And so Adam Savage goes to the Royal Society In England and gets to look at not only a first edition of Newton’s “Principia,” but the actual *manuscript.* And both he and the archivist handle them with their bare hands.
Shudder.
There are books that *I* own that I hesitate to actually touch without cotton archival gloves. But the Principia? Dude, I wouldn’t touch that unless I was fully sealed. I’d be deathly afraid of not just touching it, not just sneezing on it, but simply *breathing* on it.
2 responses to “And they weren’t wearing full containment suits because…”
Saw a thing on Instagram today that said putting amateurs in mickey mouse gloves makes them all ham fisted and prone to tear ancient book pages, Wash your hands and you are fine to flip through a couple of pages according to at least some archivists.
It’s books of the past century you have to be careful with-cheap pulps are fragile. Parchment and such less so-and some handling likely keeps them supple. I seem to remember a televised piece on a Vatican librarian who said as much.