Conservation of a Pocket Bible

Conservator Edward Cheese has recently completed the repair of a medieval pocket Bible (B.10.21) in a project which, owing to its complexity and the Covid lockdown, took over three years to complete. In this blog he describes the meticulous conservation process. Prior to conservation the manuscript was in an extremely fragile state: the opening leaves …

Conservation of Lexicon Alchemiae (1612) from Isaac Newton’s private library

A guest blog by Conservator, Monika Stokowiec. It was a very exciting opportunity to work on a book which belonged to Isaac Newton and not something many book conservators have chance to do in their professional careers. At first sight the book did not seem in too bad a condition as the binding has been …

The Conservation and Rebinding of the Pauline Epistles

Copied in Northumbria in the eighth century on leaves of tough, rather crudely finished parchment, the Epistles of St Paul (B.10.5) is the oldest book in the Wren Library.  Although several leaves are missing – some are in the Cotton collection at the British Library – those that remain have survived over 1,200 years of …

Rebinding Hannah’s Diary

The following guest post is by conservator, Gwendoline Lemée: Unusual and unique objects have the power to intrigue and fascinate us, and one such object is Hannah’s Diary which arrived on my bench in the summer of 2017. How delightful it is to work on a unique object and extend its life beyond what could …

Conservation of ‘Histoire Naturelle des Singes et des Makis’.

Written and illustrated by Jean Baptiste Audebert, this large, 19th century French book includes 63 full-page engravings of beautifully represented monkeys and lemurs. The book recently arrived at the Wren Library as part of the Crewe collection, bequeathed by Mary Innes-Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe to Trinity College. The binding was in fairly poor condition and …

Conservation of the Trinity College Charter of Dotation

From the beginning of January to the middle of March, the College’s Charter of Dotation, dating from 1546 and listing Trinity’s endowments, underwent extensive conservation treatment at the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Book and Manuscript Conservation Workshop. The Charter, which is written on seven skins of vellum connected by a green cord that bears a brown wax …

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (1779-1848)

This painting hanging in the staircase-pavilion of the Wren Library is a copy of 1830 after Sir Thomas Lawrence's portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, London. It was painted at the time of Lamb's marriage to Lady Caroline Ponsonby in 1805. The marriage was unhappy, marred by infidelities on both sides, though most notoriously, Caroline's …