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Newsletter No 3 4B 4B Newsletter no. 65 October 2015 Newsletter of the Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections www.amarc.org.uk THE BOOK OF KELLS & GREAT NATIONAL TREASURES St John (detail) from the Book of Kells (Trinity College Dublin MS 58) f. 291v. See pp. 4–5. © Reproduced by permission of the Board of Trinity College Dublin ISSN 1750-9874 AMARC Newsletter no. 65 October 2015 The Book of Kells (Trinity College Dublin MS 58), f. 111r: ‘Tunc congregati sunt principes sacerdotum et seniores...’ (Matthew 26.3). The letter T depicts an academic dispute. © Reproduced by permission of the Board of Trinity College Dublin. CONTENTS AMARC matters 2 Exhibitions 18 AMARC meetings 3 New Accessions 22 Personal news 5 New Publications 27 Projects 5 Websites 30 Conferences 9 MSS News 33 AMARC MEMBERSHIP Institutional Membership: £30 Membership can be personal or in- (For non-sterling cheques, please stitutional. Institutional members add £7 extra to cover bank charges). receive two copies of mailings, Please send your payment to: Dr have triple voting rights, and may Michael Stansfield, AMARC send staff to meetings at the Treasurer, c/o Durham University members’ rate. Details and Library, Palace Green, Durham application forms are available DH1 3RN. Payment by standing from: www.amarc.org.uk. order is welcomed. Forms can be Enquiries about membership should obtained from the Membership be addressed to the Membership Secretary or Treasurer. If more Secretary: Mr Richard Wragg, members with UK bank accounts AMARC Membership Secretary, could pay by standing order it Archivist, The National Gallery would considerably decrease the Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N amount of time spent on 5DN; e-mail: administration. [email protected]. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Please note the contact details of Many thanks to all contributors to our new Membership Secretary, this issue, including the following and do remember to inform him of whose help or contributions are un- any change in your e-mail or attributed: postal address. Nicolas Bell, Claire Breay, Judy Annual subscription rates (April– Burg, Richard Gameson, Peter March) are: Kidd, Bernard Meehan, Stella Personal Membership: £10 Panayotova, Pamela Robinson and Michael Stansfield. Thanks are also 2 AMARC Newsletter no. 65 October 2015 due to the British Library, Durham AMARC; the provision of University, and the Board of Trinity equipment to facilitate access to College Dublin for the use of manuscripts; assistance with the photographs. necessary purchase of manuscripts The views expressed herein are and archives to benefit the AMARC those of the Editor and other named community; carrying out contributors. In addition to contri- conservation work on manuscripts butions from individuals, inform- and archives. ation has been taken from a variety Applicants must be fully paid-up of websites, press releases etc., the individual or institutional members, accuracy of which cannot be guar- and should read carefully the anteed. You are advised to confirm detailed information about applying details, especially if travelling to found at events or exhibitions. www.amarc.org.uk/grants.htm. DEADLINE for publication in Funding levels may vary from year Issue no. 65 is 1 April 2016. Please to year, but it is anticipated that the send your articles or any news of Committee will make awards of not interest to AMARC members to the more than £1000 each, and of not editor: Dr Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan, more than £3000 in total each year. Rhos Fach, Brynafan, Llanafan, Applications should comprise: a Aberystwyth SY23 4BG. E-mail: brief outline of the project, [email protected]. conference or work; its overall cost; Images submitted should be at least the grant being sought; the names 300 dpi and delivered via e-mail, and addresses of two referees; file-share or on CD. details of the addressee for the AMARC GRANTS cheque. Applications should be submitted to Dr Michael Stansfield, AMARC members are reminded AMARC Treasurer, c/o Durham that applications may be made for University Library, Palace Green, projects that bring AMARC and its Durham DH1 3RN activities to a wider audience and or [email protected], support the stated aim of AMARC: at any time. They will usually be to promote the accessibility, considered at the next Committee preservation and archives of all meeting (held in April and October) periods in libraries and other and successful applicants will be research collections in Great Britain informed soon thereafter. and Ireland. Typical examples are: contributing to the costs of holding Grant recipients will be required to conferences and workshops; submit for publication in this support for small projects such as newsletter a brief report (300-500 the web-publication of unpublished words) of the use to which the grant catalogues of manuscripts; was put. assistance to scholars in obtaining AMARC MEETINGS reproductions or undertaking essential travel as part of projects AMARC Spring Meeting 2015 whose aims are in line