Re: history on ebay

Andy Dingley wrote:
> On 30 Sep 2005 10:50:59 -0700, "eldjarn" <clmt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
> >Hopefully, whoever becomes the *new* owner will wear cotton gloves to
> >avoid getting oily, acidic fingerprints on the pages, when they need to
> >hold it open for photographing...
>
> Well they shouldn't be holding it open for photography with a couple of
> fingers anyway - that's how you drop things. Put it on a suitably sized
> book cushion and lay a proper bookweight across it.
>
> As to gloves though - books just aren't that delicate. Wash your hands
> first, but don't worry about it.

Yup: I think a lot of Scadians have at some point gotten a museum tour
from some curator who let us handle an Actual Medieval Book but only
after the direst of warnings. My guess is that there are some
situations where this is legit, but mostly they play it up for effect.
I learned better when I became friends with some people in a (very
reputable) rare books and manuscripts store. Yes, you make sure your
hands are clean. You also don't keep a coffee mug on the table next to
the book. Most of all, you need to be conscious of supporting the
binding. But the idea that this thing might spontaneously disintegrate
if you look at it wrong is simply not true. At least not for late
medieval stuff. The Dead Sea Scrolls are probably a different matter.

What I find interesting is that some people are shocked by this. I
know a guy, who is not even in the SCA, who firmly contends that any
responsible institution would give such a book the literal white-glove
treatment and that my personal experiences otherwise are either
exaggerations or proof that the people involved are grossly negligant.
Then there was the 16th century printed book with a modern library
binding that I got from the open collection of a public library...

In terra pax,
Rouland Carre

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