archives stall at the postgraduate history thesis fair, Examination Schools
- with Librarians, hosted an MCR viewing of the medieval manuscripts exhibition plus open display and discussion of early printed books (ca 15 attending)
- Medievalists visiting exhibition, introduction and Q&A with Anna: tutors with students from Harris Manchester, Mansfield, the Education Department, Middlebury CMRS (Keble), Bodleian Conservation department’s preservation volunteers & staff
- DIY Digitization workshop with Prof Henrike Laehnemann (SEH) for Palaeography, History of the Book, Digital Humanities Method Option MSt (following on from Prof Wakelin’s workshop in 2016)
- Handling workshop and medieval manuscripts exhibition with Helen Appleton for Balliol 2nd year English students (return visit)
- Oxford Conservation Consortium staff visiting exhibition (i.e. from the Grove Cottage studio)
- Oxford Conservation Group visiting exhibition (conservators from Bodleian, Ashmolean, ORO, independents etc.)
Future events
Scheduled so far:
- Display re Balliol’s WW1 poets and poetry (spring 18) & related talk/event
- Book launch for Lynda Dennison’s ‘Oxford: All Souls-Lincoln’ volume of An Index of Images in English Manuscripts, from the time of Chaucer to Henry VII, c.1380 – c.1509, series ed. Kathleen Scott (Balliol has the largest section!) (HT18)
- 3rd Holywell Manor Festival (April 18)
- Visit from Wolvercote Local History Society (June 18)
- Open Doors Oxford (Sept 18)
- Exhibition of Reconstructing Nicholas Crouch project (MT18) & related talk/event
- Oxfordshire Record Society AGM & visit to exhibition (Sept 18)
- Loan of Gerard Manley Hopkins material to Campion Hall for display during GMH Symposium (Sept 18)
- Display of photos and archives for Chalet Trust event (Sept 18)
CPD/training/staff
Anna CPD:
- Attended Archives Hub training meeting for college archivists (June)
- Attended ‘Recent conservation and research on the two Winchester Bibles: a day symposium’ at the Weston Library (June)
- Oxford-Cambridge & Inns of Court archivists’ meeting (July)
- Chapter on handling special collections material finally appeared in Loffman, Claire, and Harriet Phillips, eds. A Handbook of Editing Early Modern Texts. Routledge, 2017. (July)
- Visit to Somerville College Library & Archives (August)
- Attended OCG-OAC-CCL talk by Chris Woods (one of the authors) on BS 4971, the new environmental standard for the conservation and care of archive and library collections (November)
- Attended talk by Matthew Holford (Bodleian) about the use of TEI (text encoding initiative) for creating electronic catalogues of medieval manuscript books from hard-copy data in print catalogues, based on his experience of projects at the Bodleian and at Christ Church (November).
Balliol student Kai Dowding (Balliol 2017, MSt Medieval Studies) is working with Anna on Friday afternoons in MT-HT for practical archival experience.
More details, more often, on social media:
https://balliolarchivist.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/balliolarchives
https://www.facebook.com/balliolarchives
http://www.flickr.com/photos/balliolarchivist/collections/
– Anna Sander, MT 2017 (November)
November 30, 2017 | Categories: reports, update | Tags: reports | Leave a comment
Some numbers about archives & manuscripts activity during October:
- Number of enquiries: 55
- Running total for 2017: 634
- Number of researchers in person (unique user): 10
- Number of person-days in the reading room: 13 (open 16 days)
- Collections consulted: college records, medieval manuscripts (3), Browning papers, Nicolson diaries, Monckton archive (2), Jowett archive, TH Green papers, Caird papers, RBD Morier archive, AL Smith archive
- Productions (consulted by researchers in person or by the archivist in response to enquiries) – actual numbers may be slightly higher:
- 20 boxes containing from two bound volumes to 4 thick files of individual items, not including
- 14 files – up to 200 items per file, not including
- 61 individual items from a single letter to a bound volume, not including
- 24 medieval ms codices
- No of non-research visitors: ca. 55
- images created: 1100
- events: Anna gave the first Bruce’s Brunch talk (Balliol Chaplain’s weekly lunchtime seminar) of the academic year; Librarians hosted English Faculty 18th Century Seminar with a display of rare books; Librarians hosted Oxford Brookes publishing course students.
