York Minster fabric rolls to be digitised

York Minster’s famous 32 parchment rolls, which contain the administrative accounts of the Keeper of the Fabric of York Minster, from c.1360-1499, will be digitised by Max Communications Ltd.

The rolls, which are held in the Minster library, are a unique record of the life of the Minster from this period. They include details of how much was spent on building this historic cathedral, together with day-to-day items purchased by the Minster and the level of wages paid to the Minster’s workers.

The parchments, which are in parts highly illustrated, are written in ink on animal skins. Each membrane is stitched to the next to form the rolls.

Max Communications Ltd is a leading supplier of digitisation services to the educational, heritage and cultural sector in the UK.

The project, involving high resolution photography and ex-tremely careful handling of the originals, will take place within the next eight weeks. Due to the sensitive nature of the parchments, the work will be undertaken within the York Minster Library’s secure store. Upon completion of the work, the images will be available online and copies could be used for conservation and preservation purposes.

The York Minster was originally built for the Baptism of King Edwin in 627 AD.

Minster churches were established in the Anglo Saxon period as missionary teaching churches. York Minster is also the church of the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, the most senior bishop in the north of England. As the Minster is where the Archbishop has his seat, called a “Cathedra”, York Minster is also a cathedral. The present Minster is the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe and was built over a period of 250 years.

Unfortunately, many of the rolls have been lost over the centuries, but the 32 remaining rolls serve as a unique and valuable resource.