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Journal article
Chinese plates fit for an Acehnese queen
All over Southeast Asia is found a particular type of coarse Chinese export porcelain traditionally known as ‘Swatow’ ware but now more accurately identified as originating from Zhangzhou, dating from the late Ming period, from the end of the 16th to the early 17th centuries. One characteristic type of large...Gallop, Annabel Teh
Acehnese ninefold seal, Zhangzhou, Cap Sikureueng, Chinese porcelain, Chinese plates, Aceh, and Swatow
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Journal article
Abroad Among Our Kind: Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Spanish Civil War Love Poems
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Sylvia Townsend Warner and her partner Valentine Ackland arrived in Barcelona in the fall of 1936, two months after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. They had come to help with the relief operations being organized...Aguirre, Mercedes
Love Poems, Spain, and Civil War
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Journal article
Great Doxology with Miaphysite Trisagion
The article contains the edition and study of three ostraca in the British Library (Ostracon 5878) which join with another fragment in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (P.Mon.Epiph. 607). The join of these pieces helps to date the British Library fragments to the turn of the 6th-7th centuries and assign...Toth, Peter
Monastery of Epiphanius, Liturgical ostraca, Apa Moses, Great Doxology, and Coptic liturgy
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Journal article
Scientific investigation of the Minsterley Maidens’ crowns
25 samples were taken from seven eighteenth-century commemorative Maidens’ Garlands and Crowns from Minsterley, Shropshire. The samples were investigated by digital microscopy, macro-X-ray fluorescence scanning, Raman microscopy and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The study intended to obtain as much information as possible on the making of the...Risdonne, Valentina ; Melita, Lucia Noor ; Burgio, Lucia ; Morris, Rosie
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Journal article
FAST the Inside Track: Where We Are, Where Do We Want to Be, and How Do We Get There?
This is an overview of the development of FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology) from its inception in the late 1990s, through its development and implementation to the work being undertaken by OCLC and the FAST Policy and Outreach Committee (FPOC) to develop and promote FAST. FPOC members explain how... -
Journal article
Writing Milan and Turin in the Light of (Failed) Utopia: Luciano Bianciardi and Paolo Volponi
This article examines a series of novels by Italian writers, Luciano Bianciardi and Paolo Volponi, that capture the transformations brought about by the post-World War II economic growth in the urban-industrial society of Northern Italy. The analysis draws on utopia as, in Ruth Levitas’s words, a ‘desire for a better...Brecciaroli, Giulia
Paolo Volponi, Utopia/dystopia, Turin, Luciano Bianciardi, Literary Urban Studies, Milan, and post-war Italian literature
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Journal article
Vehicularizing the vernacular: using the periodical press to popularize vernacular languages in Soviet Turkic communities
The study of language and script change among the Turkic communities of the Soviet Union often focuses on the switch from Arabic to Latin scripts. Less attention is paid to adaptations of the Arabic script to Turkic vernaculars, and to attempts aimed at convincing the literate masses of their usefulness....Erdman, Michael J.
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Journal article
The British Library – rethinking physical storage
Purpose The British Library (BL) faces a significant challenge with storage space predicted to run out within the next three years. However, alongside a plan to create additional capacity, the BL also intends to take the opportunity to rethink the integration of storage and workflows in order to implement a...Appleyard, Andrew H.
storage, library, automated, sustainability, and repository
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Journal article
A literature review of palm leaf manuscript conservation—Part 2: historic and current conservation treatments, boxing and storage, religious and ethical issues, recommendations for best practice
Abstract The closure of the British Library during the 2020–2021 COVID-19 pandemic allowed the conservation department to undertake a treatment review of the conservation of palm leaf manuscripts in order to make better-informed decisions about the treatment of these complex objects. As part of the review a questionnaire was posted...Wiland, Julia ; Brown, Rick ; Fuller, Lizzie ; Havelock, Lea ; Johnson, Jackie …
traditional preservation methods, palm leaf, ethical conservation, boxing, and long-term storage
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Journal article
A literature review of palm leaf manuscript conservation—Part 1: a historic overview, leaf preparation, materials and media, palm leaf manuscripts at the British Library and the common types of damage
