Category: Conservation

Shakespeare’s First Folio conserved

Posted on 13 January 2026 by Special Collections

The University Library is very lucky to have copies of all four Shakespeare folios printed in the seventeenth century (1623, 1632, 1664 & 1685). The […]

Collection Care, Conservation, Rare Books, Special Collections

Finding ‘niger morocco’ on a map: a conservation study day on West African leather in Cambridge

Posted on 9 July 2025 by Special Collections

This post is by Dr Ayesha Fuentes, an objects conservator and researcher specializing in the care and handling of archaeological and anthropological collections, based at […]

Collection Care, Conservation, Special Collections

Curious Cures: the making of a medieval folded manuscript

Posted on 25 June 2025 by Special Collections

This post is by Beckett Thornber, an MA Conservation Studies student, specialising in books and library materials, at West Dean College. He spent six weeks […]

Anniversaries, Conservation, Curious Cures, Exhibitions, Medicine, Medieval manuscripts, Special Collections

Taking Curious Cures from Cambridge to Copenhagen

Posted on 1 September 2023 by CUL Conservation

Our Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries project conservators Marina Pelissari and Rachel Sawicki recently presented a paper at the Care and Conservation of Manuscripts Seminar […]

Conservation, Curious Cures, Medieval manuscripts, Special Collections

The legacy of Francis Jenkinson: a symposium

Posted on 7 August 2023 by James Freeman

‘The care of books is a difficult business’, remarked Francis Jenkinson in his presidential address to the annual meeting of the Library Association in 1905 […]

Anniversaries, Archives, Collectors and collecting, Conservation, Digital Resources, Events, Fragments, Incunabula, Library history, Manuscripts, Rare Books, Special Collections, Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection

A Curious Cure for a Cambridge Book – Part One

Posted on 13 February 2023 by Special Collections

As one of the Project Cataloguers for Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries, I feel incredibly lucky to be able to spend time with the diverse […]

Conservation, Curious Cures, Medieval manuscripts, Special Collections

The Polonsky Foundation Greek Manuscripts Project: A final farewell from the Conservation Team

Posted on 19 May 2022 by CUL Conservation

Conservation work on the Polonsky Foundation Greek Manuscripts Project was completed way back in 2021 but our conservators have recently taken the time to reflect […]

Collection Care, Conservation, Digitisation, Greek, Manuscripts, Medieval manuscripts, Polonsky Greek, Special Collections

Conservation for a Legendary Exhibition

Posted on 20 April 2022 by CUL Conservation

Cambridge University Library is home to one of the pre-eminent collections of Japanese material outside of Japan, including one of the first Japanese books ever to reach British shores. In […]

Conservation, Exhibitions, Japanese, Manuscripts, Rare Books, Special Collections