Summary

Follow the journey of a fascinating parchment fragment, from its origins as a page in a 12th century French Bible, through to its 2022 acquisition into the State Library Victoria Collection. Read about the provenance and materiality of the fragment, what this tells us about the book trade in medieval Europe, and how these factors influenced its current day conservation, exhibition and storage processes.

In 2022, State Library Victoria added a fascinating piece of book history to its growing collection of fragments held within the Rare Books Collection. The item, a 315 x 265 mm parchment leaf, originated from a 12th century French Bible and features the text of Leviticus (16:15 to 18:26) handwritten in an elegant Carolingian minuscule. It is known as Fragment of a French Bible, or colloquially as the ‘Leviticus leaf’.

The parchment leaf was selected for display in the 2023 iteration of the Library’s World of the Book exhibition, which saw it enter the conservation laboratory for treatment and display preparation.

Background

This wonderful item is significant both for the early age of its text, and for the evidence it provides about the reuse of manuscripts in the book trade. It is theorised that the 12^th century Bible from which the leaf derived was made obsolete with the rapid spread of the new Paris edition from about the 1230s onward. Around that time, the leaf was excised and repurposed in the binding of another text.

The leaf is made up of two notched fragments that have been adhered together, the shape indicating they were likely used as a ‘spine-strengthener’. First the parchment leaf was cut in half forming left and right pieces, then four wedges were cut along the outer sides to form two ‘comb linings.’ These pieces were adhered to the spine of another book, with the notched edges slotting between the raised bands of the spine and the straight edge attaching to the book covers to form a strong joint. See following image for a visualisation.

Condition

The Leviticus leaf is in fair condition despite its gruelling history of use. Parchment is known to be particularly sensitive to changes in relative humidity, so these processes – which likely involved wetting and drying the parchment – were inevitably damaging. 

The parchment is relatively flat, with only minor dimensional change, distortion, and creases where it was manipulated for attachment as a spine lining and later separated. These processes have also resulted in cuts, splits, abrasion, and numerous voids across the parchment. The text in red and black ink displays general fading, surface abrasion and loss. In addition, there are numerous small fragments of remnant paper from the previous binding and a constellation of bookworm bore holes throughout.

Conservation treatment

Treatment was required to stabilise more vulnerable cuts and splits, which have the potential to worsen with the natural expansion and contraction of parchment. Repairs were completed using a fine goldbeater’s skin, made from the outer membrane of a steer’s intestine. Goldbeater’s skin is so named because it was originally used as the interleaving material for beating gold into fine sheets. Due to its transparency, strength, and endurance, it has since become a popular material for repairing parchment. 

Selection of an appropriate adhesive was paramount, not only given the moisture sensitivity of parchment, but also the likelihood that iron gall ink was used in the text. Iron gall ink was popular for use on parchment given its ability to etch into the surface, reducing the risk of removal by rubbing or washing. However, its high acidity can cause corrosive deterioration of the underlying support and will migrate with moisture exposure! The use of gelatine mousse applied using a stencil sponge proved to be a good solution. Gelatine has capacity to bind reactive metals such as those in iron gall ink, while the use of a mousse enables adhesion with very minimal moisture.

Exhibition preparation

It was anticipated that the item would experience high access as a research and teaching aid following display. A long-term secondary support was implemented, prior to mounting, to limit direct handling of the parchment into the future.

The leaf was placed in an inlay system using a strong, archival paper that closely matched the thickness of the parchment and colour of the exhibition mount. To shape the inlay, the outer perimeter of the parchment was carefully traced onto the paper and cut away using a scalpel. The leaf was then placed into the paper ‘cut-out’ and affixed along all edges with strips of fine Japanese kozo paper using wheat starch paste in un-inked areas and gelatine mousse where suspected iron gall ink is present.

The inlaid leaf was hinged into an archival window mount in preparation for framing. Given the known climatic sensitivity of parchment, the mount incorporated a micro-climate package to protect the parchment during display. This comprised of an airtight sandwich in which the mounted leaf is framed with a humidity stabiliser called Art Sorb, which is pre-conditioned to maintain environmental conditions appropriate for the preservation of parchment. 

Long-term storage

Once removed from display, the parchment leaf was placed inside a custom enclosure known as a double-sided window mount to facilitate access to both sides. The mount features removable folio-style covers and is cut to a standard frame size so that the leaf can be exhibited in the future without any additional preparation.

With this fascinating piece of book history now stable and securely housed, we look forward to sharing it more widely as an accessible learning piece.

All images taken by Albertine Hamilton (Conservator, Paper) or the State Library Victoria’s Digital Production team.