(no subject)

[tree_and_leaf]

This is unbelievably awful: Cologne city archives collapse into a hole in the ground. It is, in fact, a bigger disaster than the fire at Anna Amelia library. Four people are unaccounted for (at least), and it looks as if the archives themselves are a total loss (they poured concrete into the hole, in an attempt to shore things up. This includes a large number of mediaeval religious manuscripts relating to the Rhineland mystics, as well as stuff relating to Heinrich Böll.

... I know. It's rather monstrous to be concerned about that when people are probably dead, but all the same: the manuscripts are a very great loss, too.

Comments

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Good Lord, that's altogether awful. And I don't think you're monstrous at all for thinking of the manuscripts. My reaction's much the same, and the archival material's not even related to my field.

(So far as I know--there are apparently Irish manuscripts tucked into archives all over the continent, and them mostly un/undercatalogued, so I might well be wrong.)

[tree_and_leaf]

It's amazing what isn't catalogued. Which has exciting potential, but is bad when soemthing like this happens.