The Faddan More Psalter – A blog from the bog, by John Gillis

I was over in Dublin a few weeks ago- my first visit since moving back to the UK in April.  Whilst taking time to catch-up with friends, I was also able to visit several new exhibitions in the city.
The Chester Beatty Library's recently reopened Arts of the Book gallery is beautiful. A unique hommage to the history of the book and the forms it has taken through the centuries around the world, but even more exciting and a wonderful Irish companion, is the redisplay of the Treasury in the National Museum of Ireland's Kildare Street building, and the Fadden More Psalter displayed at its heart.

John Gillis with folios of the Fadden More Psalter in 2008.

The exhibition is elegant and incredibly emotive- a testament to the hard work and innovation of the Psalter's Conservator, John Gillis. The Fadden More's binding, the centre-piece of this exhibition, is a humble object with almost unimaginable significance. Not only is it the only know example of the buttoned folder bindings familiar from illuminated manuscripts such as the Cadmug Gospel, but its cover is lined with papyrus. An indisputable link between the early Irish Christians and Coptic North Africa.

The binding is presented in closed book form, as it was dried, and on either side of it are two of the bifolia that survived this manuscripts entombment in a County Tipperary bog. I loved the way the binding can be seen from so many angles as you walk around the gallery, past stones inscribed with Ogham and seventh century wood and wax tablets.

John's dedication and skill should be shouted from the rooftops, but it is his experience of this book that is perhaps most important. So for bookies everywhere, here is John's personal account...

When Kristine asked me to put something down on paper in relation to my work on The Faddan More Psalter, she suggested I might reflect on the impact the project has had on me personally, rather than my usual mantra of the technicalities involved. Although this is an aspect I was very aware of throughout the project it was not something I had pondered on, or committed to paper. It proved to be a very interesting exercise, although difficult, as the male of the species and an Irish one at that, not exactly renowned for our ability to express ourselves.

Alphabet soup- some of the smaller fragments of the Fadden More.

I first became aware of the find like the majority of the population when it hit the headlines of all the national papers and was broadcast on television and radio over the following days. It was depicted in many reports, somewhat dramatically as “The Irish Dead Sea Scrolls”. Initial reports described the find as a Psalter from the early medieval period in an Irish majuscule hand with evidence of insular illumination.

I first set eyes on the manuscript when I was invited to inspect the find along with several experts from a range of disciplines. To say I was speechless would be an understatement, and the alternative description of “The Lasagne” seemed much closer to the truth, such was the condition! When I was asked a week later if I would be willing to be the conservator to work on the manuscript, on secondment of two years (this eventually became four and a half) from Trinity College to the National Museum, I accepted without hesitation, albeit without a clue how I was going to tackle such a complex project of such International importance, remembering that this was the first western manuscript to surface in 200 years, it’s all about timing! This all occurred in December 2006 and I spent the Christmas holiday in a kind of daze, completely preoccupied with what lay ahead of me. I divided the project into “goals to achieve” and this helped maintain my sanity and stopped me running away to a remote area of Kerry to hide. As a book conservator one of my main goals was the production of a collation map, normally not something that should cause any great difficulty, but when your manuscript has been un-earthed by a mechanical digger after lying in a peat bog for 1,200 years and to top all it presented a spine fold survival of no more of a couple of mm’s per bi-folium, then becomes a major challenge. In the end it took several attempts and two years to come up with a definitive answer. The second challenge was how to de-water the surviving vellum fragments knowing that this material is not known to survive in a such a hostile environment and as I often mention in lectures if you Google bog+vellum, not much comes back at you. After much trial and even more error we did arrive at a solution, but that’s not for here, suffice it to say we achieved an average of 3% shrinkage across the skin.

The intensity of the project accompanied with an acute awareness of being under the gaze of the great and the good as they waited to have access to this historical find resulted in several stressful events over the 4 years. Often the expectations of those not directly involved in the project resulted in their disappointment as to what was or was not achievable and me questioning myself if I could have done better. All of this was topped off with the entire project being recorded for broadcast on national television. This meant that key moments would see me carry out a particular operation for the first time, in the presence of a full film crew, not for the faint hearted, I promise you. So, yes it gave me many, many sleepless nights and at times I questioned my ability to bring the project to a successful conclusion. However, although I worked alone, I was not alone and I had access to the experience of many colleagues both from the world Archaeology and Books. I even had visits from such “big hitters” as Tony Cains, Chris Clarkson and Michael Gullick all offering their support. But most importantly was the support and visits I received from my friends who also work in our odd little world of conservation.

We got there in the end, I am older, a little wiser, but most of all privileged, when you sit alone in a room while slowly revealing a decorated letter with zoomorphic features that has not seen the light of day for over a millennium or see the attempts of a novice monk to reproduce some interlace pattern, at the very least raises the hair on the back of your neck, or once or twice has even brought a tear to my eye. Throughout I never once underestimated my good fortune and the absolute privilege of being chosen to bring the Faddan More Psalter back into the public gaze and the regular lectures, seminars and talks that have followed are an extension of that responsibility to share the experience.

Someone commented to me after a seminar on the Psalter that I was now the world expert on the conservation of manuscripts form a bog, to which I replied “but there is only one” That does suggest however if another was to be found I may well be asked to do it all again, and would I?...................Oh yes!

John “the cheese packer” Gillis