First session. We have, are exciting to have three speakers this morning. 2
And I'm just going to briefly introduce them. You don't want to listen to me. 3
You want to listen to them. So I'm going to very briefly introduce them and then allow them to to talk. 4
So first we have Madeline Katkov. Madeline is a specialist in architectural polychrome in painted surfaces that can't be moved. 5
So that's walls, ceilings and fixed furnishings. During the great millennium restoration projects at the Bodleian, 6
she was responsible for the conservation of the ceilings in Duke Humfrey's Library 7
Arts End and the ceiling panels and frieze in the Upper Reading Room and some of the exterior carvings. 8
Since retiring, she has worked with the front of house team here at the Bodleian doing tours for us. 9
She'll be followed by Nicole Gilroy, who is Head of Book Conservation here at the Bodleian. 10
And, in final position, we have Alex Walker, our Head of Preventive Conservation here at the Bodleian. 11
So, with no further ado, I'll pass over to Madeline. 12
Thank you for having me. It's been very strange to revisit this project after quarter of a century. 13
A time warp being back to all communication being by post or fax, slides, negatives, prints and CDs. 14
I should be here with a carousel of slides saying 'next please' and pointing things out on the screen with a stick. 15
I've spared you that. It was hard to know where to start with this talk, 16
what aspect of the great B.O.L.D. project, as it was called, 17
the millennium project, that I should select, especially since I'm a specialist on painted surfaces, not an authority on wood. 18
I feel that conservators have a very particular relationship with the objects in their care. 19
The close handling for long hours, days, weeks, and months gives familiarity beyond the practical and cerebral, 20
a familiarity that raises arbitrary questions and explanations. 21
I decided to share a bit of that intuitive understanding. 22
I will follow the thoughts, ideas, 23
and queries that arose while I was working on the Bodleian ceilings and shed new light on its long and eventful life. 24
Later, I will look at both the material and the documentary evidence to put the ceilings into the context of their times, 25
and see what we can learn about the choices available to Bodley and what motivated him. 26
But first, to set the scene, I want to give an account of this extraordinary little medieval building, now buried inside Bodley's extensions. 27
The image comes from a 17th century souvenir book made for Queen Elizabeth the First in 1666, when she came as a tourist to see the sights of Oxford. 28
To start with, I want to cover the many destabilising events that dogged the building from the outset. 29
Many of you will be familiar with the story, but it's seldom told in its entirety, and that lends a new perspective. Beginning at the beginning, 30
I will run quickly through the vicissitudes regarding alterations, additions, extensions, restorations and repairs. 31
Initially it was envisaged as a single storey hall. 32
The first master mason was appointed in 1430 and the second already in 39, and he was famously told to dispense with frivolous curiosities. 33
Insufficient funding was in place and already serious cutbacks had to be made. 34
Unnecessary decoration was stopped abruptly and the project came to a halt, 35
with a south wall only a couple of metres high and with much shallower footings for the buttresses. 36
You can see the frivolous curiosities on the north side here, and the much plainer buttresses on the south. 37
When Duke Humfrey's large gift of important manuscripts arrived, 38
it brought prestige to the university. The fundraising flourished, the work started again, and an upper chamber chamber was added to house the books. 39
Then the donors had to be honoured with another change of plan. 40
The stone vault was inserted on the ground floor. 41
Its central access has a collection of the finest carved bosses of this date, which constitute the library's first Benefactors’ Board. 42
The library was opened for business in 1488 and lasted half a century before the books were dispersed in the Reformation and the fabric neglected. 43
By the end of the 16th century, Bodley finds it in every part ruined and waste. 44
By 1559, 1599, he had carried out major repairs on the roof. 45
The medieval lecterns were replaced with heavy bookcases and bench, benches. 46
Here the furnishings have been removed in a conservation campaign of 60, of the 1660s, of the 1960s, 47
revealing the archaeological evidence for Duke Humfrey's lecterns. 48
A reader would stand at these, and Bodley's much bigger bookcases. 49
His benches are now gone. So the little, this little thing is where the medieval lecterns were. 50
And this is the size of Bodley's bookcases. 51
And this is a very nice reconstruction of Bodley's 52
library done based on the archaeological evidence that was uncovered during that restoration. 53
By the time of the publication of the first catalogue in 1605, 54
there were some 5000 chained books in a space built for about 300 manuscripts altogether, 55
not an insignificant additional weight on an already much altered building. 56
This is really quite a spectacular spectacular amount of change in less than two centuries, 57
but the saga continues throughout the 17th century. 58
Next comes the Arts End extension. 59
Nope. Here. 60
A great mullioned window in the east wall was removed, and this left a large unsupported arch joining the two rooms. 61
So this is the window. It was here and it was moved to here. 62
In 1617, the western towers were taken down and replaced with staircases in the quadrangle. 63
Oops. Come off it. So there there are the turrets on the medieval building, and this is now the entrance to the library 64
from the east. The 15,000 odd books by then in the library had been carried up 65
those narrow, winding turrets. 66
In the 1630s, the Selden End extension was built, and cutting another large archway in the west wall to join the two rooms. 67
Here. And below in the Divinity School, 68
in 1669, 69
