Book & paper preservation and digitization seem antithetical in many ways; the former focuses on the physical and the hands-on, while the latter hones in on the digital and the technical. Even though there are differences between the fields, I like to think of them as partners in crime. Both preservation and digitization work to ensure that books filled with precious knowledge are around for learning well into the future; they just take different (often intersecting) paths to get there.  

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to digitize a beautiful choir psalter from the UC Classics Library. This large book is theorized to have been used as a choir book in 15th century Italy, possibly the north-eastern area of Veneto. Its knowledge laden parchment pages and mysterious past rendered it the perfect candidate for both preservation and digitization. After it received treatment from the Lab’s conservator, I whisked it away to be digitized.

A book this distinguished required the care and attention of more than one person (it had nothing to do with how heavy it was… really). I was joined by the Lab’s photographic documentation extraordinaire Jessica, and that’s when the collaborative magic between preservation and digitization happened. Jessica and I sprinkled in some preservation-oriented photographic documentation as we digitized, allowing us to get a closer look at the materiality of the book while we had it on the copy stand. One of the most impactful imaging techniques we used on the antiphoner was that of raking light. 

Raking light involves the use of one lighting source to illuminate an object from a low angle, highlighting texture and depth. Using this technique on the choir book allowed us to see and feel the true age and history of a book that survived centuries of use; the mountains and valleys of each aged page suddenly revealed themselves in the same places they hid in normal illumination.

The normal illumination used to digitize allows us to read the book as it was meant to be read, and preservation-focused raking light allows us to experience the materiality of the object. The combination of both techniques allows for those who cannot physically interact with the book to experience (almost) all it has to offer. While there’s really no substitute for seeing the antiphoner in person, we’d like to think we can replicate the experience a little better by utilizing tools provided by our partners in crime: preservation and digitization. 

You can read more about the research done on this choir psalter in the Classics Library’s blog post, “Mystery at the Library”.

Also, make sure to check out of our Instragram (@thepreservationlab) where Jessica will be sharing some conservation photography of this beauty.

Sidney Gao [UCL] – Digital Imaging Coordinator