Reconstructing Nicholas Crouch: conserving a seventeenth-century medical reader

Nicholas Crouch, a 17th-century physician, was a student, fellow and bursar of Balliol College until his death in 1690. This project is to reunite his library, creating bibliographic records to international standards for its 4,000 early printed titles. The aim is to reveal the wealth of unique manuscript material within the collection through full antiquarian copy-specific notes for Crouch’s printed books and archival records for his 11 manuscripts. The project will create the framework for future digitisation. Text-blocks and bindings will be stabilised to prevent loss of information and to allow the volumes to be accessed for digitisation, exhibition, research, teaching and outreach. Items will be boxed and moved to secure storage.