Christopher Wren cut the doorway in the north wall to create a route for ceremonial for ceremonial processions to his new Sheldonian Theatre. Here. 70
Upstairs in the Reading Room, 71
in 1693, galleries for overspill books were added, where the college founders' portraits now hang, and were not removed until 1877. 72
Oh, the slide's too dark. I don't know if you can just see a shelf number here. 73
The first bell hung in the bell in a bellcote on the exterior southwest corner of the roof, pushing outwards and was then removed inside 74
pulling in. The 18th century saw the first efforts to address this complex succession of stresses on the building. 75
In 1702, when was asked to stabilise to stabilise the leaning south wall. 76
And now I'm missing a slide to show you his lovely drawing. 77
for that work. It it appeared it disappeared on my computer. 78
And I am continually frustrated by what technology dreams up to confuse us. 79
So I'm going to skip a little bit. 80
Oop. Nope. Just a minute. 81
Bear with me. That's what you end up with. 82
What death watch beetle likes best is oak that has been damp for centuries. 83
And this roof provided a heavenly banquet for them. 84
I want now to turn to Bodley's renovations and consider what the material evidence tells us about his motives and inspirations. 85
The timber for the roof was provided by Merton. 86
The structural framework, joints and finishing on the beams is rough and ready. 87
The many shakes or splits in the wood were papered over before being painted. 88
Nope. Oops. So I can you see here. 89
Well, I hope you can see here that this is a slightly different texture. 90
It's linen paper and it has you can see the threads of it there, hopefully. 91
And the shake just opening again, after the papers put there. 92
And again here you can see strands of paper after the shake has opened 93
more. 94
In higher status buildings of the time, well-seasoned imported oak was used, which would not split, and the joinery was more meticulous. 95
Bodley’s work, on the other hand, is functional and without frills. 96
There was this was absolutely standard at the time in vernacular buildings. 97
I'm showing a wonderfully wonky joint from the roof of Christ Church College Library, which clearly illustrates my point. 98
The construction of the infill panels is more unusual. 99
Normally, if what is needed is a flat surface which will not warp, the tree trunk is quarter sawn across the grain. 100
This is a relatively expensive way of doing things, because the remaining wood has limited uses. Duke Humfrey's 101
panels were pie cut using the whole trunk. 102
You then end up with wedge shaped boards. 103
This is a panel from the ceiling of Duke Humfrey's, and it's here, 104
and I'll put it on the table at the end of this session, and you can have a look at it. 105
You can see the wedge-shapedness. 106
The boards would have been tongue and groove together. 107
You can see the groove here. And the joints between them were covered over with canvas to make it a little bit smoother. 108
The paint layer hides the unevenness of the support. 109
The chosen design would have been very quick to execute. 110
A single template is used for all the panels with an alternating colour scheme. 111
This is a reconstruction watercolour and you can see the alternation, red and brown, green and brown, and green and red. 112
The pigments are the cheapest. 113
Various earth colours, copper blue and indigo. I don't mean to say that the craftsmanship is not competent. 114
The properties of the materials are fully understood and hand and handled skilfully. 115
The brush strokes are accurate, the paints well prepared. 116
It's just that there's no aesthetic pretensions, no attempt to beautify. 117
It's often described as a beautiful ceiling. But that isn't the point. 118
The decoration is here to emphasise the words. 119
We know from his letters that Bodley was micromanaging all aspects of the project. 120
And we can see he understands the mechanics of construction. 121
For example, he worries about the seasoning of the wood for the main trusses. 122
He knows that a trunk needs a certain amount of drying time, and that once the beam is cut out, it will twist again. 123
He has good cause to fret. Dendrochronology gives us a felling date of 1698 for the main trusses, and by 1699 the roof was completed. 124
For a beam this size, at least 3 or 4 years would be required for it to stabilise. 125
He kept such a close eye on the proceedings. 126
He would surely have been involved in all the woodwork decisions for both structure and panels in the roof, 127
but I don't think his chief motivation here was penny pinching. 128
The purpose was not to paint over in order to disguise the rough and ready woodwork, 129
but rather that the inexpensive support was sufficient because the intention from the start had been to paint it. 130
His constraints would have been more to do with the Protestant ethic against expensive and ostentatious embellishment. 131
Calvin, who had taught, who had taught Bodley, did allow modest and plain decoration as long as it had a didactic purpose. 132
I'd just like to draw your attention to the fact that there's a, in Blackwell Hall at the moment, 133
there's a table explaining the dendrochronology of the Bodleian ceilings, which you really shouldn't miss. 134
There's a great flourishing of painted decoration in vernacular buildings of this date. 135
Hundreds of examples survive from within a 50 year period around 1600. 136
These are some examples that are within a few hundred metres of the Bodleian. 137
3 Cornmarket, the Golden Cross and 119 High Street. 138
They occur in reception rooms of homes and other spaces where people gather, 139
and their main purpose is to make a bold statement about the Protestant credentials of the owner. 140
They include texts that are referred to as improving sentences or proverbs. 141
The reason for the repeated motto 'Dominus illuminatio mea', 'the Lord is my 142
light', shows that Bodley felt led by God to provide this educational resource. 143
In founding the library, he was doing good God's work. 144