Some of the enquiry topics received in October:
- advice re archives cataloguing and preservation
- advice re student/volunteer projects in archives
- requests for permission to quote from or publish images of archival material
- requests for (new) digital images of medieval manuscripts
- college portraits and paintings, including mural paintings
- stained glass in Chapel
- records of college livings and related estates/property
- C19 overseas students at Oxford
- Balliol men who were German casualties in WW1
- Balliol JCR Presidents
- Biographical research re / info on Balliol or related archives of
- C18 and early C20 College servants
- G Moberly (Balliol 1822)
- GO Roos (Balliol 1887)
- F Oppenheimer (Balliol 1890)
- AB Muir (Balliol HT 1915)
- Shoghi Effendi (Shogi Hadi Rabbani in Balliol’s records), Balliol 1920
- EF Webb (Balliol 1926)
- DM Davin (Balliol 1936)
- MR Hardwick (Balliol 1945)
October 31, 2017 | Categories: update | 1 Comment
Introduction
I have produced numerous small displays of medieval manuscripts for teaching and college events since I became responsible for the collection and moved it to the new premises in 2010-11, but this is the first major exhibition of Balliol’s western medieval manuscripts in the Historic Collections Centre at St Cross Church. It may even be the first exhibition of this collection that has been open to the public.
Because it’s rare for these ancient, unique and delicate objects to be exhibited, even to members of the College, I wanted to show as large a selection as possible, and to provide a broad overview of the collection. I have included manuscripts from the whole medieval period covered by Balliol’s collection (C11-16), representing a range of provenances, decoration and handwriting styles, contents, sizes, formats, physical condition, and conservation issues. Exceptions prove the rule; not everything in the exhibition is medieval, western or a codex (book-shaped) – or even manuscript (handwritten). Two manuscripts are shown closed; one is displayed upside down. Some mss are well known to scholarship and have been exhibited before; others are relatively unknown. All are catalogued (1-450 by RAB Mynors, 1963), but to widely varying degrees of detail and emphasis. Visitors may be surprised by the variation in the amount of documentation about not only conservation work but provenance and donation.
Focusing on the theme of damage and conservation removed possible restraints of e.g. period or subject, while avoiding a miscellaneous ‘Treasures of…’ approach. The manuscripts’ move to new premises was a good point in their history to assess their current condition and their needs for the foreseeable future, continuing to build on Balliol’s first several years as members of the Oxford Conservation Consortium.
Damage to manuscripts can occur at any stage of their existence – during production, while in storage, and in use (both voluntary and involuntary). I need only quote from the litany of woes turned up in the 2014 condition survey: dirt, losses, pest damage, staining, ink corrosion, text loss due to trimming, water damage, cockling, pleating, old repairs, smudging, ink fading/abrasion, ink offset, flaking gold, tears – to name a few. ‘Losses’ is a particularly painful catchall term including anything from a torn away corner to an excised illuminated initial to whole missing pages.
Conservators plan and carry out repairs to these amazing objects with great professional skill and enormous patience. Similar problems come up again and again, yet every case has to be treated individually, combining scientific understanding, practical knowledge and a creative approach. Much of their work is hidden inside a book’s binding once treatment is complete. Most items are not intended to, and do not, look ‘like new again’ after repair; they show their old scars as part of their material history, but are made safe to handle again (carefully) without causing immediate further damage.
In addition to repairs, however, the conservation team also help their members with advice and support on a wealth of related subjects: pest and environmental monitoring, preservation materials, all aspects of exhibition production, borrowing and loan of objects, transport, general and specialised handling and cleaning training for staff, loan of specialist equipment and advice on purchase, disaster preparedness and emergency response planning and training, and as we all do, career advice and visits for students.
Not every manuscript shown has been conserved – or at least not to modern standards – yet. The exhibition features a number of fine examples of the work of the Oxford Conservation Consortium and previous conservators known and unknown, but it marks a milestone rather than an endpoint. The OCC has been providing conservation services to Oxford’s special collections since 1990. Balliol joined it in 2006 at the instigation of Dr Penelope Bulloch, then Fellow Librarian, and with support from John Phillips and the Balliol Society. The OCC became an independent charity in 2014, and Balliol’s Archivist and Finance Bursar sit on its management committee. The OCC now cares for the historic collections of 17 colleges. They also maintain the Chantry Library of conservation-related publications, which is available to everyone.
A great advantage of OCC membership is the ability to plan not only a full year’s work but strategies and priorities for years to come. We have been able to move from a reactive programme of occasional work on individual manuscripts to proactive long-term planning that includes detailed conservation of key individual items but emphasises improving the condition and care of the collection as a whole.
Curatorial initiatives for the medieval manuscripts comprise a network of related projects:
Completed:
- 2014 condition survey
- boxing of all manuscripts (nearly 100) previously without boxes
- 2017 exhibition
Ongoing:
- Conservation treatment/repairs
- Replacement of old/worn/substandard boxes
- Improving descriptions and updating bibliography
- Digitisation for documentation & research
- Supporting teaching and research in person
- Documenting manuscript fragments in early printed books
- Workshops on correct handling of special collections material for students preparing for research using archives and manuscripts
The aim of all of these activities, and others as yet in the planning stages, is to improve preservation and access for all the manuscripts.