with those of Canterbury Manuscripts 3 AMARC Newsletter no. 65 October 2015 Corpus Christi College, discussions. During the lunch-break Cambridge and at the end of the afternoon there 30 April 2015 were opportunities to visit AMARC’s Spring meeting was a exhibitions at both the Parker and resounding success, with record the Wren Libraries, where attendance and a good harvest of Canterbury manuscripts were on new members. The programme view. Many thanks are due to opened with words of welcome and Suzanne Paul, AMARC Meetings introductory remarks by our Secretary, and her able team of outgoing Chairman, Christopher de assistants, who organized the event Hamel, Fellow Librarian at Corpus so efficiently and ensured smooth Christi College, and by Bernard running on the day. Meehan, our new Chairman. Helen AMARC Autumn Meeting Gittos of the University of Kent The Book of Kells: Rethinking gave the first paper, on Anglo- and researching a great national Saxon pontificals from Canterbury. treasure Richard Gameson and his Trinity College Library, Dublin colleague, Andrew Beeby, both of 10–11 September 2015 the University of Durham, As the Newsletter went to press presented their spectroscopy AMARC members assembled in double-act, outlining new Dublin for this two-day event, techniques which permit analysis of organised by AMARC Chairman pigments used in manuscript Bernard Meehan, Head of Research illumination, with fascinating Collections and Keeper of implications. (See also below, p. 6). Manuscripts, Library of Trinity The morning session concluded College Dublin, and his colleagues. with Tessa Webber of Trinity This meeting focused on the Book College Cambridge, discussing of Kells, the world’s most famous ‘Script, scriptorium and monastic medieval manuscript (see discipline at Christ Church illustrations on front cover and p. Canterbury in the late 11th and 12th 2), with presentations on recent centuries’. After lunch the 800th research trends and techniques, and anniversary of Magna Carta was on the challenges faced in celebrated in a talk by David displaying great manuscript Carpenter of King’s College, treasures. The programme for the London, whose new Penguin first day focused on the Book of Classics edition appeared this year. Kells and other Insular manuscripts, His topic was the discovery and with papers by: Bernard Meehan, context of the Canterbury copy of ‘Researching the Book of Kells’; Magna Carta. Chtistopher de Hamel Rachel Moss, ‘Celtic Tiger Tales: then returned to the podium with a Recent Developments in Insular Art characteristically lively discussion Research’; Denis Casey, ‘Cows, of the library of Thomas Becket, cumala and Kells: the medieval followed by Nigel Ramsay of Irish economy and the production University College, London, who of a masterpiece’; Heather Pulliam, drew together strands of the day’s ‘Material Matters: The Role of 4 AMARC Newsletter no. 65 October 2015 Colour in the Book of Kells’; Susie Judy Burg is the new Head of Bioletti, ‘Pinning down the Archives and Special Collections at pigments and techniques on the Durham University; meanwhile Book of Kells’; Christina Duffy, Jane Hogan, Sudan Archivist, ‘How to improve medieval retires at the end of September. manuscripts using colour space Anyone with research or archival analysis and other techniques’; interests in Sudan and the region Michael Brennan, ‘Taking apart a has much reason to be grateful for page in the Book of Kells: the all of Jane’s work over the years eight-circle cross’; John Gillis, ‘The and we wish her all the best for the Faddan More Psalter: conservation, future. research and display’. The second PROJECTS day, which was followed by the AMARC Annual General meeting, Ecclesiastical Court Records from took a broader geographical range, Canterbury from Ireland and the nations of Sarah White, PhD candidate in Britain to Hollywood, with papers Medieval History at the University by: Sally McInnes, ‘New access to of St Andrews, reports on her Welsh national treasures’; Claire research project. Breay, ‘Celebrating an 800-year-old I am very thankful to AMARC for document: the case of Magna its kind support. I was thrilled to Carta’; Tomm Moore, ‘Bringing the learn of my selection for a grant and Book of Kells to Hollywood’; am deeply appreciative of this Edward J Cowan, ‘The Declaration assistance. of Arbroath and its display’; Peter Yeoman, ‘Prowling lions and I am currently undertaking the slippery serpents: re-presenting second year of my PhD at the Columba’s Iona to the World’. Also University of St Andrews under the included were private visits to the supervision of Prof. John Hudson. National Museum of Ireland with The provisional title of my thesis is, its Faddan More Psalter and ‘Legal Arguments and Equity in Medieval Treasures gallery and to Church Courts in England in the the Worth Library, founded in Thirteenth Century’. My thesis 1733, as well as private viewing of examines the forms of legal the Book of Kells and other argument that were used by litigants manuscripts in Trinity College in the ecclesiastical courts and the Library.
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