I've read somewhere that he would have been regarded as equivalent to a bishop in this respect, 145
and if anyone can give me the reference for this, I would be very grateful. 146
Both the simplicity of the construction and the importance of the text conform with Protestant sensibilities of the time. 147
For Bodley, this was a particularly sensitive issue. 148
His diplomatic career had had ended under a cloud. 149
He had failed to negotiate the intense rivalry between Elizabeth's two warring factions, 150
Leicester and the favourite, two Elizabeth's two warring favourites, Leicester and Essex, and had been accused of duplicity. 151
It was crucial that he clear his name and restore his reputation. 152
Arts End ceiling is quite different and not at all modest. 153
No template was used. The cartouches around the shields all different. 154
The panels consist of two nice flat quarter sawn boards. 155
The paint medium is oil, with wide range of pigments and glazes. 156
It is glossier and more three dimensional than Duke Humfrey's. 157
Between the two building phases, about ten years apart. 158
Bodley was knighted. 159
James the First had named the library after him, and the library had been given the legal right to a copy of every book published. 160
It was clear that his foundation would flourish in posterity and bring him much greater renown than his diplomatic career had done. 161
The ceiling reflects this new confidence and assuredness. 162
There is an additional message on the ceiling. One painted panel is different from all the others. 163
It stands out as the only one with gilding. It shows the Angel of the Apocalypse in a sunburst, holding a ribbon with a quote from Revelations: 164
Who is worthy to open the book and loose the seals thereof? 165
Bodley again is emphasising the devotional aspect of his work. 166
The layout and furnishings in Arts End has caused much speculation as to where Bodley got the inspiration for the galleries. 167
The design is often said to be influenced by the library at El Escorial, near Madrid. 168
I don't think there can be any connection. Bodley was busy in the Netherlands, raising funds for the war against Spain. 169
He never visited that country. In any case, I am sure he would have been horror struck by the dazzling painted ceiling, 170
so Catholic and so like the Sistine Chapel. The comparison might have arisen because there were no stalls at Escorial. 171
The bookcases are placed against the wall, but the concept is completely different. 172
These are fixed furnishings, not wall shelving as in Arts End, and you cannot walk above them. 173
The purpose of the galleries is to use all the wall space up to the ceiling, and to be able to store the quartos and octavos securely beyond reach. 174
The access is controlled by lockable doors. 175
There were some 14,000 books in the galleries in Arts 176
End. Bodley has saved himself a huge expenditure because with this arrangement of furnishings, they did not need to be chained. 177
I don't know of any comparable arrangement in Europe at the time. 178
Perhaps this is another Bodley invention still common in use today. 179
I'll just finish with a quick look at the furnishings in Duke Humfrey's, which follow the pattern of other Oxford college libraries, 180
and which were all having which were all having to be adapted at the time to accommodate the great increase of books after the invention of printing. 181
Three of them predate the Bodleian: Merton, 1598, and St John's, 1590 - sorry, Merton, 1589, 182
St John's, 1598. These still have their original shelves and benches, based on the old stalls arrangement. And All Souls. 183
Please note the deliberate mistake. It's not the Queen's College. 184
This was the newest fash- and and the furnishings have not survived in All Souls. 185
And these were available to Bodley as prototypes for his library. 186
Interestingly, all have barrel vaults. At St John's 187
and All Souls these were plastered. This was the newest fashion, but Bodley was recycling wood from the medieval roof and was constrained by its size. 188
As we have seen, he was not inclined towards fashion or unnecessary expenditure. 189
Except maybe with regard to the furnishings. I'm showing here the nicely carved supports under the desks, 190
and a catalogue tablet where a nice woodgrain has been specially chosen. 191
This is high end work. St John's is an example of low end work. 192
Some backing boards are softwood and often do not cover the whole back. 193
Sometimes you can see over the top of the books to the next stall. 194
The wood for the benches is generally more knotted, but this is warpage on another level. 195
Uh, the structural timbers in St John's are similarly bodged. 196
Here's another view of Merton. I was unable to visit because it's a building site 197
at the moment. The books are still on the shelves, which have therefore been hermetic 198
hermetically sealed, so it was not possible to access the stalls. 199
I'm very grateful to the librarian as Anastasia Yapp for providing these photos. Bodley 200
was an alumnus of Merton and was greatly supported in his endeavours at the Bodleian by its principal, Thomas Savile. 201
Savile had also had also put money into the shelves. 202
Can I draw your attention to the gap for the chain to hang when the book is on use on the desk? There. 203
There were nice survives survivals of the metal mechanisms. 204
You can see the chain gap here at St John's. 205
The gap limits the where you can hinge the desks, and here they are attached to the supporting brackets. 206
So that's above the desk and this is below. When the desk is up. 207
In Duke Humfrey's the chain gaps have been filled, but there's still a little clip which would have held the desk from above. 208
There, very dark slide. The catalogue tablet in Duke Humfrey's is also hinged so that the shelf the shelf list can easily be updated. 209
The paper is held in place by the frame. Where are we, here, so there is, you can see the hinge properly. 210
I was not convinced that the flat decorative ironwork at the intersections of shelf 211
