Library Friends Webinar - The Alchemy of Preservation - The Journey of Sir Isaac Newton’s Alchemical Manuscript at Illinois

Join Lynne M. Thomas, Head of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Ruthann Mowry, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, and Quinn Ferris, Senior Conservator in the department of Library Preservation, for a roundtable discussion of the historical context, acquisition and intensive conservation process for Sir Isaac Newton’s manuscript translation of an alchemical text, Opus Galli anonymi, (ca. 1650), held in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library. In addition to this object requiring a chemically complex intervention to stabilize the degradation of Iron Gall Ink, Conservation staff planned, scripted, filmed, and edited the treatment into a feature-length documentary, which is now freely available on The University of Illinois Preservation’s YouTube page.