The conservation of the burnt Cotton Collection

Abstract

The Cotton Collection is one of the British Library's foundation collections and represents the single greatest known resource of medieval and early modern British history and literature. Its care and conservation are of great importance to allow access to the collection both now and in the future. The collection had suffered significant damage over the course of its history, most notably from two fires and unsuitable historical restoration treatments. This article discusses a project undertaken at the British Library to develop a strategy for the long-term preservation of the burnt Cotton Collection whilst increasing accessibility to the collection, and to provide a knowledge base for use when considering conservation of other similarly-damaged parchment manuscripts.The initial stage of the project involved a condition survey of the burnt volumes of the Cotton Collection, identifying those items which needed to be withdrawn from immediate use in the library due to their fragility. The results of the survey were used to help design a long-term plan for the preservation of this collection. Research to determine the best methods of stabilizing and housing the items, and ameliorating the effects of past treatments were also undertaken. One particular outcome of the project was to prioritize the digitization of these manuscripts, to enable intellectual access to a physically very fragile collection.