Kairouan Manuscript Project Announces Partnership with the Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences

26 July 2022

Photo: Davidson MacLaren

Sonia Bellakhel (left), senior conservator at the National Laboratory for the Preservation and Conservation of Parchment and Manuscripts (NLPCPM), speaks with Marlen Börngen (right) about iron gall ink corrosion in the NLPCPM’s collections.

The Institute will cover consultancy fees of research associate Marlen Börngen, who is currently preparing a course on treating iron gall ink corrosion in the collections of the National Laboratory for the Preservation and Conservation of Parchment and Manuscripts in Raqqada, Kairouan, Tunisia.

The Kairouan Manuscript Project (KMP) is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences (CICS) at TH Köln, one of Germany’s leading centres of conservation research and education. CICS is making a generous in-kind contribution to the KMP’s collection care and management activities, especially the design, delivery, and evaluation of conservation-related professional development courses, by covering the consultancy fees of CICS research associate and instructor Marlen Börngen and allowing her to make multiple visits to Tunisia annually.

Ms Börngen is currently preparing a course on understanding and treating iron gall ink corrosion, a cause of widespread damage to the collections of the National Laboratory for the Preservation and Conservation of Parchment and Manuscripts (NLPCPM) in Raqqada, Kairouan, Tunisia. She is also assisting with the mentorship of the four Barakat Trust-funded early-career conservation interns working at the NLPCPM. Earlier this year, she enabled the interns to present their first international conference papers during the CICS-organised virtual meeting of the Graphic Documents Working Group of the International Council of Museums’ Committee for Conservation (ICOM-CC).

KMP partner Pennsylvania State University funded Ms Börngen’s first visit to Kairouan from 27 May to 3 June 2022.

One can read more about Ms Börngen’s interests, including her CSMC doctoral dissertation project, here, and listen to 'CICS aufs Ohr', the CICS podcast (in German) she hosts.

The KMP thanks Professor Dr Andrea Pataki-Hundt, director of CICS, for making this partnership possible and for supporting the work of the KMP and Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures.