Codex Ussherianus Primus

MS55, Codex Usserianus Primus, is a gospel book believed to be 7th century Irish (but may be 5th century Italian). It is made up of 181 folios, one of which is a small group of fragments. It is very badly damaged with all original surrounding edges completely lost, and the surviving parchment stained, discoloured and distorted. The parchment is probably calfskin and the text has been written with iron gall ink with red pigment decoration throughout the text.

In the 19th century the single folios were mounted in paper frames, assembled into quires, and sewn together, then rebound in a full leather binding. The mounting caused the parchment to distort due to the differential expansion rate between the paper and parchment. The paper mounting has also overlaid a small but significant amount of the edge text.

In 2008 two folios were treated in preparation for display, and in 2009 the conservation of the entire manuscript was commenced. The manuscript has been photographed, taken out of its paper mounts, examined, and preliminary observations made about its condition and stability. The folios have been stored in numbered polypropylene sleeves, within acid free card wraps, and temporarily boxed.

The main conservation treatment at this stage is to carefully remove adhesive residues left from the mounting process. Due to the delicate and degraded state of the parchment this task is done with the aid of a microscope. The residue is softened with moisture, then, with the aid of a fine pointed small knife blade (blunt), it is carefully scraped off the parchment. Use of the microscope enables the control of the scraping process so as not to damage any ink under the adhesive. This is a slow and painstaking operation, carefully controlled so as not to over wet the edges, which could cause gelatinisation of the parchment. After scraping, remaining residue is cleaned off with moist and dry cotton swabs, and the parchment fragment is placed under light weights to dry and keep flat.

Future conservation treatments will involve:

• Flattening each folio and repairing/supporting any brittle edges and tears with suitable membrane
• Staining the new parchment
• Grafting original folios to the new parchment
• Preparing the repaired folios for conservation binding