Abstract The closure of the British Library during the 2020–2021 COVID-19 pandemic allowed the conservation department to undertake a treatment review of the conservation of palm leaf manuscripts in order to make better-informed decisions about the treatment of these complex objects. As part of the review a questionnaire was posted... -
Journal article
The Use of Risk Management to Support Preventive Conservation
Risk management approaches have been increasingly used at the British Library to inform and support collection care decisions. This paper addresses the ways in which these methods have been used to address specific preservation issues at the Library, using appropriate case studies: rehousing the microfilm collection, adapting pest management protocols,...Garside, Paul ; Bradford, Karen ; Hamlyn, Sarah
collection care, preservation, risk management, and risk assessment
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Journal article
Reframing Magna Carta – Comprehensive Planning and Pragmatic Outcomes
In preparation for the British Library’s exhibition to mark 800 years of Magna Carta, the Library’s copies of the charter, and three related documents, were reframed. There were several requirements: minimal intervention; allow re-treatability; fully show rectos and text; present the charters as documents rather than artworks. Comprehensive risk assessments...Garside, Paul ; Rogerson, Cordelia ; Moorhead, Gavin ; Matsuoka, Kumiko ; Duffy, Christina
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Journal article
The conservation of the burnt Cotton Collection
The Cotton Collection is one of the British Library's foundation collections and represents the single greatest known resource of medieval and early modern British history and literature. Its care and conservation are of great importance to allow access to the collection both now and in the future. The collection had...Beltran de Guevara, Mariluz ; Garside, Paul
burnt parchment, damage, survey, scientific research, and conservation treatment
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Journal article
Categorizing tin phosphate/silicate-weighted silks on site by near-infrared spectroscopy
One of the most versatile instrumental analytical techniques for the non-interventive characterization of organic artefacts is near-infrared spectroscopy. In the case of textiles, methodology has recently emerged for assessing the condition of historic silks on site and a corresponding protocol that allows the simultaneous weighting categorization of silks would be...Garside, Paul ; Wyeth, Paul ; Zhang, Xiaomei
costume, silk, tin weighting, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR), weighting classification, and multivariate analysis
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Journal article
Increasing the profile and influence of conservation—an unexpected benefit of risk assessments
Risk assessment prior to treatments, exhibitions or loans is vital to conservation, allowing potential problems to be identified and mitigated. After recent work on British Library ‘Treasures’, including the Magna Carta and the Lindisfarne Gospels, it became apparent that these assessments also served to significantly raise the profile and influence...Rogerson, Cordelia ; Garside, Paul
risk assessment, loans, stakeholders, decision making, pragmatic, and conservation
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Journal article
Understanding the ageing behaviour of nineteenth and twentieth century tin‐weighted silks
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries silks processed in Europe were frequently weighted with tin phosphate/silicate. There is particular concern over these silks in collections, since they appear susceptible to catastrophic deterioration. The aim of this research was to better understand the consequences of tin weighting on the...Garside, Paul ; Wyeth, Paul ; Zhang, Xiaomei
humidity ageing, light ageing, thermal ageing, tin weighting, preventive conservation, and silk
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Journal article
Under the Impression: Multispectral Imaging of Lord Frederick Campbell Charter XXI 5
Lord Frederick Campbell Charter 5 is the only surviving English document that still has an authentic, legible, pre-Conquest seal attached to it. The text purports to be a writ of Edward the Confessor (1003x5–1066) granting a slew of rights to Christ Church Cathedral, Canterbury. We examined the writ using multispectral...Hudson, Alison ; Duffy, Christina
multispectral imaging, digital humanities, conservation, seals, early medieval history, writs, and Norman Conquest
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Journal article
Effects of soothing images and soothing sounds on mood and well‐being
Objectives Mental health problems are increasing at an alarming rate, calling for the need for more cost-effective and easily accessible interventions. Visual images and sounds depicting nature have been found to have positive effects on individuals' mood and well-being; however, the combined effects of images and sounds have been scarcely...Witten, Emily ; Ryynanen, Jasmiina ; Wisdom, Stella ; Tipp, Cheryl ; Chan, Stella W. Y.
