Preserving Holy Writings

As part of the two Shaping Holiness workshops, visits to the conservation studios of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin offered participants a rare opportunity to encounter outstanding manuscripts at close range while gaining insight into the practices that ensure their preservation. Among the exceptional objects we were able to examine was the celebrated medieval Erfurt Hebrew Bible (Erfurt 1), the largest known Hebrew Bible of the Middle Ages, whose first volume was undergoing conservation at the time of our visits. Alongside it, we encountered a beautifully illuminated Book of Hours from the Netherlands and an Arabic manuscript transmitting the story of Alexander — three very different witnesses to the extraordinary material and visual diversity of manuscript cultures.

The visits offered insight into the examination and conservation of manuscripts, from the analysis of historical materials to the practical decisions involved in their preservation. They demonstrated how closely scientific investigation, knowledge of materials, and specialised craftsmanship are intertwined in conservation — and how conservation itself becomes part of an object’s material history.