Registered charity no. 328095 Newsletter Old Bryanstonians Recent Grants In an interview in the November issue of the British Library publication Shelflife, Ferdinand Mount, the Chairman of the Friends, wrote: ‘Ideally, I’d like more Library staff to come to us, especially for smaller projects up to £10,000, where we may be able to meet the whole cost straight away . We are of course proud when we lead the way with a larger contribution to national appeals such as the one for the St Cuthbert Gospel. But the Friends particularly relish being able to say about some modest acquisition or project, “that was all our own Thanks to a donation of £10,000 Incidental illustrations of animals work”.’ from the Friends, the Library has been and argricultural items such as hay able to purchase a rare manuscript bales, decorate the plan. There are Two recent grants have been made estate plan of 1659. The Bryanston numerous unusual, possibly humorous towards conservation work on Estate Map shows the village of inscriptions, such as ‘this be a canny Magna Carta and towards the Greek Bryanston just outside Blandford cliffe’ (rabbit warren) and ‘Mr Reeves, Manuscripts digitisation project. Forum in Dorset, with the manorial pray buy it’. These features are unique land defined, the type of land use in the experience of Curator Peter noted and details of tenants and Barber, who suggests that the map acreage given in tables. It is an early may represent a sort of in-joke Issue 88 Spring 2015 and rare surviving example of work between the heirs of the estate’s owner Quarterly Newsletter by a female mapmaker, Margaret Richard Rogers and a friend, William www.bl.uk/friends Bowles, who not only drew the Bowles, who may have offered to map but mathematically reduced demonstrate his skills as an estate the survey data transforming it into surveyor. graphic form. Inside this issue The map, which has been in the A large expensive display item in ink ownership of the descendants of 02 Magna Carta and colours on vellum with gold leaf Wilfrid Cowley, one of the founders of 03 Lady Eccles and Oscar Wilde and elaborate borders and cartouches, Bryanston School, may shed light on 04 My British Library it includes what seems to be the social discourse between 17th-century 05 Victorian Bookbinding earliest depiction anywhere of English landowners and on their interest in 06 Visit Report and Spring Visits surveyors at work – well-dressed and science. It was sold at Sotheby’s on 07 Spring Visits named and holding their instruments. 9 December 2014. 08 Prize crossword 02 Magna Carta – Preserved for the next 800 years The British Library owns two of the enabling access to the charters when four surviving original 1215 Magna required and ability to maintain a stable Carta manuscripts (the other two environment without the build-up of are held at Lincoln and Salisbury volatile compounds. All materials in the Cathedrals). In addition, the Library frames were tested and confirmed to be holds four further charters associated suitable for long-term use. with events leading up to the signing of the Magna Carta. These are perhaps Using technology and expertise less well known but are nevertheless available to us in the 21st century, we unique and of great significance. are able to preserve the Magna Carta for the next 800 years and present In preparation for this year’s 800th these documents in the best possible anniversary of the sealing of the condition for visitors who come to Magna Carta all six charters were see them during the anniversary removed from their current frames, Work on the ‘Burnt Magna Carta’ year. Multispectral data is still being examined, scientifically analysed imaging to interpret the text and read processed and will be published along and reframed. This work has it more clearly. This technology was with other scientific data collected after been completed by British Library particularly important for the ‘Burnt the British Library’s exhibition Magna conservators and scientists in stages Magna Carta’ (Cotton charter xiii 31a). Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy which runs over the last three years. In 1731 this copy of the Magna Carta from 13 March – 1 September 2015. was damaged in the Cotton Library fire. Previous reframing and examination Subsequently during the 19th century, Dr Cordelia Rogerson was undertaken in the early 1970s, staff at the British Museum Library Head of Conservation when the charters were sealed between used techniques to try to flatten and sheets of tough glass, thought to be mount it, which has contributed to its developed for Concorde. Technology current condition today rendering the and knowledge of materials has text very difficult to see. Multispectral Self-Service improved in the intervening 40 years imaging enabled the Collection Care and the 1970s framing required team to ‘virtually’ peel away the layers