Copying an undulating manuscript. Any advice?

[jose angel]

Hi all. I´m in the process of copying a manuscript from the Middle Ages; the aim is to preserve the original and to have a source to duplicate for future research when needed.

The original is in overall good condition; graphics have an incredible gleaming paint but I´m afraid of a slight detaching tendency from paper base. The owners doesn´t consider to be worth to entrust the task to a professional restorer.

My problem is to keep the flatness of the subject plane. Sheets have a natural undulating, not so excessive but strong enough to impede a good work. I have thought on a tigh line flattening at the top and bottom of the opened book, but I dislike the idea of having the lines in the image. Size of the opened book (two pages per shot) is around 11x16".

What about ordering a coated sheet of glass to press the whole book? Have you tried it?

If you have experienced something similar, please give me your advice! Any idea would be a great help. Thank you very much.

[jose angel]

Perhaps the best option is be to obtain good files directly scaning the original with a flat bed scanner; what about it?

[David A. Goldfarb]

There are very expensive devices for this purpose made by Linhof and perhaps other companies. They have an anti-reflective glass platen to hold the pages flat and adjustable supports for each half of the book to avoid damaging the spine and keep the book level. Perhaps you could get access to a copy setup at a research library or museum with one of these book supports and 5000K fluorescent lights.

[Ted Harris]

There are also companies that specialize in doing just this sort of work for museums. For the most part they use very high end flatbed scanners so you are on the right track there. One of the best in the business is Academic Imaging in Manchester, VT http://www.academicimaging.com/ ... You can contact Jerry Skapof there for additional assistance.

[Pat Kearns]

Jose,
Try and see if there are any companies in your city that make copies a blue-prints or architectural drawings. If you are uncomfortable trying to do it on your own these companies should have the scanner/copiers that would be able to copy it. They should be able to give you a cost of the task as well. Good luck.

[Wilbur Wong]

I am not sure I get the full picture of your situation, by undulating, do you mean that each page of the book or manuscript makes a kind of wave like shape from the spine upwards, then back down again as it reaches the outer edges?

If that is the case, assuming you are using a view camera, maybe you can shoot individual pages, while they are propped up at an angle in the opened book, thus making the individual page completely flat. You can make all corrections with shift of the view camera if you can not direct the camera to the page dead on.

[ronald moravec]

Just get a peice of glass to hold the manuscript down, double weight.

If it is in book form, you will need one of the fancy devices described above so you don`t stress the binding. Another option is have a partner hold the pages and cover not being photographed at an appropiate angle so as not to strees the binding. This is really all the fixtures do any way. You will still need the glass.

With lights on each side at 45 degrees, you do not need coated glass. Double weight pretty much required.

[jim Ryder]

You will probably benefit from reading a very recent (last several months) article in the New Yorker about making microscopic resolution scans of the Metropolitan Museum's medieval Unicorn Tapestry. It probably won't help you solve your problem (they solved their problem using world renowned mathemeticians) but it will help you think about human artifacts and art. Extraordinary effort that may change your understanding of the true underlying structure of Unicorns.

[jose angel]

Thank you very much for your ideas. The book have a loose spine, I can open it almost completely, but pages are highly uneven, in all ways. I think I will take a pair of Polaroids with a sheet of glass flattening the book , to see how it looks. If results are not acceptable, I will try with the scanner. I have seen on your links and advices highly specialized companies, prices must be in the same level! Well, I will try to do it as best as I can. At first my intention was to use 4x5" & 300 Apo-Ronar on chrome film. Thanks again.

[Alan Davenport]

This sounds like an interesting project, Jose. I wish it was me solving these problems.
I think using a heavy sheet of glass to flatten the pages is a good place to start. Putting a pair of flashes at 45 degrees to the glass should prevent reflections (you'll need to have a black background behind the camera also.)

I think your original plan to use 4x5 might be a good one. You'll want your images to be as acurate and detailed as possible. Using a 300mm lens to cover 11x16 puts the required magnification at about 0.3X. At that size, and f/45, you'll have about 123mm depth of field. At f/22 the DOF will still be over 60mm, so you should be able to get excellent reproductions.

In short, I don't think the unevenness of the pages will be much of a barrier. Using the 4x5 and 300mm lens, your working distance will be about 1.5 meters, so the waviness of the pages will be very slight in terms of the change in subject distance. The camera will flatten things out on the film. You might not even need the glass, which might itself add anomalies to the image where the pages start to curve away from the glass near the spine of the book.

Lastly, if you still have problems with reflections, you can use polarizers over the flash heads, and a polarizer on the lens to deal with that issue. You'll lose around 4 stops of light this way, so you'd need some honkin' big lights, or multiple pops.

Have fun and show us a sample!

[Philippe Gauthier]

" The original is in overall good condition; graphics have an incredible gleaming paint but I´m afraid of a slight detaching tendency from paper base. The owners doesn´t consider to be worth to entrust the task to a professional restorer. "

I don't know if this bit of information will help, but if this is written on parchment, the ink is probably more fragile on the shiny, "skin" face of the sheet, where the ink couldn't penetrate as well. It probably penetrated better on the matte, "flesh" side where the ink could sink very deep. That's a thing to keep in mind when manipulating the manuscript. Also, consider side lighting if you want to preserve some of the skin texture of the parchment.