Csapodi, Csaba: Conservation of the Manuscript and Old Book Collections at the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Methods and Results. 1949–1964 (A MTAK kiadványai 44. Budapest, 1965)

authors were collated into volumes. This method has its advantages. It is relatively cheap because a separate binding or portfolio for each work is not necessary, but 20 or 30 smaller manuscripts can be bound together. The smaller manuscripts were saved from loss or thievery and the confusion of pages prevented. Its disadvantages are: 1. all of them must be handed over if only one is asked for and thus are exposed to damage. (This we experienced, especialy in making the critical edition of significant Hungarian writers.) In many instances all of the manuscripts were unnecessarily handled when the researcher would have been satisfied with one of them. 2. If the manuscript is written from margin to margin it may occur that during the binding the marginal binding is stuck to the wrong place, or that the beginning or end of the lines is hardly legible because of the bindig being too tight or the inner margin too narrow. This makes it even more difficult to photograph the work. 3. The greatest disadvantage is that because such minor manuscripts are rarely of the same size the margins do not cover each other and therefore they curl, become easily dusty and there is no way of dusting them. The worst form of such a binding occurs when certain people use it for protecting their own correspondence which reach the archive in such a form. The letters are either glued on their reverse sides to blank sheets or the different sized letters are evenly folded and bound together. The first method is primitive and in the second the letters have to be steadily unfolded for use and later break. In the old material of our manuscript collection there are a few such examples of correspondence bound together which satisfactorily suits the purpose and is still applicable (Plate 45). A part of the correspondence of Ferenc Kazinczy was bound approximately one hundred years ago in such a way that the letters have interleaves of blank paper. These protective pages are of even size and the right hand lower margins are approximately two or three centimeters larger then the letters and at the upper margin the letters are even with the interleaves. In such a way the letters are protected from wrinkling of any sort and from their margins being torn. Those who use the letters do not touch the actual manuscript but only the blank interleaves. The interleaves, which are tightly smoothened at the edges, also protect the manuscript from dust. Among our old correspondence these were found to be in the best condition. Unfortunately the old letter writers were in the habit of beginning at the edge of the left margin in these instances it is somewhat difficult to read and photograph them. c) Fasciculi. It is customary to store the manuscripts of the archive in fasciculi. This method was formerly employed in the manuscript collection too. In other words, the bundle of manuscripts are put between two sheets of cardboard and the whole thing is pressed together with a band or string. Within the fasciculi the manuscript units are separated from one another by a simple pallium only. These fasciculi are then placed alongside one another on the shelves. Because of the tremendous amount of material in the archives no other method can be employed for the majority of the collections. Naturally the medieval documents are not kept in fasciculi but in boxes. This method cannot be used in the manuscript collection today because the manuscripts are not protected from dust in them. This led to the popularity of the portfolio. d) Portfolio. The portfolio is a suitable and relatively inexpensive means of storage. Of course not any portfolio can be used for the wrong one does not 18