and upright in Duke Humfrey's would hold a bar with a lot of heavy chains in it, 212
as there's only a very small fixing hole in its centre. 213
No. 214
I can see it from here. I don't know if you can see it just there. 215
My colleague, when I ‘Winnie’ sent me the photograph of the chain rails at Corpus, which have this wings still surviving. 216
If it had pins that went a long way into the wood, 217
then the purpose of the surround on the wood is just to hold the pins in place so that there's no pull on the wood, to prevent sagging. 218
I couldn't find any evidence of of chain rails in Arts 219
End, although the alternate uprights have been refaced so they might be under that. 220
I'm indebted to so many people for my understanding of the library, but for now, 221
I would like to thank my fellow guides for their endlessly sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm for all things Bodleian. 222
Here's a lovely portrait of Bodley from the Upper Reading room ceiling, looking worn out by his work on the library. 223
Thank you. Good morning. 224
Still. I'm Nicole Gilroy. I'm the Head of Book Conservation at the Bodleian here. 225
And as the second of the three speakers this morning, 226
I'm going to talk about the way that the books of the library have been cared for and repaired over the years. 227
Much of what I talk about has happened during the past 50 years, 228
when we've had a section of the library specifically dedicated to caring for the books, 229
the physical well-being of the books and other objects in the library, but primarily the books. 230
And that's currently known as the Conservation and Heritage Science section. 231
It's had various similar names over the years. 232
But conservation, looking looking after things in the broader sense of the word, goes back much further than that. 233
This slide shows a portrait of Thomas James, the first librarian. 234
This corridor here contains portraits of librarians, just around the corner by the reader entrance. 235
And the first portrait on the right that you'll see is this one of Thomas James. 236
It's a 17th century oil painting in the gilt frame. 237
Thomas James is a tall, broad man with a white beard in a black clerical robe and a white ruff. 238
And he's posing, holding a book in his hand. And the Conservation section is relatively new. 239
I'm also showing a sprig of rosemary, and all will become clear in a moment. 240
The conservation section is relatively new. 241
It was formed in the late 1970s by then librarian David Vaisey, whose portrait also hangs just round the corner here. 242
You can look at it on your way out. 243
He recognised the need for an organised, professional, Oxford-wide approach to care of collections, both rare and modern. 244
But conservation in its widest sense, 245
the care and repair of collections, has been part of the librarian and the library's remit since the very beginning. 246
When Thomas Bodley first founded the library in 1602, the librarian Thomas James was tasked with overseeing the care and cleaning of the library. 247
In 1603, he complained to Bodley about readers spitting in the library, and the response was, 248
well, the cleaners need to do their job a bit better and paying them enough. 249
250
And then two months later he complained of an outbreak of mould and woodworm. Bodley's reply was that the cleaners should not only sweep the library, 251
but at least twice a quarter with clean cloths strike away the dust and mouldering of the books. 252
Thomas Bodley had quite specific tastes in cleaning products. In preparation for a royal visit by King James, he requested that the floors be swept, 253
washed and then afterwards rubbed with a little rosemary for a stronger scent I should not like. 254
Maybe that's his his sort of very modest tastes. 255
I wonder what he'd make of the current popularity of library scented candles and wax melts, some of which are available in the shop. 256
Let's not mention the prohibition on kindling fire and flame within the library buildings. 257
Sorry. A moment. I've 258
not my notes for that slide. There are several accounts of books having become wet and then dried by library staff or associates. 259
Here's one. Henry Fairfax, Dean of Norwich, gave Roger Dodsworth 160 volumes of collections to the University of Oxford, 260
but the manuscripts were not brought thither until 1673, and then in wet weather. 261
When the Oxford antiquarian Anthony Wood with much difficulty, 262
obtained leave of the Vice-Chancellor to have them brought into the main room in the school-tower, and was a month drying them on the leads. 263
This. I've illustrated this quote with an image of David Loggan's engraving of the old Schools Quadrangle, 264
with an arrow showing the roof of the tower in the quadrangle, where the books must have been laid out to be dried. 265
Sadly, the problem of wet and damp books is still with us in 2024, but we don't dry them on the roof any more. 266
I'm now showing the photograph of the wooden bookshelves and benches and also the ceiling 267
in Arts End. In the 19th century, the Bodleian used the local bookbinding firm, Alfred Maltby and Sons, 268
which is still trading today under a slightly different form, to repair and rebind our books. 269
The most precious manuscripts were not allowed out of the library, and they were repaired by the binders within the library itself. 270
In fact, one binder, Mr. Ward was, who was according to Librarian Nicholson, 271
'in difficult and delicate works of this kind ... without a superior', died while at work in Duke Humfrey's Library in September 1909. 272
We can but aspire to such commitment nowadays. And this slide shows two blurry black and white photographs from the 1950s. 273
Each has two men at a workbench smiling at the camera, 274
wearing shirts and ties with their sleeves rolled up and aprons and carrying out bookbinding activities. 275
Our colleague Andrew Dawson, who sadly passed away recently, 276
but who started here as an apprentice, told me that, you know, when he first started, you 277
you had to wear a shirt and tie and jacket and could only remove your jacket at the 278
