A button was peered out from the freshly cut earth on a summer day in Tipperary. The find set off a five-year journey of preservation to retrieve and preserve the original cover of a 1,200-year-old book.
The National said that the 2006 discovery of an entire early medieval manuscript, entombed in a wet time capsule for so long, was unprecedented.
The cover of the psalter is almost intact.
The book fell open after it was discovered that it was a book of psalms. The vegetable-tanned leather cover with a papyrus reed lining was an unexpected feature.
The Book of Kells, the Book of Armagh and 450 other medieval Latin manuscripts are all located at Trinity College Dublin. It was the most challenging and interesting project I have ever done, and I am surrounded by some of the most famous manuscripts in the world.
John is at work. The National Museum of Ireland.
The Faddan More Psalter, one of Ireland's top 10 treasures, is the subject of a book by the National Museum documenting every stage of the "terrifying" preservation process for future scholars.
Maeve said that the fact that the object survived for a millennium in wet conditions, the fact that a full bifolio survived, and the fact that the object was noticed are all very much against the odds.
The lines of psalms are clearly visible in the psalter.
The process of stabilizing the book outside the bog was lengthy and involved unpicking and unfolding pages where possible. Archaeologists put the contents of the cold store in the museum at 4C. There wasn't a manual to guide him on how to do the task.
I had to look at the mass in my lab for three months before I could start any intervention work. If you disturb it, you lose evidence.
Although it was bad, the bog was also responsible for keeping it in its original condition.
The page was exposed for the first time in 1,200 years. The National Museum of Ireland.
The initial examination was limited in order to reduce trauma. Concerns that they could accelerate the degradation were the reason why the scans were excluded.
After trying a number of drying methods, including freeze-drying, vacuum-sealing, and drying with blotting paper, Gillis decided to use a vacuum chamber in the museum lab for four years to keep the art in good condition.
The Faddan More Psalter, The Discovery and Conservation of a Medieval Treasure, a book about the process of dismantling a Medieval treasure, will be released later this month.
The letters were retrieved from the mass. The National Museum of Ireland has a photograph.
He said it was terrifying to have the responsibility. You had this nerve-racking scenario of disturbing this material, which meant losing evidence, when I heard from someone in the British Museum that there was a picture of a mass on the walls in a staff area.
Many of the spaces between the iron gall letters had dissolved into the water. After the drying process, it would take months to piece them all together.
Theglomeration was found in a Tipperary bog. The National Museum of Ireland.
When you slowly lifted up a fragment, it would appear to be yellow and they used it as a decoration. It would shine back at you. You would say, 'I am the first person to see this in 1,200 years.' All the sleepless nights and brain work were worthwhile because of that kind of privilege.
It was the most pure of all the things I have done. There is nothing new attached. All I have done is captured.
