Levantine – Safeguarding Egyptian Written Heritage through Preservation, Conservation and Digitisation Training Programme 23rd November – 2nd December 2020
The Levantine Foundation is proud to announce its 4th Training Programme. Due to Covid, classes will be presented online, from El Manial Palace Museum, by international academics specialising in Coptic, Islamic and Christian history, and by experts in codicology and conservation working in the preservation of books, parchment and paper.
11 renowned experts from 6 countries will give live stream sessions during the one week Levantine Foundation training program organised in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities, the Egypt Exploration Society and the Ricanati e Restauro, this one week seminar is the latest in a continuing and successful series of courses, begun in 2009, for professionals from the leading museums, librairies, university students and monastic collections in Egypt. The programme is supported by a grant from the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund, in partnership with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sports.
Giovanni Pagani, a conservator who describes himself as a book doctor, emphasises the exceptional talents of the panel assembled by the Levantine Foundation, such as Alberto Campagnolo, one of the most renowned specialists in digitisation methods. Giovanni explains “ancient books and manuscripts are like a hidden and complex treasure, that need many keys to be turned to be understood. Modern technology offers us unparalleled virtual access to these gems, It helps us to make ancient books and manuscripts freely open and freely discovered, by a wider audience”.
A Collegiate and international approach: Ancient Texts from A to Z ! From 6 countries around the globe, 11 eminent experts will deliver lectures and practical demonstrations, before answering audience questions. Academics and conservators, working for the most renowned institutions in Europe and Egypt – the Vatican Library and the British Library, the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki, the Coptic Museum in Cairo, the Recanati e Restauro, in Italy, the Atelier du Livre in Tarascon, the University of Udine – these specialists will present the entire subject of ancient texts, from their history to preservation techniques, from the digitisation of manuscripts and codices under a conservator’s eye, to their curation and display. “The Conservation Training Programme illustrates the importance of historical knowledge for conservators and international collaboration between several professions and institutions in order to reach the right conclusions.” Elizabeth Sobczynski, Levantine Foundation CEO. Preserving and valuing Egypt Written Heritage, part of Universal Culture Egypt is renowned worldwide for its ancient monumental heritage, but the country also possesses invaluable written culture on papyrus, paper and parchment including manuscripts in Greek, Syriac, Ethiopian, Coptic and Arabic. Dr. Moaman Othman, Head of Museum Sector at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, welcomes this training program and hopes others will follow. As conservator Giovanni Pagani says : “this art is very different from painting or sculpture, it is less obvious, quite often locked in libraries, harder to display because of the risk of fragmentation and the choices you have to make (what pages do we present ?)…but its history, its content and the object itself are one of the richest form of heritage, essential witnesses of history, culture and knowledge”.
El Manial Palace Museum welcomes the Levantine Foundation Symposium This emblematic Museum, which contains 70000 documents, will host this programme online, designed for experienced museum professionals, librarians as well as students. 43 delegates will attend, observing social distance. In addition, around 200 professionals from the leading museums, libraries, monastic collections and selected university students in Egypt will follow the seminars on-line. They will acquire new skills and knowledge in the history and conservation of early texts (third to fifteenth centuries AD), as well as the digitisation of these fragile manuscripts and codices, to share with the world Egypt’s rich cultural heritage in writing.