bench while wearing an apron and had to put it back on again when you went for for coffee. 279
So these are the earliest photographs of our own Bodleian Bindery, or ultimately the conservation team that I have. 280
In the 1950s, there was an increase in cataloguing projects, 281
perhaps prompted by the end of the war and the settling in to the new library and this new spacious building that we're in now. 282
That meant lots of work for the newly fitted out in-house bindery. 283
There've been many phases of work to the Old Library over the centuries, and both campaigns of expansion and campaigns of repair, 284
which have been to some extent discussed by Madeleine and will be talked about by Alex. 285
The relevance of these campaigns to my specialist area is that whenever books are moved, 286
there's both the potential for them to be misplaced or damaged or reordered, 287
and there's also the opportunity for them to be inspected, cleaned and repaired. 288
As such, it's often possible to correlate campaigns of book repair or treatment with campaigns of building, renovation and cataloguing. 289
This is the case with several projects of work on the Arts End books. 290
And as, as Madeline mentioned, and we'll talk about in the next slide, in the next talk too, from the 1990s to the early 2000, 291
there was an ambitious and then award winning project called B.O.L.D.: the Bodleian Old Library Development Project. 292
It involves significant works in the Old Library, particularly Duke Humfrey's and Arts 293
End, which necessitated the removal of all of the books from the shelves and their storage for several years in the New Library, 294
which is what this building was called before it was refurbished and named the Weston. 295
The project offered an opportunity to clean, 296
assess and carry out some important repairs on the collections kept in this beautiful yet problematic space. 297
Madeline mentioned that, she really ought to be here with the slide carousel. 298
Most most of the pictures that I have from from that period of time in the 1990s up to 2000 are either, 299
photographic prints, which I've then had to scan or slides. 300
So if you could just imagine that we have a sort of vintage Instagram filter and forget the slight yellowness of some of these pictures, 301
I'd appreciate that. So there were numerous problems with the Library that impacted on the books. 302
Alex will talk about dust and light in a little while, but there were several other issues. 303
One of them is access. The library has galleries, that were built before health and safety guidelines were a thing. 304
And these continue to be difficult, sometimes dangerous, to access. The books on the shelves are also different sizes. 305
Any librarians in here will know that one of the Bodleian's space saving tricks is to shelve books in the closed stacks by size. 306
This is the most efficient way to fill a space, but books on the open 307
shelves and in historic collections may be shelved by subject, collector date, or any other method that the librarian saw fit. 308
And this can lead to big differentials in height, giving more access to dust, but also causing distortion. 309
I'm showing four pictures, on this slide of books of different heights. 310
So in this one, you can see a tall book that only just fits on the shelf. 311
This one, there's a tall book next to a short book, and it's also a tall book that has a soft cover. 312
And so that's causing some distortion as it presses in against the shorter book. 313
Here there's a very small book, which has several risks. 314
One, it could be lost quite easily. And also it could cause this book to become distorted. 315
And in this one, a very tall and thin book where the leaves are splaying out at the top. 316
The convention of shelving books sitting on their tail edge, spine facing out is relatively modern, 317
and in the 17th century it was common for books to be shelf fore edge out. 318
You may notice that quite a lot of these seem to be the the wrong way round. 319
You can see in this slide that the classification numbers or shelf marks are often written in ink on the fore edges of the books. 320
You can see here. I've noticed several Instagram posts suggesting doing this for artistic reasons, 321
and I sometimes have to hold my tongue when book lovers berate the suggestion 322
as unthinkable. Here you can see some of the effects of light, environmental pollution, and years of handling on the spines of some books, 323
particularly the pale coloured volumes which may be either laced case parchment bindings, 324
often known as limp vellum, or stiff board parchment covered books, both of which are well-represented in these collections. 325
The thin animal skin material that they're covered with, 326
becomes brittle and tears in some conditions, causing it to spring away from the spines of the books. 327
as you see in this slide, and also in this one where the linings have also become loose and this is very fragmented 328
and vulnerable. The another problem caused by the sort of the nature of the books is that that the the soft 329
lace case parchment or limp vellum covers sometimes deform partly due to the size differentials, but also due to humidity changes in the library. 330
Our usual way of dealing with problems with books being damaged by storage or handling is to box them. 331
The library has boxed all of its manuscripts and most of its rare books collections over the past 50 years, 332
and this provides the first line of defence against dust, water ingress, handling, environmental change and so on. 333
But in a historic library, putting all the books into standard grey boxes would completely destroy the visual aesthetic of the space. 334
It's the visual features of the books the leather and parchment bindings, 335
the forage out shelving, visible ink shelf marks that give the space its appeal. 336
And this space is as much museum as library. One answer to the boxing problem is the book shoe. The book 337
shoe is a kind of half box or rather half slipcase, which allows the sides of the book to be protected, 338