Preservation means ensuring the continued survival, and improved physical condition, care and handling of, all manuscripts. This is the responsibility of all staff and users of material. An archivist’s regular preservation tasks may include removal of rusty paperclips and staples, rehousing in acid-free archival quality folders and boxes, photography and scanning for cataloguing (to minimize use of the original), and training students and researchers in good handling practice.
Access is not only hands-on consultation of original material, but also improved access to better information about the manuscripts; images are an important source of information. It also includes improving understanding of the manuscripts as texts, physical objects and cultural products. Access is provided by staff and institutions, with input from researchers and scholarly publication.
Conservation means specialist professional treatment and repair of individual manuscripts, with the aim of ensuring that future careful handling/consultation/display does not actively cause further damage. Work is planned by staff in consultation with conservators, and carried out by the conservators.
Each of the manuscripts displayed is augmented by a number of prints from digital photographs, mostly enlarged details. While no facsimile edition or digital image can replace direct encounters with original manuscripts, they can support and augment research in person. An exhibition can only show one opening of a codex, or (usually) one side of an original document, at a time, in a single geographical place, to a limited number of people, for a limited period of time. Digital images can help to provide more access to information about, and contained within, the manuscripts, to more people in more places over a longer period. [more about digital images as tools for manuscript studies – not as substitutes for the original]
Digital photography of the manuscripts is carried out as part of my work as archivist, prioritised by researchers’ enquiries. Depending on the request and time available, I may photograph all or part of the manuscript, though in the case of part photography, ideally I will return later to complete the set. Images are sent to individual enquirers for ease of download, and also posted to Flickr at full resolution. Neither the original requester nor online users are charged for access to the images; widening access in practicable ways to collections that cannot be made generally available in person is part of the College’s obligations as a Charity, and of its aims as a higher education institution responsible for these historic collections. So far I have posted images of more than 100 of the medieval manuscripts online, many of them complete, in addition to some of the archives, personal papers, and key research resources, and the Balliol Flickr collections have had more than 2.5M views altogether (as of October 2017).
The supplementary images in each display case provide a window into other parts of the book and a magnified view of tiny details that can be hard to appreciate with the naked eye. If you are inspired by the original manuscripts on display to explore the wider world of manuscript studies, links to more images of these and many more of Balliol’s medieval manuscripts, and a starter list of print and online sources, are provided in the Further Reading post.
A note about display: I have chosen to display most of the manuscripts exhibited on the grey foam wedge supports we routinely use in the searchroom, with the pages in many cases held in place by fabric-covered lead pellets (known as ‘snakes’). Using ordinary supports shows a little of how we, curators and researchers, work with manuscripts; it looks less ‘produced’ than museum-style stands, but after all the collection is owned by a small institution and a very small department. Only a few sets are new for the exhibition, and all will be used after it. This saves huge amounts of specialist time, money and materials in making custom-fitted card or acrylic stands for each, and means that all the display materials will be used again for years to come, for research, teaching and future exhibitions, since the wedge sets can be used in interchangeable combinations to suit the size and opening angle of any volume. Only the four tiny books in case 9 needed their own stands made, as they had to be strapped into place to remain open.
I have also chosen not to print copies of the exhibition catalogue except for use while visiting in person; those who would like a hard copy are welcome to print the PDF version or any combination of the blog posts for their own use. Any exhibition of physical items is ephemeral, but a catalogue should have the lasting effect of opening the exhibits, though in an inevitably limited way, to a wider audience than could possibly attend the exhibition itself. An online catalogue can be accessed and printed at any time according to the needs of the user, and can also be augmented and corrected into the future.
I would like to thank Jane Eagan and her team of dedicated professional conservators at the Oxford Conservation Consortium for a decade of not only repairs to Balliol’s archives and manuscripts, and latterly to some of the early printed books as well, but also for their expert advice and support on all aspects of the material wellbeing of the historic collections, including environmental monitoring and amelioration, pest monitoring and treatment, local and international loans and exhibitions, project grant applications and planning.
I thank also Annaliese Griffiss for proof reading – all remaining errors are mine – and invaluable help preparing the exhibition, as well as her ongoing work on the Manuscript Fragments project, and Sian Witherden for good conversations about tiny books and for her contribution on book vandalism.
– Anna Sander, BA, MPhil, MScEcon, Archivist & Curator of Manuscripts, Balliol College
Photographs in this catalogue are by Anna Sander for Balliol College except where otherwise indicated.
The catalogue as printed for use by visitors to the exhibition is available as a PDF here. The print version is restricted to a single opening (one A4 double-page spread) per manuscript, which is as much as anybody can stand to read while walking round an exhibition; this online version, a series of blog posts tagged #mss2017, contains more detail and more images for most entries, as well as Further Reading sections for specific topics not included in the more general Further Reading post. The print version entries will also be used as Special Collections in Focus posters in Balliol Library and Holywell Manor during Michaelmas Term 2017.
