Volume 19, Number 6
Nov 1992

Early Books

• A 1,600-year-old book of psalms, discovered by archaeologists eight years ago in a Christian cemetery south of Cairo Egypt, finally went on display at the Coptic Museum September 13, according to an Associated Press release on that date.

  "What a wonderful day for me!" Nasry Iskander, Egypt's chief conservation expert, said on Saturday. "We've gone through so much to save it."

  The Book of Psalms, protected by a humidity-controlled showcase designed by Iskander, is the new centerpiece of the ancient manuscript wing of Cairo's Coptic Museum.

  Gawdat Gabra, an Egyptologist and Coptic dialect scholar who is the museum's director, has studied the book since it was found in November 1984. Its 490 hand written pages were stuck together, and experts had to go through a painstaking process of separating each parchment leaf....

  The book dates to the late fourth century and is bound between wooden covers stitched with leather.

  . . . When he first saw the book, all but two pages were stuck together and most were damaged by water and salt. The script was an obscure Coptic dialect. First he recognized a number, then the beginning of a psalm. "I wouldn't leave until I'd copied the two pages. I knew I had a treasure," Gabra said....

  Iskander gradually freed page by page by lowering and raising the humidity. Six pages remain stuck, however, and Iskander said they would be left alone until science offers him a solution.

  The psalms are delicately handwritten in a dark brown, iron-based ink. A few passages are written over in black carbon ink, apparent attempts to repair damage It's evident where fingertips turned pages.

  The photograph accompanying the article shows the book lying open in Dr. Gawbra's hands, pages apparently separated but still cockled and unsewn. The writing, which is in a single column on each page, shows up fairly well. It is aligned at the left margin and very uneven at the right, like present-day poetry.

• "The Dead Sea Scrolls: Access and Accountability" was a session at the 20th anniversary of the Midwest Archives Conference (MAC). Speakers were James VanderKam, professor of theology at Notre Dame University; Michael Wise, professor of Aramaic at the University of Chicago; and Saundra Taylor, curator of manuscripts at the Lilly Library, Indiana University. Taylor discussed the ethics of opening the photographs and also reviewed the ALA/SAA Joint Statement on Access to Original Research Materials, which has been undergoing revision this year and should be released soon.
• "The Seminar in the History of the Book to 1500" started as an informal group in the mid1980s, and now has four or more meetings per year, usually in Oxford or Cambridge, according to Pascale Regnault, whose report of the July 1012 meeting appeared in the September Paper Conservation News. The July seminar was entitled "The Making of the Medieval Book" and was attended by over 100 people from many countries. All aspects were covered, including bookbinding history and conservation. One of the speakers was Janos Szirmai, whose topic was Carolingian book structures. For information on forthcoming meetings contact Dr. Margaret Smith, 18, St. John's St., Oxford OX1 2LQ, England.
• Early manuscripts in a monastery library in Patmos, Greece, are being given international care and attention, according to the June ICCROM Newsletter. The report says that Greece, France and Italy began cooperating a few years ago to protect a precious collection of manuscripts belonging to the Monastery of Saint Jean le Theologien in Patmos and dating back to the 6th century. Since 1990, the groundwork for a study on the state of conservation of this prestigious library has been laid, and progress made on emergency measures and a prevention policy. A restoration laboratory has been set up, the report says, and several French and Italian specialists have given courses and workshops for Greek participants. Plans for the near future include establishing a meeting center at Patmos for conservation specialists. For more information contact Marina L. Regni, Via Festo Avieno, 92, I00136 Rome RM, Italy.