the text block of the book to be supported, and yet the spine or display edge, which may be the fore edge, to be visible. 339
Early book shoes, such as the one on the left, were made with yellow straw board, 340
but during the Duke Humfrey project these designs were refined to use one of four shades of beige card 341
and similarly tone cloth tape to blend in as well as possible with the visual aspect of the library. 342
The image on the right is from the website of Caroline Bendix, 343
a consultant who has shoed books all over Oxford and beyond whom many of us have worked as students. 344
It shows you the edges of the book 345
shoe, cut slightly short to make it almost invisible on the shelf, and you can probably just about see the block inside, 346
which provides a text block support preventing strain on the binding from the leaves of the books sagging. 347
A big advantage of bookshelves over boxing is that it adds only two thicknesses of card to the space, 348
which is a serious consideration when removing and, crucially, replacing many books in a limited space. 349
Some books were boxed, usually if they were beyond either minor repair or bookshoeing, 350
but the number of boxes permissible in each area was carefully calculated, both for the space needed and also for visual effect. 351
A small number of boxes inserted in complimentary coloured board will disappear visually, especially in the upper gallery up here, 352
whereas a large number of grey boxes on the lower shelves would be visually jarring and also difficult to fit. 353
I'm showing the photo of Arts End here and you can see, I hope, some of these books have black or or beige coloured tapes around. 354
Some of them have book shoes; you can just about see one sticking up there. 355
And there are 1 or 2 boxed items here which do stick out quite, quite obviously. 356
And here you can see some 'after' shots of that 1992 - 2000 project: neater shelves with stabilised and in some cases boxed volumes in this beige card, 357
which is less visible and jarring. Several project staff were employed to carry out refurbishment and repair work on the collections. 358
These repairs included traditional repairs such as rebacks. I'm showing a picture of a reback at the top where a strip, 359
a new strip of leather is added down the spine of the book and reattaching lifting leather. 360
Reshaping distorted parchment boards was a method that was refined during the course of this project, 361
and some entirely new techniques were developed, such as tailoring melinex, which is a polyester sheet 362
cover to hold the sprung back parchment covers I showed you earlier, without having to paste or otherwise heavily intervene in the fragile materials. 363
They were also used to protect other fragile materials such as textile bindings. 364
I'm showing a photograph of a book with a red silk cover, which is slightly worn and frayed. 365
It has a wrapper made from thin transparent polyester sheet, which is cut and fixed to to fit the book precisely. 366
You can see here the 'quarto H 26 The' is one of the 367
quarto books with a very characteristic Duke Humfrey shelf mark. 368
This work was all done before I started here at the Bodleian, and so I know from word of mouth and from conservation records that we keep upstairs. 369
However, fast forward 20 years, 370
and developing new techniques to suit the Duke Humfrey collections has continued in my time as Head of Book Conservation, which began in 2012. 371
A new cataloguing project in Arts End flagged up a number of books that were slightly damaged, but which would get worse if they were not repaired. 372
This is ideally the time to do repairs, not when they've actually fallen to pieces. 373
The weakest points of the book are the joints, especially the head and tail. 374
Damage to these areas eventually leads to board detachment, which requires quite interventive treatment to repair. 375
It's not only time consuming and therefore costly, but it also means interfering with a historic structures of the book. 376
Using a stitch in time approach, my colleague Simon developed a technique which we now refer to as The Haigh Hitch, named after him, 377
which entails placing several tiny supporting splints of toned uncoloured areocotton, 378
a favourite material of the book conservator, into the broken joint areas. 379
Traditional rebacks involve lifting large areas of leather and replacing it with a new spine piece tucked under the leather on the board sides, 380
and reattaching any remaining pieces of spine. 381
The lifting process very often damages the surface finish or even the decoration of the leather, especially on the spine. 382
This Hitch technique is quicker, more useful when a board isn't actually detached 383
but might be seen, and is very minimal in its interference with the covering materials. 384
Here's another photograph sequence showing a minor repair to the spine leather, 385
which will prevent the board from becoming loose and eventually detached. 386
So there's a loosening joint here. 387
A piece of aerocotton has been inserted, and then we've repaired this joint, and it's much more stable. 388
So that's a whistlestop overview of the work that's been done and continues to go on in the wooden library. 389
There are enough books here to keep every conservator busy for many lifetimes, 390
but that doesn't stop us from making our own modest contributions to the history of this beautiful space. 391
I hope you'll go over the road and visit it, if you haven't done already. 392
Thank you. Thank you, 393
Nicole, Madeleine. I really enjoyed both of your talks. 394
And I'm Alex Walker. I'm the Head of Preventive Conservation for the Bodleian Libraries, working within the Conservation and Heritage Science section. 395
Today I'll be talking to you about the work of the preventive conservators at the Bodleian 396
Libraries and how we've cared for Duke Humfrey's Library in the past and our current practice, 397
and then also our future plans for the Library. 398
The Preventive Conservation Team are part of the Conservation and Heritage Science section at the Bodleian Libraries. 399
