Biddle Authors Chapter on Using Watermarks to Date Islamic Manuscripts

Michaelle Biddle, collections conservator and head of preservation services, is the author of a chapter titled “New strategies in using watermarks to date sub-Saharan Islamic manuscripts” published in The Arts and Crafts of Literacy: Islamic Manuscript Cultures in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by Andrea Brigaglia and Mauro Nobili (De Gruyter, 2017).

As a specialist of paper making, Biddle provides a comprehensive history of the Galvani Italian paper mills whose various qualities of paper widely circulated in West and East Africa, as well as Indonesia and Malaysia, from the 1730s well into the 20th century.