Manuscripts in the Making: Art and Science

Abstract

© The Author(s) 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creat iveco mmons .org/licen ses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. As brought to light by the increasing number and variety of research papers reporting the results of scientific analyses of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, the role of analytical methods as indispensable tools for the comprehensive study of manuscripts is no longer in question. Most manuscript scholars are well aware that ‘hard’ sciences have much to offer to manuscript studies, and are more reliable for material identification than visual analysis, traditionally their primary identification method. Conversely, scientists have moved past the naïve enthusiasm that used to follow every identification of a (often very common) pigment on a manuscript page, and now routinely engage in constructive dialogue with the whole range of professionals involved in the study and care of these incredible testimonials of humanity’s past. Over the past few years, several publications have discussed in varying detail the analytical techniques useful for the examination of illuminated manuscripts. Mark Clarke’s extensive review, published in 2001 [1], remains a key read for researchers in the field and is just about to be updated with a focused examination of the techniques employed since that date [2]. Since Clarke’s survey, the emphasis has been on the application of non-invasive and imaging methodologies, as well as on the increasing use of portable instrumentation. These developments have resulted in increased access to manuscript collections in an ever-growing number of institutions worldwide. The fifteen articles included in this thematic collection of Heritage Science open a window on this expanding world of possibilities and showcase the broad range of technical and analytical approaches that are currently being employed by scholars for the scientific analysis of manuscripts. Most of the articles published in this collection were presented as posters during the international conference Manuscripts in the Making: Art and Science held in Cambridge (UK) on 8–10 December 2016. Supported by the Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections (AMARC) and by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the conference was organised by the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Department of Manuscripts and Printed Books. It accompanied the Museum’s bicentenary exhibition COLOUR: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts (30 July 2016–2 January 2017), extending its disciplinary, thematic, chronological and geographical span. Forty-two papers were presented by 62 speakers over 3 days, many of them stemming from cross-disciplinary collaborations. In addition to Western European illumination, the sessions included papers on Byzantine, Islamic and Mesoamerican manuscripts as well as panel paintings, frescos, textiles, ceramics and architecture. Many papers combined recent art-historical and scientific discoveries with insights offered by historical research on the production and trade of materials, the development of medieval optics or the social and economic circumstances in which the original works were created. The lecture theatres of Cambridge University’s Chemistry Department welcomed over 230 delegates during the conference, including leading experts in a wide range of fields, as well as numerous students. The conference created a forum for the exchange of ideas, the questioning of methodologies and the exploration of innovative approaches to cross-disciplinary research as well as opportunities to forge new collaborations. The overwhelmingly positive feedback received after the conference reflects the considerable value of new encounters between experts in vastly different fields. Thirty-three of the conference papers were edited by Stella Panayotova and Paola Ricciardi and have been published in two volumes by Harvey Miller/Brepols [3]. Two further papers as well as numerous posters were written up as articles and appear in this thematic collection. They were written by 52 authors based in Portugal, Italy, France, Austria, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, in collaboration with researchers in Australia and Brazil. They are, for the Open Access