Photography updating. of damage currently affecting the In response to requests from manuscript. researchers, Reader Services has The Conservation team provided an recently anounced that the current initial examination of the current Multispectral imaging is a non- self-service copying facilities will frames. Analysis of the air quality inside destructive, non-invasive imaging in the future include photography the frames showed volatile compounds technique using different colour lights, of physical collection items used had accumulated in the sealed glass including ultra-violet and infrared, to for personal research services. The enclosures which could contribute to recover faded and lost text. A high- new arrangements took effect from deterioration of the parchment and resolution camera is securely mounted 5 January 2015 in Boston Spa, text. It had been thought that the iron directly over the charter, which is then Humanities Flooor 1 & 2, Newsroom, gall ink used to write the text had illuminated with LED lights ranging Science Floor 1 & 2 and Social notably faded since the 1970s, but from the ultraviolet at a wavelength of Sciences. There are plans to extend it was discovered that the glass had, 365 nm, through the visible region, and the service to more Reading Rooms, in fact, discoloured and degraded, right up to a wavelength of 1050 nm including Asian & African Studies, causing the text to be obscured. These in the infrared region. The chemical Business and IP Centre, Maps, factors determined that reframing was composition of the material in the Manuscripts, Philatelic and Rare necessary. charter is varied (ink, parchment, Books & Music, from March 2015. etc.), and so reacts differently to the Once the charters were removed from lights. We are able to see, and capture, Further information, including the frames, near-infrared spectroscopy additional information undetectable guidelines on self-service photography, and high-resolution digital microscopy by the human eye. information on copyright data was used to investigate the condition protection and the use of compact of the ink and parchment as part of The new frames selected for the charters cameras tablets and mobile phones an overall condition assessment. With are designed for safe long-term storage is available from Reader Services. the frames and glass removed there and periodic display. The frames were Advice and assistance can also be was a rare opportunity to employ the selected for their clean non-fussy obtained from Reading Room staff. cutting-edge technique of multispectral design, secure yet simple construction 03 Lady Eccles and Oscar Wilde In 2013 Oxford University Press as relentless in pursuit – by bringing published two volumes of journalism as things together she brought them part of the Oxford English Texts edition alive. For Mark Turner and myself of The Complete Works of Oscar the greatest interest of her collection Wilde. These were edited by Professor lay not so much in its stunningly rare Mark Turner of King’s College and valuable editions and manuscripts London and myself and they were the but in seemingly minor items that culmination of many years work, much happened to catch our attention. An of it carried out in the British Library. odd piece of headed notepaper, for Our task was to identify and annotate instance, or issues of the Woman’s the articles and reviews Wilde wrote World, an innovative periodical in the 1880s. We wanted to show just that Wilde briefly edited, preserved how wide-ranging this neglected aspect (unlike the copies in the main British of his early career had been and the Library collection) with their covers Lady Eccles Oscar Wilde Collection, and display panels intact which bequeathed to the Library in 2003, suggested how Wilde may have had proved to be especially useful since it an eye on likely advertisers. Details many others, Skipsey and his wife had enabled us to make connections that like that might seem ‘minor’, but they become caretakers of the Shakespeare we would otherwise have missed. allowed us to make discoveries that Birthplace in Stratford. He even inspired illuminated Wilde’s practices as a a short story by Henry James. We Mary Crapo, later Lady Eccles, journalist. don’t know where the inscribed copy was born in Detroit in 1912 to a of Wilde’s own book ended up but its long-established Mid-Western family. Another example: browsing the boxes existence does show that Wilde was Together with her first husband, that hold the collection, we came across rather more familiar with Skipsey than Donald Hyde, she began to develop an ancient bookseller’s catalogue that one might have guessed. As happened an interest in Wilde that led in 1962 listed a copy of Wilde’s The Happy quite often, he probably knew the to the purchase of the library of Prince and Other Tales (London, 1888), person he was anonymously reviewing.