India's Book Restorers

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/culture/14-indias-book-restorers-saving-the-past-for-the-future-zj-09

In the basement of the University of Mumbai's Fort Campus library, a towering Gothic-style cathedral to knowledge built by the British in the mid-19th century, half-a-dozen people are hard at work, reports AFP.

The 2.5 million rupee project began early last year and is nearing completion. So far 100,000 pages — or around 300 books — have been digitised to UNESCO standards and 88,000 pages cut, cleaned, laminated with chemical-free Japanese tissue paper and rebound in red leather covers with gold-embossed lettering.

Mumbai's Anglican cathedral, St Thomas's, for example, has birth records dating back to the 17th century

The giant Tata Group conglomerate is also involved in helping the prestigious Asiatic Society of Mumbai restore its 200,000-strong collection.

Some 3,200 books have been restored there, including a manuscript of Dante's “Divine Comedy”, a copy of Charles Darwin's “On the Origin of Species” and delicate illustrated Buddhist palm leaf manuscripts dating from the 13th century.

An adopt-a-book scheme has been running at the 195-year-old institution since 1991 for individuals to donate cash towards the cost of restoration.

Galileo's 1632 work “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems”, one of the many volumes gathering dust in the society's dark, musty basement, is to be restored with finance from local Italian business people.