University of Lincoln unveils the mysteries of Lincoln Cathedral’s 1638 Comberford Chart

The vellum chart covers the North Atlantic and adjacent coastlines from the St Lawrence River to the mouth of the River Amazon and from Scotland to the west coast of North Africa. It was drawn by Nicholas Comberford of Stepney, originally from Kilkenny but apprenticed to a mapmaker at the London Drapers Company. He signed maps from 1626-1670, of which almost 30 survive.

http://comerfordfamily.blogspot.com/2007/12/comerford-profiles-6-nicholas.html

To the naked eye only tantalizing glimpses are revealed of some of the text and coastlines. The chart is badly water damaged, which would be hardly surprising if it had been at sea during its youth, although we cannot be certain this was the case. When it was conserved and removed from its original oak boards in 1983 cleaning was not possible, due to dirt having penetrated the fibres.

    

It is known to have been at the Cathedral in 1967 and following its re-discovery in the Medieval Library in 1982 it travelled to the British Library Maps Division for assessment. Subsequently it was passed to the National Maritime Museum in 1983, where it stayed until 2007, when it was returned to the Cathedral. The Cathedral Librarian, Julie Taylor, was contacted recently regarding its whereabouts and an  entry will be added to the new Cathedral Catalogue when it is fully operational.

Permission was requested to use the University’s Crime Lite Imager (CLI), which was purchased as a result of the AHRC-funded forensic and historical investigation of fingerprints on medieval seals Imprint Project 2016-2018.

https://www.imprintseals.org/

It was hoped that some of the text would become more legible using this equipment.

On the 1st May 2019 the chart was taken to the University and Dr Hollie Morgan gave a demonstration to History and Conservation staff and students. The CLI used advanced imaging and multi-wavelength illumination to reveal the faint text and coastlines. It was a rare opportunity to get up close and personal to a piece of documentary history, which might not be expected to be found in a cathedral library collection.

Normal photograph (actual size 1cm)

Red text is difficult to decipher but the CLI printout is always in black and white, which makes it far easier to read if you are familiar with 17th century handwriting!

Crime Lite Imager (green wavelength, actual size 1cm)

The above image is one of many taken by Hollie courtesy of the CLI, green being the most effective wavelength for clarity. This useful collection of images could be used for future research into 17th century cartography.

See also

Tyacke, S. (2007) Chartmaking in England and its context, 1500-1660. In:

Woodward, D. (ed.) The history of cartography volume three (part two). Cartography in the European Renaissance. Chicago, USA: University of Chicago Press, 1722-1753.

For further information please contact carrand@lincoln.ac.uk

 

Get Books Delivered Straight to Your Door with the New Library Drone Delivery Service!

The Library is excited to announce our revolutionary new drone delivery system.

In an effort to improve our Customer Service even further, we’re launching a new service for book reservations.

When you place book reservations online you can now select to have these delivered straight to your door via drone!

Books will arrive within one hour – perfect for completing those last minute deadlines.

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What is digital literacy?

The common saying ‘two heads are better than one’ perfectly sums up the purpose of a conference. Sharing ideas and best practice helps both listeners and audience. On 18 January 2019, I found this to be very true in practice went to the Mercian Staff Development Group event ‘Focus on Digital Literacy’ at the University of Coventry Library. The event helped me gain a better understanding of digital literacy and in this post I want to answer the question ‘What is digital literacy?’ based on what I learned from speakers at the event.

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Book Arts event – make a book!

Would you like to make a book?

 Japanese stab binding is a traditional technique originally used to bind pen and ink drawings. 

 Learn more about making books and have a go at binding your own book in this free, enjoyable workshop for staff and students. Suitable for all abilities.

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Black History in Lincolnshire

This is the fourth and final in series of four posts about using library collections for the study of black history, literature and culture, in Britain and abroad. We would love to hear your comments and questions about the posts: please tweet us @GCWLibrary, email us at library@lincoln.ac.uk, or tell us your thoughts in the comments section at the end of the post. 

We hope you have had a wonderful, inspiring, and educational Black History Month! Our final post in this series will offer some suggestions for online databases and library resources for researching Black history in the county of Lincolnshire. This post will come in two parts: in the first part, I will discuss researching Black history in Lincolnshire. In the second part of the post, I will point you towards local collections, archives, and online projects which may help in your investigation of local Black history.

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Studying Black British Poetry

This is the third in a series of four posts about using library collections for the study of black history, literature and culture, in Britain and abroad. We would love to hear your comments and questions about the posts: please tweet us @GCWLibrary, email us at library@lincoln.ac.uk, or tell us your thoughts in the comments section at the end of the post.

If you have been on the ground floor of the library in recent weeks, you may have seen the Library Snippets platform just opposite the enquires desk. Each week of October, the plinth has been hosting recordings of answers to commonly asked questions about the library, as well as poems by Black poets, accompanied by a transcript. We hope you have enjoyed the chance to stop and read or listen to these works.

If you would like to know how to find out more about the poems and poets, read on! This post will discuss how library resources can be used to study the lives and works of black British poets. In the first half, I will discuss how to find the work of a particular poet. In the second half of the post, I will discuss how to find scholarship, secondary readings, and references works about particular poets.

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Black Musicians in the John Johnson Collection: the Bohee Brothers by Hope Williard (Part 3: the Bohee Brothers)

The Nineteenth Century Entertainment section of the John Johnson collection is a rich resource for examining the history and cultures of all different kinds of performance in nineteenth-century Britain. One of the types of performance feature in this collection is the minstrel show. These performances, in which white performers blackened their faces and sang British audiences ‘a distorted and appropriated form of black music’, had been popular in Britain since the 1830s.[1] The blackface minstrel appeared on Victorian Christmas cards, and music from minstrel shows was regularly performed in Victorian drawing rooms—examples of both can be found in the John Johnson collection.

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Black Musicians in the John Johnson Collection: the Bohee Brothers by Hope Williard (Part 2: How to Search the John Johnson Collection)

In using the John Johnson collection to put together this post, I found it fascinating to use the ‘Browse’ function.  Upon clicking that tab at the top of the page, you are taken to an expandable menu featuring the five main collections:

    1. Nineteenth century entertainment: This includes both theatrical and non-theatrical performance. It can be used to study both the history and development of different forms of entertainment, as well as high and popular culture
    2. The Booktrade: Bookplates and publishing materials, useful to those studying the publishing trade as well as trying to look at the dissemination of different kinds of information during these periods
    3. Popular prints: This includes landscapes, topography and artistic works.
    4. Crime, murder, and executions: This includes broadsheets and pamphlets. It is useful for historians who study crime and punishment and well as historians of certain kinds of printing (such as woodcuts)
    5. Advertising: This section of the collection contains a wide variety of advertisements and can be used to study economic and social history as well as consumerism.

Continue reading “Black Musicians in the John Johnson Collection: the Bohee Brothers by Hope Williard (Part 2: How to Search the John Johnson Collection)”