AIC's 44th Annual Meeting

The Morgan Library & Museum (ML&M) houses the largest single cache of Coptic manuscripts and bindings in the world. The manuscripts were discovered in a hidden well, intact, but in a deteriorated state, in the Fayyum Oasis near Hamuli, Egypt in 1910. This presentation discusses the history of these over fifty manuscripts from their discovery, through the recent initiative to digitize the bindings and provide safe, accessible housings for the collection. The talk will include the discovery and purchase of the collection, the conservation of the manuscripts at the Vatican, and their eventual return to the Morgan Library. The conservation treatment decisions and their consequences for the bindings will be discussed. The physical condition of the 9th and 10th century bindings will be detailed, as will the rationale for the special housings created for them. A century after their discovery, the digitization and re-housing efforts have provided access to a previously inaccessible collection.