October 17, 2017 | Categories: #mss2017, conservation, display, exhibition, history of the book, link, manuscripts, mss survey, public | Tags: #mss2017 | 1 Comment
MS 384, open to full page miniature of the martyrdom of St Thomas à Becket
MS 384 is a 15th century Flemish Book of Hours, made in the Low Countries for the English market according to the Use of Sarum. I am sometimes asked about the pre-Reformation liturgical books lost from the College chapel. Books of Hours would not have been among them – they were designed for the private devotions of secular individuals at home.
It is not known who gave the book to the College, or when, but from a note inside it, it was not at Balliol before the 18th century. It bears marks of having been a much-used family devotional book, and has a remarkable history ( or at least legend) of preservation against the odds; the anonymous donor writes: ‘The Book was found in the thatch of an old house… now my guess is that at the beginning of the Reformation, this Book was committed to Atkins of Weston to be secured ‘till a turn might happen… Pray Sir my humble service to Mr Harris and all friends at Colledge.’
MS 384 does corroborate this story in several ways: there is rather heavy, ingrained dirt across all surfaces, which would fit with its having been stored in the inevitably smoky thatch of a house. Burn marks on its lower edge might indicate a thatch fire – perhaps this is how it was rediscovered. It shows a few signs of contact with water, and of damp conditions. Otherwise, it is in remarkably good condition – it was rebound, probably in the 18th century, but does not show much evidence of earlier intervention in the text block. The only essential repair needed in 2017 was to secure a long tear across the lower part of f.70. unusually, this tear did not start at the edge of a page; rather, it looks as though a guideline ruled with a dry point may have (after several centuries) weakened an already thin and fragile area of parchment.
MS 384 – L, detail of miniature damaged by devotional kissing; R, rather dirty liquid damage from head edge
The other type of damage evident in this manuscript affects two miniatures, with similar partial removal of the faces of the central figures. Such damage to saints’ images, and sometimes to the associated texts, has often been assumed to be deliberate ‘de-face-ment’ by anti-Catholic reformers – but Kathryn Rudy and others have more recently asserted, with excellent evidence, that some such instances are the result of devotional kissing. Both Thomas à Becket (a frequent victim of the deliberate type of damage) and John the Baptist have suffered loss of paint here, but not of drawing or parchment surface – the painting has not been scratched or scraped, neither text nor image has been struck through, and the faces are still clear despite the smudging. Both also look as though the damaged areas have been somewhat damp. Viewers may draw their own conclusions!
work on MS 384 by Celia Withycombe of OCC: fine bridges of Japanese paper connect the edges of an irregular tear, 2017.
More about devotional damage in manuscripts:
- John Lowden, Manuscripts tour ‘Treasures known and unknown in the British Library’ – Kissing Images section
- Kathryn M. Rudy, “Dirty Books: Quantifying Patterns of Use in Medieval Manuscripts Using a Densitometer,” Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 2:1-2 (Summer 2010) DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2010.2.1.1
More about defacement of images of Thomas of Canterbury (Thomas Becket):
- Sarah J Biggs, ‘Erasing Becket,’ British Library Medieval Manuscripts Blog, 2011.
- Cambridge University Library, ‘The Face Defaced,’ Bodily Memory section of Remembering the Reformation exhibition, 2009-2017. Individual author unidentified.
October 17, 2017 | Categories: #mss2017, conservation, display, exhibition, history of the book, link, manuscripts, mss survey, public | Tags: #mss2017 | 1 Comment
MS350 opening ff 11v-12r (Herefordshire Domesday)
This manuscript of 170 folios includes three separate texts on Anglo-Norman legal subjects: a late 12th c copy of the Herefordshire section of Domesday book (first written in the late 11th c); an early 13th c copy of the earliest treatise on English common law ‘Treatise on the laws and customs of the kingdom of England in the time of King Henry II’, known simply as ‘Glanvill’ after its late 12th c author; and an early 14th c copy of ‘Britton’, the earliest summary of English law to be written in French, probably in the late 13th century. The first two texts are in Latin – with an Anglo-Norman French charm against snake bites appended to the end of the Domesday extract – and ‘Britton’ is in Anglo-Norman French. From the Herefordshire connection, Mynors thinks it likely to have been another gift to the College from George Coningesby, but there is no internal or external provenance documentation.