depression, Project Soothe, mood, sounds, well-being, images, nature, and anxiety
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Journal article
Boccherini as Chamber Composer to Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia: some insights from the Catalogues of the king’s Music Collection
King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia (1744-1797) had a strong interest in Boccherini’s music already from his time as Crown Prince. His collection contained almost the complete published oeuvre of the composer, acquired before Boccherini’s official employment with him begun. In October 1783 the prince sent a letter of interest...Drosopoulou, Loukia
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Journal article
Articulation markings in Manuscript Sources of Luigi Boccherini’s String Quintets
Unlike many eighteenth-century virtuoso violoncellists, Luigi Boccherini did not write a string treatise. His influence and contribution to historical performance practice is widely known today through his solo works, his violoncello sonatas and concertos, which best reflect his virtuosic techniques and overall use of the instrument. Yet, his chamber works...Drosopoulou, Loukia
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Journal article
Pursuing the Percys: the original owners of the Percy Psalter-Hours
In 2019 the British Library acquired the Percy Hours, a late thirteenth-century book of hours from York. This acquisition reunited the manuscript with the Percy Psalter, acquired by the Library in 1990. Together they originally formed a single volume psalter-hours. The Percy Psalter-Hours is one of a small number of...Jackson, Eleanor
Psalter-hours, heraldry, psalter, social history, book of hours, manuscript, patronage, and York
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Journal article
Investigating the Properties of Folded Parchment – A Preliminary Study
Parchment manuscripts form an important part of many historic collections. They are often found folded, with some displaying multiple fold patterns resulting from changing uses over their history. Parchment is a potentially fragile medium and folding can increase its susceptibility to damage, as well as hampering access and display. Treatment...Garside, Paul ; Dekeyser, Camille
humidification, folded parchment, FTIR-spectroscopy, and shrinkage temperature
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Journal article
Conserving paper: reflections on cultures of conservation in Europe and East Asia
Since the 1970s, a continuous exchange of information about conservation between Europe and East Asia has greatly influenced approaches to the treatment of paper objects as well as the tools and materials used. This knowledge is often disseminated and absorbed in a purely practical manner, stripped out of its wider...Kralka, Paulina
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Journal article
Islamic Manuscripts from Aceh in the British Library
Aceh has long been renowned as a centre of Islamic scholarship, and some of the most famous Malay texts were composed in this area of north Sumatra. However, despite an abundance of philological and literary studies of texts from Aceh, little attention has yet been paid to the materiality of...Acehnese, Aceh, manuscripts, binding, Malay, Arabic, illumination, and Southeast Asia
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Journal article
'I Renounced my Children as Aforesaid': A Consensual Divorce of 369
This article offers the edition of a divorce settlement of 369 housed in the British Library. The papyrus is one of the few fourth-century deeds of divorce. In addition to the standard clauses found in such settlements, provisions for the care of the minor children of the ex-couple are also...Micucci, Federica
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Journal article
Reading the Way to the Heavenly Jerusalem in the Book of Armagh
This paper examines the series of text-image devices found in the Book of Armagh (Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS 52), at the explicit to the Gospel of John (fol. 103r), the tituli to the Book of Revelation (fol. 159v), and the Revelation explicit (fol. 170r), to suggest how the manuscript...Jackson, Eleanor
John the Evangelist, diagrams, Book of Armagh, manuscript, Gregory the Great, Moralia, art, white martyrdom, Heavenly Jerusalem, reading, eschatology, and meditation
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Journal article
Six Poll-Tax Receipts from Arsinoe
Micucci, Federica
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Journal article
Design Choices for Productive, Secure, Data-Intensive Research at Scale in the Cloud
We present a policy and process framework for secure environments for productive data science research projects at scale, by combining prevailing data security threat and risk profiles into five sensitivity tiers, and, at each tier, specifying recommended policies for data classification, data ingress, software ingress, data egress, user access, user...Arenas, Diego ; Atkins, Jon ; Austin, Claire ; Beavan, David ; Cabrejas Egea, Alvaro …
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Journal article
Maps of a Nation? The Digitized Ordnance Survey for New Historical Research
Although the Ordnance Survey has itself been the subject of historical research, scholars have not systematically used its maps as primary sources of information. This is partly for disciplinary reasons and partly for the technical reason that high-quality maps have not until recently been available digitally, geo-referenced, and in color....Hosseini, Kasra ; McDonough, Katherine ; van Strien, Daniel ; Vane, Olivia ; Wilson, Daniel C.S.
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Journal article
Dunhuang scrolls: Innovative storage solutions at the British Library
The British Library’s Stein collection contains about 14,000 scrolls, fragments and booklets in Chinese from a cave in the Buddhist Mogao Caves complex near Dunhuang in north-west China. This article describes storage and access solutions for the collection in the context of a busy research library and the currently ongoing...Kralka, Paulina ; Muzart, Marya
conservation, storage, paper, Central Asia, Dunhuang, and scroll
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Journal article
Buddhism and trade: interpreting the distribution of rock-cut monasteries in the Western Ghats mountains, India using least-cost paths
Trade is frequently cited as the primary influence on the florescence of rock-cut Buddhist monasteries in the Western Ghats mountains, India between 200 BCE and 400 CE. Yet the monasteries have been foci of art-historical scholarship without detailed investigation of archaeology and geography. The relationship between monasteries, trade routes, ports...Rees, Gethin
