On Saturday, September 27, the Special Collections Research Center participated in the American Conference for Irish Studies' Southern Regional Meeting, held at App State. History professor Dr. Mary Valante organized a hands-on workshop, "The Past in the Present: Creating and Digitizing Manuscripts," in which three rare books from Special Collections were on display as inspiration: the Book of Kells facsimile, the Lindisfarne Gospels facsimile, and the Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh, The war of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, or, The invasions of Ireland by the Danes and other Norsemen. Additionally, two medieval manuscript leaves from our collection were also used to demonstrate how multispectral imaging can bring to light obscured, or erased, information on manuscripts.
The workshop leaders were Dr. Laura McCloskey, University of West Georgia, “Early Irish Art;” Dr. Mary Valante, Appalachian State University “Insular scripts (and early printed book fonts);” and Dr. Helen Davies, UNC-Charlotte, and Dr. Brian Cook, Auburn University, “Accessibly Imaging Manuscript and Old Documents.”
University of West Georgia professor and presenter Dr. Laura McCloskey and a workshop participant look at The Book of Kells facsimile.
UNC-Charlotte professor and presenter Dr. Helen Davies uses infrared light to look beyond what is visible in plain light on a SCRC manuscript leaf. This German leaf of a Latin Psalter had been reused as an exterior board cover binding.
Auburn University professor and presenter Dr. Brian Cook, UNC-Charlotte professor and presenter Dr. Helen Davies, and Appalachian State graduate student Sam Campbell look at a German manuscript book using multispectral imaging.
Presenters and participants try their hands at writing insular scripts during Appalachian State professor and presenter Dr. Mary Valante 's portion of the workshop.
–Contributed by Greta Browning, Curator of Rare Books & Manuscripts
Books on display during conference workshop
