JONATHAN ZITTRAIN: I think even a casual visitor to the Harvard
Law School Library sees that it's
a work that has been in progress now for two centuries.
JOCELYN KENNEDY: We have material 1,000 years old
in our collection, and we have things that
were just published last week.
So we're really spanning the magnitude
of the intellectual history not just of the law,
but of the world.
JONATHAN ZITTRAIN: This is a place
that just resonates with that.
The layers and layers of artifacts, of organization,
of people who can help make meaning.
JOCELYN KENNEDY: We have over two million things
in our collection.
Each one of them is a treasure to somebody.
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KAREN BECK: So this is manuscript 12,
and this is a collection of Magna Carta
and English statutes from around 1325.
It has gorgeous illuminations with the illuminated E
for King Edward.
And one of the things I love about this volume
is there's is a lot of marginalia from early owners.
You can really see how an owner engaged with it
in such intimate detail.
And when you see this manuscript physically,
it really just brings the history to life.
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CHARLES DONAHUE: The majority of them
are about English law, books of English statutes,
or are registers of writs--
that is to say, all the different ways
that you could bring a lawsuit in medieval England.
KAREN BECK: Some of them were designed
to be treasures, really.
They were created as works of art.
And others were more working copies--
much more humble.
ELIZABETH PAPP KAMALI: So for a 14th-century lawyer,
they didn't have Westlaw.
They didn't have Lexis.
They had their little pocket book--
their little register of writs or their collection of statutes
that they would refer to.
And I think we could learn a lot about
the early legal profession from studying their books.
ALAN PUGLIA: The early manuscript collection
from Harvard Law School has had fairly typical condition
problems for early manuscripts.
See, for this particular manuscript,
it's written in iron gall ink on the paper.
And the iron gall ink is causing corrosion.
So by looking through the paper with a light behind,
I'm looking for areas of loss and cracking in the ink.
And when I find them, I do repair
using a non-water-based pre-coated tissue.
One of our primary goals within the conservation lab
is to provide for long-term storage
and provide for safe handling of the manuscripts.
We're often, in terms of imaging--
which has been a large part of the project
for the early manuscripts and the law school--
trying to make sure that things can be
handled safely at the cameras.
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KAREN BECK: For some of the manuscripts that
have original historic bindings, we
are very careful to leave those bindings intact,
even if it means we can't get as good of an opening or good
of an angle for filming.
It's more important in those instances
to be sure that the original artifact is
preserved and kept safe.
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MARY PERSON: So this is manuscript 28.
You can see there's been rodent damage to the vellum, which
is evidently tasty.
But fortunately, much of the text actually still remains.
One of the most immediately noticeable things
is that it's missing its leather cover, or vellum cover.
That's right down to the original oak boards.
It's like having history, a piece of it, right there.
Right there.
And I love to be able to share that, whether they're students
or they're visitors.
KAREN BECK: It's so nice to give students the opportunity to see
these materials close up.
JOCELYN KENNEDY: For them, I think
it's a really transformative moment--
getting a sense of the actual material
culture of the materials that they've been reading about.
KAREN BECK: These manuscripts are such a treasure,
because they are unique.
And it's part of what makes the Harvard Law School
educational experience unique.
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