MS 350 is displayed open to ff. 11v-12r, part of the Herefordshire Domesday, with entries for the Wormelow and Elsdon hundreds. This opening shows surface dirt, particularly in channels from the head edge, liquid staining at the edges, and ink oxidation of the red initials – most have darkened from bright orange-red to silvery purple. Some of the red and green ink, though not blue, has come through from the verso. The manuscript was rebound, or at least recovered in white vellum (calf skin) in 1892, but this rebinding may have reused medieval wooden boards – it is impossible to tell from the outside. The manuscript is in generally good condition, and only needs some surface cleaning and repairs to the split parchment cover.
The ‘Glanvill’ text in MS 350 is heavily decorated with intricate penwork initials, but no other colours are used and there is no gold. Penwork decoration, the most common form of textual ornamentation in medieval manuscripts, is often done by the main scribe; in this case, the rubrics, red ink chapter headings/incipits/explicits both within the text and in the margins, seem to have been completed along with the main text, while the red and blue initial letters and exuberant decorative penwork were done later and perhaps by another hand. NB the different hues of red ink used, a darker red for the rubrics and a brighter orange red for the initials and decoration. The penwork of the initials Q (Quandoque) and U (Utroque) lace together in alternating colours, and in two places the rubrics and decorative flourishes run across each other.
The margins of this text are home to a good number and variety of lively penwork beasts and human faces many more than the lion, rabbit, goat and dragon featured here. Some grow out of the flourishes of initials, while others are separate figures, mostly in the lower margin, reaching up to feed on the red and blue foliage, and sometimes fruit. As is usual, though not universal, marginal figures appear without comment and seem unrelated to the text, though close study (anyone?) might reveal puns and wordplay – often decoration is (at least) a navigational tool and a memory aid.
More about the texts in this manuscript
- Domesday: online exhibition from The National Archives http://bit.ly/2hw6xRq. The Herefordshire section of Domesday as found in this manuscript was edited by VH Galbraith and J Tait as Heredfordshire Domesday, circa 1160-1170 (Pipe Roll Society, London 1950).
- Glanvill: explore http://www.earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/
- Britton: HL Carson, ‘A Plea for the Study of Britton’ (1914) http://bit.ly/2huYfZK
- Anglo-Norman French language: hub for all things A-N http://www.anglo-norman.net/
- John Hudson, The Formation of the English Common Law: Law and Society in England from King Alfred to Magna Carta (Routledge, 2nd ed 2017) – a briefer distillation of his weightier tome on the subject, The Oxford History of the Laws of England (OUP, 2012).
MS 350 full set of images: http://bit.ly/2hsx9Fu
October 17, 2017 | Categories: #mss2017, conservation, display, exhibition, history of the book, link, manuscripts, mss survey, public | Tags: #mss2017 | 1 Comment
As part of Balliol College’s project to survey the use of manuscript fragments in its early printed book collection, I have had the pleasure of spending many hours systematically inspecting each book in search of these hidden treasures. Currently only a fraction of the way through the collection, we have already found fragments in over 35 early printed books, testifying to the frequency of the practice.
These fragments, found in books ranging from 10cm-40cm in length, appear in many forms. Some are full page flyleaves or pastedowns, many are stubs which give support to the inside covers, others are cut into strips and used to reinforce sewing supports beneath their coverings. One small book of multiplication tables has used a document complete with notary mark and curved edging as its cover, repurposing a serious legal record as something creative and even decorative – from legally binding to mathematical binding!
It’s easy to see why manuscript fragments were favoured for this type of work. In a period where texts were transitioning from parchment to paper, the difference between the two materials in terms of durability must have been marked. Combined with the availability of manuscripts, and the value apparently placed on print (as a new and exciting technology) over commonplace manuscript texts (such as we see in the fragments), recycling parchment in this way was a very practical way of strengthening bindings and protecting the paper pages.[1]
The types of texts being used in the early printed books in the collection are various. The majority so far have been in Latin, with some in English and at least one in French. Most are from the 14th and 15th centuries, but some fragments seem to be as early as 13th century. In terms of content, there are legal documents, personal letters (how our curiosity has been piqued by the sad tale of the man whose wife has left him with 3 children to care for!), ecclesiastical texts, musical notation, and what appears to be a homily emulating the enraged style of the 10th century Archbishop Wulfstan.
One of the aims of the project is to photograph these fragments to make them available online. This poses a number of challenges. The early printed books themselves date from 15th and 16th centuries and are, as one would expect, fragile. The spines will not lie flat without causing damage which, when one simply wants to read the text, is no problem at all, but when the use of the fragments is to strengthen the very structure of the book, careful thought needs to be given to how to access fragments tucked away down towards the fragile spine. In a number of instances, photographs have simply not been possible for this reason.
Conversely, the condition of some of the bindings have actually enabled us to see the fragments better, as some have deteriorated to leave fragments exposed. One of the frustrating things for the curious medievalist is the suspicion that leaves of medieval texts have been used in a binding, but having no way to access them.[2] When later binding is found in poor condition, a curious mix of reactions occurs: a clear desire to protect the book, combined with mischievous delight at what might be revealed. In these cases, it is often that a parchment spine has cracked or disintegrated, or that pastedowns are now lifting.
In all cases, the photography of these fragments is tricky. To photograph stubs, the book must be supported on foam blocks and opened at a suitable angle depending on the flexibility of the spine. The parchment itself is not smooth, and the camera can struggle to focus on the right part of the book. In order to take a picture of useable quality, some contortion is generally needed, trying different angles with the camera whilst carefully holding down fragments with a pair of bone holders. Seasoned yoga practitioners and the addition of a third or fourth hand are desirable attributes!
The photographs get labelled and uploaded to Balliol’s Flickr account for interested parties to view. Medievalists can examine the texts and try to identify them; book historians can see further examples of binding techniques from the early modern period; and we can also perhaps use these fragments to tell us something about how the texts that they came from were valued during this time. Whilst many of the texts that we are discovering might be understood to be commonplace (the legal documents, for example, or other texts which appear to be unremarkable in terms of appearance), some were clearly prized at the time of writing. The musical notation of 470d13, for example, is decorative, using red and blue inks for initials, and the script is in a neat gothic hand. Care was obviously taken in the writing of this text, but by the time of binding, the value of the early modern work (Cunningham’s Cosmographie) was deemed to be far greater. Of course, this does not necessarily indicate that Cunningham’s work was intrinsically more important than the medieval one: it could be that the rest of the medieval text had deteriorated beyond reasonable use as a codex, or that some other flaw had been found in it, making this particular version redundant. What these fragments do tell us is what texts were available to the binders at the time and how the material was repurposed.
It would be interesting to survey the use of these fragments, identify them and see what (if any) correlation could be found between the types of text and the individual book binders (this would involve examining a far larger collection than Balliol’s alone), but by increasing the accessibility of these fragments through this project, further research on this interesting topic can contribute to wider understanding of the phenomenon.
– Annaliese Griffiss, Michaelmas term 2017. Follow Annaliese’s archival adventures on Twitter @aglaecwif!
[1] Whilst the vast majority of the fragments are on parchment, there are also examples of paper manuscripts being used as flyleaves as well.
[2] Though Erik Kwakkel has experimented with the use of x-rays. https://medievalbooks.nl/2015/12/18/x-rays-expose-a-hidden-medieval-library/
Photos of the manuscript fragments discovered so far, with descriptions, are appearing on our Flickr site at https://www.flickr.com/photos/balliolarchivist/sets/72157683085214934/ and descriptions of the fragments with links to their host volumes’ SOLO catalogue entries are also at http://archives.balliol.ox.ac.uk/Ancient%20MSS/msfragments.asp
October 10, 2017 | Categories: update | 2 Comments
Some numbers about archives & manuscripts activity during September:
- Number of enquiries: 61
- Running total for 2017: 578
- Number of researchers in person (unique users): 3
- Number of person-days in the reading room: 5
- Collections consulted: college records, medieval manuscripts (3)
- Productions (consulted by researchers in person or by the archivist in response to enquiries), over 4 months since late May when a new production slip system was introduced – numbers doubtless incomplete:
- 33 boxes containing from two bound volumes to 4 thick files of individual items, not including
- 83 files – up to 200 items per file, not including
- 50 individual items from a single letter to a bound volume, not including
- 74 medieval ms codices
- No of non-research visitors: ca.400
- images created: 1300
- events: Oxford Open Doors (7th year), patronal evening prayer service, Balliol incumbents’ conference visit to exhibition and evening prayer service, Balliol Society visitors to exhibition, individual visitors to exhibition
This month I’ve included a snapshot of numbers about enquirers’ place of origin (or at least geographical research base) and enquiry type – I don’t do this every time as they get very repetitive; proportions are fairly consistent throughout the year and from year to year. Private family history enquiries may make up less of the annual total now that basic research sources such as the College Register and War Memorial Books have been available online for more than 5 years; individuals can use them without reference to the archivist, and they are being mentioned in e.g. family history/WW1 research forums as well. More about September’s enquiries (calculated out of 61):
Origin of enquiry
- Internal (Balliol) 9, 15%
- Oxford (outside Balliol) 17, 28%
- Rest of UK 24, 39%
- Other countries 11, 19% (Germany, France , Netherlands, Australia, USA, Italy, Canada)
