The Great Parchment Book, a partnership project with London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) and University College London (UCL) which features in an exhibition in Derry’s Guildhall, has received a European Succeed Award Commendation of Merit.
Bernadette Walsh, Archivist, Derry City Council’s Heritage and Museum Service with Edward Montgomery, The Honourable The Irish Society at the History of the Ulster Plantation Exhibition in the Guildhall with a page from the Great Parchment book 1639. Photo: Lorcan Doherty
The project to conserve the fire damaged Great Parchment Book began with the digitalisation of the book, a project involving a number of international institutions and resulted in establishing the historical significance of the item.
Derry City Council’s own archivist, Bernadette Walsh, has been a key component in working with the agencies and bringing an original folio of the Parchment Book to the Plantation of Ulster exhibition in Derry’s Guildhall.
She said: “Reading fire damaged manuscripts is often very difficult due to the fragile nature of the texts, and their distorted form. This groundbreaking project has enabled the virtual flattening and digital restoration of the fire damaged Great Parchment Book of The Honourable The Irish Society, exploring how advanced digitisation methods can help in reading fire damaged texts such as this.”
The winners were selected from 19 nominations worldwide and, due to the high quality of the project, the Board decided to distinguish it with one of two Commendations of Merit.
Succeed is funded by the European Union. It promotes the take up and validation of research results in mass digitisation, with a focus on textual content.
