The Conservation Task - Treasures at Risk

In the nineteenth century some of the manuscripts were taken to Europe and are in several different collections.  The large number of manuscripts and fragments that remain in the monastery represent an inheritance of inestimable scholarly value and an essential part of the heritage of the entire Christian world.

However after 1500 years in the environment of a living community many of the manuscripts are in a parlous state and continuing to deteriorate, putting them at serious risk.

In recent times there has been a revival of the Coptic monasteries in Egypt.  The Deir al-Surian community now numbers over 200, and a new generation of committed and educated monks is determined to preserve their unique inheritance in situ for future generations.  To achieve this, there is much to be done:

• To preserve the Library for future generations, the collections need to be surveyed, conserved, catalogued and stored in an environment in which they will not deteriorate.
• A digital photographic record of selected manuscripts needs to be made to facilitate access for scholars, and thus to avoid continual handling.
• These activities in turn require the present equipment and workshop facilities to be improved and expanded.
• Monks and other local people need to be educated in collection care. 
• A storage environment needs to be created to ensure the long-term stability of the collection, and facilities created for visiting scholars. 
• Finally a display for lay visitors to allow the collection and its importance to be more widely appreciated also needs to be set up.
• A new Library building will provide the facilities for all the above.

In 2002, Elizabeth Sobczynski, a conservation consultant working with major museums in London, set up The Levantine Foundation to preserve cultural heritage on paper and related media.  The Foundation’s first project is to secure the future of the manuscripts in the Deir al-Surian Library.

A start has been made on the Coptic, Arabic and Syriac manuscripts.  During recent conservation field campaigns to the monastery, the collection has been surveyed and conservation of numerous codices completed in collaboration with conservation experts from Europe and USA.  Working with the Foundation, two leading Syriac scholars, Dr Sebastian Brock of the University of Oxford and Professor Lucas van Rompay of Duke University (above left), have catalogued the Syriac collection for publication in 2011/2012.  This will be a major work of scholarship.