Conserving MS OGDEN/7/21, a 17th century manuscript conservation project

This conservation treatment is part of a project funded by the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust focused on six limp and semi-limp parchment bindings from the first half of the 17th century, held in the Special Collections of University College London.

In the case of this Commonplace Book manuscript by William Drake, the conservation process aimed at stabilising the book, retaining as much as possible its original features, components and aspect, so that it could safely be made available for students and scholars for research. The documentation and conservation work, carried out at the UCL Special Collections Conservation Department, took well over 100 hours, and required far more complex operations than the ones shown in this film.

The conservation of the six books from the same collection allowed conservators to gain a specialised knowledge base regarding this specific type of bindings as well as to establish parallels between books based on their specific features and structures that should guide curators and scholars towards identifying the places where they were bound or the period, whereas, previously, the books were not related except for their previous shared ownership.


Learn more about the manuscript: https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/DServe/dse...)

Learn more about William Drake:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Wil...

Learn more about UCL Special Collections:
https://www.google.com/search?client=...

Learn more about the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust:
https://www.nmct.co.uk