We don't carry out conservation treatments at the bench like our colleagues in the Book Conservation team and the Paper Conservation teams, 400
but we do spend a lot of time with the library collections in the historic spaces and underground us here at the Weston book stack. 401
In preventive conservation, we monitor and take steps to best control the environment around the collections to prevent damage and degradation. 402
This slide shows two of our environmental monitoring devices in situ in the Duke Humfrey's Library. 403
Preventive conservation is a relatively new field, but preservation and collection care have arguably always been at the heart of conservation. 404
At the Bodleian Libraries, the first Preservation Officer post was introduced in 1992, 405
taking care of the pest management, among other responsibilities and preservation. 406
And later in 2004, the Preventive Conservation team was formed and dedicated Preventive Conservators took on the work of environmental monitoring, 407
pest management, collections handling training and emergency planning, amongst other tasks. 408
But there's always been a keen awareness of the condition of our library collections and how best to take care of them. 409
In 1642, the library hires a poor woman and her two daughters to help sweep the libraries. 410
This poor woman was identified as Goodwife Carpenter. 411
She was also paid to brush and make clean the books. 412
Could Goodwife Carpenter have been the library's first preventive conservator? 413
The current preventive conservation team do not keep rosemary sprigs in their tool belts, as Nicole has referred to, 414
but we do keep a collection of cleaning brushes and take measures to minimise dust in our collections. 415
We work closely with our colleagues in the facilities and cleaning teams to keep spaces clean, using appropriate methods. 416
Dust prevention is an important part of collection care. 417
As the build-up of dust can lead to numerous problems. 418
Not only does it alter the appearance of books, shelving, or furniture so that they become difficult to appreciate or access, 419
but it can also lead to damage and deterioration. Over time, 420
dust can bind with the surface of an object, becoming sticky and difficult to remove. 421
Dust can also be a source of food for library and museum pests such as webbing 422
clothes moths or carpet beetle, and introducing these pests to a library environment can then lead to infestation and damage to the historic spaces. 423
Dust can also contain mould spores and in in an improper environment such as high relative humidity, 424
with warmer temperatures, these spores could activate and cause a mould outbreak. 425
This slide shows the action of dusting the shelving in Duke Humfrey's Library. For cleaning uneven surfaces, 426
such as historic woodwork, or cleaning the books themselves. 427
We use natural fibre brushes with different levels of stiffness, and brush directly into the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner with HEPA filter. 428
This action will catch dust from the surface, as wiping can cause further damage through abrasion or embed dust into the uneven surface. 429
Dust in our library spaces can be formed of a number of different particles, and these might be fibres from the clothes from readers and visitors, 430
particles from pollutants common in busy city centres, 431
pollen and dead skin cells. 432
Studies by the National Trust and English Heritage have shown that dust settles most heavily at floor level, and at roughly 1.5m, 433
the height of the average visitor shoulder, where we see clothing fibres in the dust and then on the floor from dirt tracked in from outdoors. 434
We found evidence to support this during our recent cleaning sessions in Arts End. 435
This slide shows an image of six sample pots being prepared to collect dust from Arts End in Duke Humfrey’s 436
Library, and the tools we used to collect the dust. 437
We were keen to examine the dust particles to see what are most common. 438
We are yet to examine the samples, but we will do so in the new year. 439
The second image shows the result of an afternoon cleaning, several microfiber cloths, 440
which have been used to gently wipe the surfaces of the desks ahead of cleaning using the natural hair brush and vacuum cleaner method. 441
This slide shows my colleague, preventive conservator Catherine Harris, 442
taking light readings from one of the windows in Arts End. Maintaining a stable environment 443
for collections on our library shelves is a key part of preventive conservation. 444
The historic wooden library brings different challenges to those presented by the underground book stack here at the Weston. 445
The Weston book stack contains metal shelving, concrete walls and floors, and crucially, 446
there is mechanical environmental control providing an environment in line with national conservation standards. 447
For the long term preservation of library collections, 448
we are looking to maintain a stable temperature of around 18°C and a stable relative humidity between 45 - 60%. 449
These levels will help to delay the chemical chemical reactions that lead to deterioration. 450
They inhibit mould growth and insect pest activity, and prevent leather and parchment from warping, 451
embrittlement and crumbling. Light can also lead to damage, so we try to minimise light exposure where possible on collections stored in Duke Humfrey's Library. 452
More on this later. In Duke Humfrey's Library, there is limited environmental control. 453
There are radiators throughout the library, which until last year were either set to on or off. 454
Recent adaptions to the valves have resulted in an improved control to heating settings, 455
which will benefit both sustainability and conservation, as stable temperatures can be more easily maintained. 456
The reading room is also very popular with readers and has regular tour groups passing through. 457
It therefore needs to remain a temperature acceptable for occupants. 458
