Thomas Pool: The Book of Kells is one of Ireland’s finest examples of Irish and early Christian art. What can you tell us about the challenges of preserving such an important manuscript?
John Gillis: One of our iconic surviving manuscripts, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) has a duty of care as custodian of The Book of Kells for the nation. This involves maintaining a balance between ensuring access through display, whilst providing the optimum environmental conditions for its safe storage. In addition to this, the logistics of keeping the manuscript safe and secure add another layer of complexity to Trinity’s responsibility for this early medieval treasure. Since its production around 800CE, The Book of Kells has experienced several traumatic events, both recorded and otherwise evidenced on its pages, yet the quality of materials and level of craftsmanship in its making have allowed it to survive for over 1200 years.

What is your background and training? How did you become interested in working as a conservator?
The book as an object has always interested me and, combined with an interest in historic handcrafts, book conservation was an obvious career path. I attended what is now TU Dublin, then Bolton Street College of Technology, where I studied Print Finishing and Bookbinding followed by the Advanced City and Guilds. There was at that time, in the early 1980s, no professional book conservation courses. I would in later years go on to teach in such courses in Italy. In 1984, I got the opportunity to work in the Conservation Department of Trinity College Dublin, supervising students as part of the preservation project in The Long Room of the Old Library. This was to be a six-month placement but the head of the department, Tony Cains, decided to mentor me as a permeant member of staff. Tony was one of the pioneers of book conservation; he spent some years in Florence after the 1966 floods, developing systems to conserve over one million books and manuscripts damaged there. In 1988, I established and worked as Head of Conservation in the Delmas Conservation Bindery at Archbishop Marsh’s Library, Dublin. I returned to Trinity in 1991 only to leave again in 2007 on secondment to work in the National Museum of Ireland to conserve The Faddan More Psalter over a four-year period. This was the early medieval Psalter manuscript, discovered in a bog in North County Tipperary in 2006, which made global headlines at the time.

While another type of conservation is taking place, the restoration of The Long Room, what conservation challenges have you encountered in moving The Book of Kells to its new temporary home, as well as the wider collection that was removed from the Old Library?
Although this stage of the project has yet to be reached, everything has been planned well in advance of the move. The building that will provide the temporary location for the display of The Book of Kells, known as the Printing House, has undergone a complete restoration itself and is now of a standard required for the display of the manuscript. Additional facilities have been built in to allow the visitor to fully experience the wonder of this highly illuminated gospel book. The safe removal of the remaining 170,000 early printed books and manuscripts from the Old Library has afforded us a unique opportunity to examine, however briefly, every single book. We used this access to improve bibliographical information, fill in gaps in our records, measure every item and improve security. It should be noted that throughout this process, all books remained available to readers and this service will continue while they are offsite in storage, with requested material brought to the temporary combined reading room in the Ussher Library.
What were the particular conservation challenges of creating the Book of Kells Experience and how does this new interactive and immersive format enhance the visitor experience?
While standing in front of the display case housing The Book of Kells is a personal experience, allowing each individual to interpret what they see and take away their personal memory, the Book of Kells Experience places all that surrounds the manuscript in context and allows you see up-close the intricate artwork and text of the folio currently on display. This is achieved in a very accessible way that does not require the reading of lengthy panels of text or for that matter, even English as a first language. It also contains the necessary technology to hold the attention of a younger audience, which was a key element of the design from its inception. The interactive display introduces you to the materiality of the manuscript, the pigments used, the vellum folia, and the background to where production of the manuscript began, while following its journey through time. From a conservation viewpoint, there was no concern and little involvement required, as the space does not display any original material, and so all the usual environmental conditions and specifications did not apply.
Dr John Gillis is Chief Manuscript Conservator at Trinity College Dublin.
