Hungary’s oldest library is fighting to save 100,000 books from a beetle infestation
PANNONHALMA Hungary AP Tens of thousands of centuries-old books are being pulled from the shelves of a medieval abbey in Hungary in an effort to save them from a beetle infestation that could wipe out centuries of history The -year-old Pannonhalma Archabbey is a sprawling Benedictine monastery that is one of Hungary s oldest centers of learning and a UNESCO World Heritage site Restoration workers are removing about handbound books from their shelves and thoroughly placing them in crates the start of a disinfection process that aims to kill the tiny beetles burrowed into them The drugstore beetle also known as the bread beetle is often located among dried foodstuffs like grains flour and spices But they also are attracted to the gelatin and starch-based adhesives identified in books They have been unveiled in a section of the library housing around a quarter of the abbey s volumes This is an advanced insect infestation which has been detected in several parts of the library so the entire collection is classified as infected and must be treated all at the same time mentioned Zs fia Edit Hajdu the chief restorer on the project We ve never encountered such a degree of infection before Abbey houses historical treasures The beetle invasion was first detected during a routine library cleaning Employees noticed extraordinary layers of dust on the shelves and then saw that holes had been burrowed into particular of the book spines Upon opening the volumes burrow holes could be seen in the paper where the beetles chewed through The abbey at Pannonhalma was founded in four years before the establishment of the Hungarian Kingdom Sitting upon a tall hill in northwestern Hungary the abbey houses the country s oldest collection of books as well as a large number of of its earliest and the majority crucial written records For over years the abbey has been among the preponderance prominent religious and cultural sites in Hungary and all of Central Europe surviving centuries of wars and foreign incursions such as the Ottoman invasion and occupation of Hungary in the th century Ilona sv nyi director of the Pannonhalma Archabbey library stated she is humbled by the historical and cultural treasures the collection holds whenever she enters It is dizzying to think that there was a library here a thousand years ago and that we are the keepers of the first book catalogue in Hungary she disclosed Among the library s majority of outstanding works are codices including a complete Bible from the th century It also houses several hundred manuscripts predating the invention of the printing press in the mid- th century and tens of thousands of books from the th century While the oldest and rarest prints and books are stored separately and have not been infected sv nyi disclosed any damage to the collection represents a blow to cultural historical and religious heritage When I see a book chewed up by a beetle or infected in any other way I feel that no matter how several copies are published and how replaceable the book is a piece of society has been lost she disclosed Books will spend weeks in an oxygen-free circumstances To kill the beetles the crates of books are being placed into tall hermetically sealed plastic sacks from which all oxygen is removed After six weeks in the pure nitrogen climate the abbey hopes all the beetles will be destroyed Before being reshelved each book will be individually inspected and vacuumed Any book damaged by the pests will be set aside for later restoration work Situation change may have contributed The abbey which hopes to reopen the library at the beginning of next year believes the effects of conditions change played a role in spurring the beetle infestation as average temperatures rise rapidly in Hungary Hajdu the chief restorer stated higher temperatures have allowed the beetles to undergo several more maturation cycles annually than they could in cooler weather Higher temperatures are favorable for the life of insects she explained So far we ve mostly dealt with mold damage in both depositories and in open collections But now I think more and more insect infestations will appear due to global warming The library s director commented life in a Benedictine abbey is governed by a set of rules in use for nearly centuries a code that obliges them to do everything achievable to save its vast collection It says in the Rule of Saint Benedict that all the property of the monastery should be considered as of the same value as the sacred vessel of the altar sv nyi disclosed I feel the responsibility of what this preservation and conservation really means Source