So as conservators, we need to find a balance between what is best for the collections and for readers and visitors. 459
We're also working in a historic setting with strict protections on building works and changes to the interior, 460
so adding an air conditioning system is out of the question. 461
There have been major changes over the last 25 years, which have resulted in huge benefits to the preservation of the library. 462
The Preventive Conservation team aims to limit light exposure across these historic spaces. 463
We monitor Lux, which is the measurement of visible light intensity and ultraviolet radiation. 464
UV is particularly harmful to organic materials and can lead to embrittlement and fading. 465
The historic glazing in Duke Humfrey's Library was designed to let in enough light for readers to study before artificial lighting was installed 466
a few hundred years later. The glazing now presents us with a preservation problem, 467
as the original glass does not filter out the damaging UV radiation. 468
It can flood the room with natural light, and the expanse of glazing also leads to rapid heat gain and cooling from day to night, 469
which can cause fluctuations in relative humidity. 470
In a paper published in 2000 by former senior book conservator Sabina Pugh, titled 'The Problem of Light in Duke Humfrey's Library', 471
Pugh describes how a proposed combination of roof insulation and more flexible heating system and 472
solar control at the windows was recommended to stabilise the temperature and relative humidity. 473
At this time, Pugh worked on a study to test different UV films, protective blinds and fixed panels to cover the arched areas of the windows. 474
Following this extensive research, UV film was added to the windows in 1999 and blinds made from a translucent fibreglass woven fabric, 475
eliminating 80 to 90% of the solar gain, also introduced. 476
The addition of blinds would also help to deter staff and readers from opening the windows in the library, 477
which can introduce dust, pests, pollutants and does not help to maintain the stable environment. 478
In more recent and more recent improvements to the lighting in Duke Humfrey's Library was the refurbishment of the electric lighting in 2017. 479
Throughout the library, from the ceilings to the desk lamps, the metal halide light sources were updated to LEDs. 480
PIR motion sensors were added so that lights would only be on when collections are accessed, 481
and the overall lighting design was also updated so that the ceiling would glow, 482
historic features were emphasised and the stonework surrounding the windows was highlighted. 483
This can be fully appreciated on a late afternoon visit to the library. 484
The preventive conservation team also monitor for insect pests across the libraries. 485
We look for pests which could cause damage to our buildings and collections. 486
These include furniture beetle, silverfish, carpet beetle, webbing clothes moth, and death watch beetle. 487
This slide shows a conservator checking a sticky blunder trap. 488
These are the type of traps we use to monitor insect pest numbers. 489
They are named as such because the traps are not baited. We are only trapping pests which blunder over the traps. 490
This gives us an overall picture of the types and number of pests in our libraries. 491
When the library was making improvements to the environmental controls 492
in 1999, there was also a much larger project underway to replace the roof over Duke Humfrey's Library, 493
which is the B.O.L.D. project. The oak rafters supporting the copper roof were damp and infested with death watch beetle. 494
Condensation was collecting onto the copper roof directly onto the rafters, and the death watch beetle thrive in this environment. 495
This slide shows an image of a section of one of the original beams, and we do have this beam with us today on the table here, 496
and we'll be pleased to show you later this afternoon at the conservation table in Blackwell Hall. 497
Major restoration work had taken place in the 1960s, and the death watch beetle problem was known then. 498
But in a quote from Michael Turner, former Head of Preservation and Conservation, 499
he stated that the chemical treatments available then just didn't get far enough into the wood to get rid of the beetle. 500
35 years on and we're using other means. 501
The 1999 project resulted in the roof being raised to allow for insulation between the roof and ceiling, so the rafters could dry out. 502
No chemical treatments were used to eradicate the death watch beetle this time, 503
but a collection of sticky light traps, essentially large light sheets, 504
were used to attract emerging beetles in the spring and track the female and trap the females before they could find a location to lay their eggs. 505
The combination of trapping and creating an inhospitable environment had excellent results, 506
and this slide shows an image of an adult death watch beetle on the left and on the right 507
this is one of the beatles trapped by one of the light sheets from around 1999. 508
Our environmental monitoring and pest monitoring programmes are ongoing, and we check our pest traps every quarter. 509
Luckily, we've not found any alarming catches in recent years. 510
A plan for improved cleaning in Arts End is forming, and we have found that this area of the library does become particularly dusty. 511
There are challenges to working in the space, as it's a busy reading room, and the noise of the vacuum cleaner is not welcomed by readers. 512
The wider conservation team embarked on a cleaning programme in 2021, 513
where books from Arts End would be brought over to the Weston Library via the tunnel for cleaning and assessment in batches. 514
This will take a number of years to complete, but will form a comprehensive condition assessment for the collection. 515
Thank you for listening. And please come and take a look at some of our pesty examples at the conservation table later on. 516
And Madeline also has some samples from the ceiling and Nicole will be there 517
as well to talk about the book repair. Thank you very much.