In the summer of 2006, a peat bog in County Tipperary, Ireland, yielded a rare medieval manuscript containing fragments of the Old Testament’s 150 psalms with illuminations and decorated letters. On Friday, June 13, at 6 pm, Irish scholar John Gillis tells of the discovery and the difficult task of conserving the document, in “Treasures from the Bog: The Faddan More Psalter.” The lecture, hosted by the Press at the Palace of the Governors, is free in the History Museum auditorium.
A bulldozer harvesting peat uncovered the artifact in Faddan More, an area that boasts a rich medieval history and the remnants of onetime monasteries. Its discovery tantalized and challenged researchers. How could they open its pages without destroying them? During a two-year conservation that included photography, MRIs and ethanol soaks, many new and exciting discoveries were made. How did it survive an extreme environment for over a millennium? How was that environment responsible for its very survival? What new conservation techniques were developed? What was found among its contents?
“We will see the cover in remarkable original condition; possibly the only one of its kind in Western Europe and one of only a handful of extant original early medieval Western book covers,” Gillis said. “We will draw comparisons with structures that hail from lands as far away as Egypt. We will also look in detail at some of the surprise features from the cover that have raised more questions than answers but without doubt will play an important role in adding to the history of book making and monastic life in early medieval Ireland.”
Gillis is a senior book and manuscript conservator who has worked at Trinity College Dublin and the Delmas Conservation Bindery at Archbishop Marsh’s Library Dublin, and taught conservation techniques in schools throughout Italy. In 2007, he began the 4½-year conservation of the Faddan More Psalter at the National Museum of Ireland, winning the 2010 Heritage Council of Ireland Conservation Award. Gillis is currently a visiting museum scholar at the Getty Research Center in Los Angeles.
Palace Press Director Tom Leech said, “This lecture is a natural follow-up to the interest in biblical texts and medieval manuscripts stirred by the History Museum’s 2012 exhibition, Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible.” It is made possible in part by the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of New Mexico.
