Deep History, Deepening Collaborations

Above: Replica of the binding on Commons Journal, 1713 (PMC PARL CJ/1713/1, accessible on virtualtreasury.ie ). The ornamental leather bindings of journals of the Irish House of Lords and House of Commons were a jewel in the collections of the PROI. The spectacular red leather bindings had elaborate gold decoration. They all perished in 1922. In the nineteenth century, Sir Edward Sullivan, an accomplished amateur book finisher, took rubbings of all 149 bindings. Photographs of these rubbings still survive. In the 1990s, Philip Maddock, a Radiation Oncologist experienced in detailed scanning techniques and a keen book collector with a special interest in 82