The principal aim of the project is to conserve and reconstruct the damaged manuscripts and make them accessible. To this end, some fragments are being “relaxed” in a humidifier and all those that can be manipulated are being digitalized and put on line.
In an attempt to compensate for the total or partial loss of so many manuscripts, all surviving documentation, whether written or photographic, is being assembled for the entire pre-war library: glass negatives, microfilms, photographs, catalogues, editions, scientific studies, etc.
In this way, researchers will be provided optimal conditions for studying the manuscripts of Chartres, whether they were saved from the fire or perished.
The manuscripts were restored a first time in 1944 at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It is thus important to study the way in which those emergency rescue operations have evolved and to consolidate our knowledge for future mediation on collections that have been similarly damaged.
Une nouvelle vie pour les manuscrits de Chartres, a video made in 2011 for the city of Chartres, presents the project.
In 2012-2013, the Bibliothèque nationale de France made a documentary film about the conservation of the manuscripts of Chartres at the Technical Centre at Bussy-Saint-Georges: La renaissance des manuscrits médiévaux de Chartres.