The Condition Survey of the Manuscripts in the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai

The condition survey carried out at Saint Catherine’s monastery is the largest and most detailed of its sort ever conducted, and was devised by the author. This article described the research process to a wider conservation audience, Attention was drawn to those features which distinguish the survey methodology from pre-existing models, such as in the value of drawing in not only recording information but also in leading the eye of the surveyor accurately into the structure of a book is discussed, the percentage system for recording the extent and severity of damage, a new concept in such surveys, a routine for making rapid photographic records of each book and the recording process conducted by regularly-changing pairs of conservators within teams of 6 to ensure the most consistent results possible. It explains how intensely practical measures are used to record historical and conservation information.

The survey has aroused international interest and has set a benchmark in the conduct of such surveys. Following its publication I have been invited to give a series of related lectures on the subject including 'Recording medieval bindings - The role of the conservation survey, with reference to work currently under way in the library of the monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai' in: Colloque Reliure, Paris: CNRS, 2004; the Gryphon Lecture on the History of the Book (27 March 2007) at the University of Toronto, and to present my research at the Seminar on the History of the Book, All Souls College Oxford, (9 March 2007).