Type of enquirer
- Private (mostly biographical or local history) 20, 34%
- Academic 18, 29%
- Student 7, 11%
- Institutional/admin 16, 26%
Some of the enquiry topics received in September:
- advice re archives cataloguing and preservation
- advice re student/volunteer projects in archives
- requests for (new) digital images of medieval manuscripts
- C17 college accounts
- Buittle Castle
- college hymn
- college portraits and paintings
- college rules for students in the 1920s
- records of college livings and related estates/property
- development of the tutorial system, late C19-earlyC20
- history of the role of Visitor of the College
- Balliol JCR and MCR Presidents
- history of adult education in Oxford, late C19-early C20
- Biographical research re / info on Balliol or related archives of
- people who were not members of Balliol
- Nathanael Konopios (Balliol 1630s/40s)
- GM Hopkins (Balliol TT 1863)
- R Browning (Hon Fellow 1867)
- J Ashton Cross (Balliol 1868)
- R Younger, Baron Blanesburgh (Balliol TT 1880)
- OV Darbishire (Balliol 1888)
- J O’Regan (Balliol 1889)
- AR Cunliffe (Balliol 1890)
- HJ Rofe (Balliol 1890)
- CE Goetz (Balliol 1891)
- FF Urquhart (Balliol 1891)
- CN Dyer (Balliol 1897)
- JS Mann (Balliol 1912)
- HG Greene (Balliol 1922)
- C Gilpatric (Balliol 1938)
- JR Schlesinger (Balliol 1947)
- Egerton Richardson (Balliol 1954)
October 2, 2017 | Categories: reports | Tags: reports | Leave a comment
Sian Witherden has been working on tiny books as part of her Balliol DPhil research. She writes: ‘In this exhibition, four small Balliol manuscripts have been placed together in one display case. These books are not related to each other in any way besides their common size—they contain different texts, they are written in a variety of languages, and they hail from across the globe. However, the creators of all these books faced the same challenge: how do you produce a readable text on such a small scale? Each of these books is smaller than an adult’s hand, and this demands an impressive level of craftsmanship. In MS 348, for example, the scribe has managed to write letters that are just a millimetre or two in height. Creating ornamental initials and illuminations on this scale is an equally arduous task, and close-up photographs of these decorations reveals an astonishing level of detail and precision. ‘
Anna Sander: On the one hand, small books are easy to move, hide or pack away if necessary; not obviously useful for recycling as binding waste, as big sheets of parchment are, when no longer e.g. liturgically relevant; and often much-loved, beautiful, and highly personal items handed down through generations. On the other, they are easily misplaced, lost or stolen owing to their small size; highly attractive on the market, reluctant though an owner might be to sell; and rather chunky to handle because of their high proportion of height and width to thickness. Mechanically, their own weight will not help to ‘persuade’ a stiff binding to open further, and in this exhibition, it’s only the tiny books that need to be strapped in place in order to keep them open. They are made to be held in the hand, or perhaps both hands, used by one person. While big books are necessarily at the more expensive end of the book production scale because of the larger amount of parchment required to make them, tiny books are not necessarily less expensive, as they may be beautifully produced and highly decorated with expensive materials, and are sometimes written on very thin parchment which must have been even more difficult to make than regular sheep or calf.
The size of the text in these small books varies widely – while MS 348’s minute writing is closest in size to that of MS 148, a much larger book, that of the other three small books shown here is not especially small, and reasonably friendly to the naked reading eye. Though it’s especially striking to see a whole book in minute writing, tiny script is not unusual in manuscripts – it is often used for annotations, marginal comments, rubricator’s notes, and interlinear glosses (see e.g. MS 253). Was it done with the same pen as the larger main text? a tiny quill? a feather? a tiny brush? Did they have spectacles or magnifying glasses? There isn’t much evidence – descriptions and depictions of scriptoria and scribes’ equipment and practice are surprisingly few, and not always reliable. We are intrigued, and will add more evidence here as we find it.
More about tiny manuscript books
September 25, 2017 | Categories: #mss2017, conservation, display, exhibition, history of the book, link, manuscripts, mss survey, public | Tags: #mss2017 | 1 Comment
MS 378, open at ff.28-29, showing rubrics and stitching in the middle of a quire
MS 378 is an undated volume of prayers to the Virgin Mary in Ethiopic, or Ge’ez, the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. This is Balliol’s smallest manuscript book at only 2 ½ x 3 ½”, or 62 x 83mm. It is so tiny that its custom-made box is about four times the size of the book, with a recessed mount to hold it securely. One benefit of this rather larger and heavier box is that it’s easy to find on the shelf, to handle, and to keep track of during production and consultation – a box as small as the book might easily be hidden behind a larger one, or worse, dropped.
This manuscript is displayed closed in order to show its Ethiopic sewing, often known as Coptic style and distinct from later western binding techniques. The Copts, early Egyptian Christians, were the first to use the codex format, and their sewing method is still unsurpassed in simplicity and flexibility: a new Coptic binding can be opened a full 360 degrees.