trade, rock-cut monasteries, early historic, Deccan, Buddhism, and Western Ghats
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Journal article
The Croatian Collections in the British Library
The paper discusses Croatian historic collections acquired by the British Museum Library in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. The results of previous research into the collection are mentioned and the new findings are presented. The paper considers the growth of the Croatian collection to...Grba, Milan
Glagolitic, Slavic, academic publications, Croatia, Croatian books and collections, British Museum Library, manuscript, and Eastern European
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Journal article
Qur’an manuscripts from Mindanao: collecting histories, art and materiality
The study of the writing traditions of the Malay world of maritime South East Asia has been both shaped and distorted by the differing colonial experiences within the region. In particular, a chasmic disconnect can be discerned between the western swathe occupied by the modern nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei...Gallop, Annabel Teh
Maranao, Islamic art, Qur'an manuscripts, manuscript illumination, Maguindanao, and Mindanao
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Journal article
‘How soon was now?’: A retrospective on the popularity of nouveau vintage
Fashion is a product and reflection of time and tantamount to modernity. The promise of which rests in the future, thus fashion is forever looking forward in the ambition to be ‘new’. Vintage fashion, namely clothes from past periods apprehend this perpetual cycle, often adopted by alternative groups of consumers...Brett, Rachel
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Journal article
Sovereign Signs: Titles of Kingship on Malay Seals
The recent publication of a new catalogue of over 2,000 Malay seals—defined as seals from Southeast Asia, with inscriptions in Arabic script—makes available for the first time a substantial corpus of primary source material from the Malay archipelago, dating from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century. The main function...Gallop, Annabel Teh
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Journal article
Collections Within Collections: An Analysis of Tipu Sultan’s Library
The library of Tipu Sultan of Mysore is one of the most important in the history of South Asian Islamic collections. Unlike many collections which can be regarded as dynastic libraries, Tipu’s was relatively newly-formed. Most of the books had not been acquired before the mid-eighteenth century but nevertheless came...Sims-Williams, Ursula
Tipu Sultan, Islamic seals, manuscript studies, and Deccan India
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Journal article
The official and personal seals of Tipu Sultan of Mysore
This article looks at all the known seals of Tipu Sultan of Mysore (r. 1782-1799) particularly those found in the manuscripts which formed his Library collection, disbanded in 1799 after the fall of Seringapatam and subsequently divided between the East India Company London (now in the British Library), and the...Sims-Williams, Ursula
Tipu Sultan, seals, Seringapartam, and East India Company Library
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Journal article
A Royal Manuscript of 1809 in the British Library
The Korean royal manuscript Gisa jinpyori jinchan uigwe (Record of the Presentation Ceremony and Banquet in the Gisa year), a single volume of 94 folios of illustrations and text, was acquired by the British Museum from a vendor in Paris in 1891, having apparently become separated from a group of... -
Journal article
Animals, Joseph Dalton Hooker and the Ross Expedition to Antarctica, 1839–1843
In 1839 the Ross Expedition to locate the Southern Magnetic pole was launched from Chatham. Over the next four years, this voyage of discovery would bring into sharper focus the land and seas surrounding the Antarctic region. Official reports and modern accounts of this voyage invariably situate the humans on...Sharp Jones, Cam
animals, HMS Erebus, Ross Expedition, Antarctica, zoology, and Joseph Dalton Hooker
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Journal article
My way: Interview with Neil Fitzgerald
Working with Microsoft, the British Library is embarking upon a massive programme to digitise its unmatched collection of books, manuscripts and other items. It's a daunting challenge, even using semi-automated systems that scan thousands of pages per month, as the project's manager Neil Fitzgerald explains. Interview by Keri Allan.Allan, Keri ; Fitzgerald, Neil
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Journal article
Dilemmas in archiving contemporary material: the example of the British Library
The dilemmas faced by institutions in archiving contemporary materials are exemplified by current practices at the British Library. With a growing collection aiming to be comprehensive and of use to researchers, tensions between selectivity and universality in acquisition are soon brought to the fore. Similarly, a sensible collection strategy must...England, Jude ; Bacchini, Simone
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Journal article
Some Unexpected Sources for Paintings by the Artist Mihr Chand (fl.c.1759–86), Son of Ganga Ram
Scholars have acknowledged that Mihr Chand, son of Ganga Ram (flourished c. 1759–86) is one of the finest artists to have flourished in the Mughal province of Awadh, at Faizabad and Lucknow, during the second half of the eighteenth century. Whilst it has been known that Mihr Chand received patronage...Roy, Malini
Antoine Polier, Jean Baptiste Gentil, later Mughal painting, Lucknow, Faizabad, and Mihr Chand
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Journal article
Taking library collections Off The Map
The ‘Off the Map’ competition is an unusual collaboration between the British Library and GameCity; a videogame culture festival, which takes place annually in the UK city of Nottingham. The competition challenges higher education students based in the UK to create videogames, explorable virtual environments and interactive fiction inspired by...Wisdom, Stella
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Journal article
Biographical Myth and the Publication of Mozart's Piano Quartets
The story that Mozart was commissioned to write three piano quartets for publication in Franz Anton Hoffmeister's subscription series has proved to be remarkably resilient in the Mozart literature. According to the account that first appeared in Georg Nikolaus von Nissen's biography (1828), Hoffmeister gave Mozart an advance payment for...Ridgewell, Rupert
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