Book conservation: The Eikon Basilike
The Royal Library holds around seventy copies of the Eikon Basilike, the book first published in the early days of February 1649 soon after the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649, and probably, at least in part, written by the King himself.
It accounts various events and hardships encountered by him in the years preceding his defeat. It quickly became one of the biggest selling books of the seventeenth century, and it fuelled the growing idea that Charles was a martyr.
This particular copy, RCIN 1080417, is notable for the four lengths of wide, blue, silk ribbon attached to its binding, and for an inscription inside it which reads, underneath the signature of Jane Manser:
'This Book was the Gift of Sr Oliver Flemming Master of the Ceremonies to King Charles the First, together with ye ribband strings which were the Garter his Majesty wore his George on'.
But can we trust this inscription?
Conservation of the object offers an opportunity to further investigate the book’s history, and to learn more about whether the lengths of silk could originally have formed from one of Charles I’s Garter ribbons. Read on to learn more.