The MS is in fairly good condition; the sewing is fragile and there is evidence of fairly recent repair to the attachment of the front board – what looks like a large stitch on the lower front cover – but other than some surface dirt it does not require further intervention. The paper label glued to the front cover, which MS 378 has in common with many of the others, is in the hand of EV Quinn, who began at Balliol as Assistant Librarian in 1940 and became Fellow Librarian in 1963, a post he held until 1982.
MS 378 is the only one in the collection known to have been given to the College by Benjamin Jowett from his own library, but there is no documentation in the archives about how he came to acquire it, or its previous provenance.
Although it is neither western nor medieval (as far as we know, at least), this manuscript has been included in the exhibition for two reasons: it shares many of the same conservation issues and endearing qualities as any tiny book, and it serves as a small signpost to another section of the collection that has hitherto suffered from lack of attention. As yet, many of Balliol’s 33 non-western manuscripts are still ‘closed books’: not yet accurately dated and without full descriptions of their contents, they have not been studied in detail and their research value has yet to be assessed. We hope that through recently established Balliol and Oxford contacts, and with good digital images emerging as useful tools, scholars in the relevant fields will soon be able to tell the College more about this part of the collection. Their entries in Mynors’ catalogue have been grouped together under their traditional label of ‘oriental manuscripts’ here.
MS 378, showing stitching, boards and binding
More about Ethiopic manuscripts and Ethiopic/Coptic sewing:
September 25, 2017 | Categories: #mss2017, conservation, display, exhibition, history of the book, link, manuscripts, mss survey, public | Tags: #mss2017 | 1 Comment
MS 349 medieval binding, showing spine and front cover – formerly red
We have begun with two examples of administrative documents created in the course of College business. MS 349 perhaps conforms more closely to the expected type of a medieval manuscript: in codex format, a 15th century copy on parchment, in several different English bookhands, of nine texts related to the office of priesthood, listed by Mynors.
This manuscript is, unusually, displayed closed in order to show the only surviving medieval binding in Balliol’s collection – and a modern gummed paper label in the unmistakable hand of EV Quinn, whose career in Balliol Library spanned 40 years in the 1940s-80s. Images are displayed to show a typical opening, some of the alum tawed supports showing through in places, and an illuminated initial using gold and colour.
MS 349 was bequeathed to Balliol by Dr George Coningesby (1692/3-1768, Balliol 1739) in 1768, and by then would have been an antiquarian gift rather than a contribution to the active contemporary College Library. Coningesby is the largest single donor of manuscripts (17 or 18) to the College after William Gray, a 15th century Bishop of Ely. He also left a large number of printed books to Balliol. Coningesby’s donations were just late enough to escape the wholesale rebinding of the medieval library in 1724-7, for which one Ned Doe was paid nearly £50. Most of the manuscripts are still bound in this 18th century half-calf (similar to suede); the bindings tend to be heavily glued and many have cracked and split, while the fuzzy covers are thin, and tear easily. MS 349’s boards still retain the metal furniture for an otherwise lost fore-edge clasp, but do not bear marks of any chain staple. Mynors notes that ‘The last mention of chaining in the library accounts falls in the year 1767-8, and an entry under 1791-2 ‘From Stone the Smith for old iron and brass’ probably marks the ending of the practice altogether.’
MS 349 – turnin showing something of the cover’s original bright red colour
Losses to the cover of MS 349 reveal a bevelled edge of the wooden board; there is also (old and inactive) woodworm damage, and the smooth pigskin cover has faded from its medieval red nearly back to the original pale brown, though an inner corner shows some remaining dye. While in many cases medieval sewing structures may survive within later rebindings, they are difficult to observe; full medieval bindings are rarer survivals and provide useful research opportunities.
edge of wooden board showing old insect damage
broken sewing supports, exposed within the volume
At some time there has been a modern repair of ff.121-122, a bifolium that had become detached from the textblock. Although there is some heavy cockling to folios at either end, and tears to spine folds in places, the book opens well and can be handled, carefully.
MS 349 – a typical opening
More about western medieval bindings:
- The Making of a Medieval Manuscript – Getty Museum, 2003
- Bindings section of Medieval Books, University of Nottingham
- Medieval & Early Modern Manuscripts: bookbinding terms, materials, methods and models, Yale University Library Conservation Department, 2015 [PDF]
- Shailor, B. The Medieval Book: Illustrated from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. University of Toronto Press, 1991.
- Szirmai, JA. The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding. Ashgate, 1999, reissued 2016.
and see also resources under Medieval Manuscripts – Introduction on the Further Reading page
September 20, 2017 | Categories: #mss2017, conservation, display, exhibition, history of the book, link, manuscripts, mss survey, public | Tags: #mss2017 | 1 Comment
Balliol College Archives & Manuscripts 