In the 1860s the first facsimile of

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

was created by the process of

photozincography Photozincography, sometimes referred to as heliozincography but essentially the same process, known commercially as zinco, is the photographic process developed by Sir Henry James FRS (1803–1877) in the mid-nineteenth century. This method ...

(later termed ''zinco''), and was executed under the directorship of

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

at the

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

offices of the

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

Initial stages

Having developed the photozincographic process, in a meeting arranged between James and

William Ewart Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...

, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Henry expressed his ability to produce photozincographic copies of ancient documents at "a very trifling cost". James outlined for his superiors the cost of a complete reproduction of Domesday Book (an estimate of £1575 for 500 copies or £3.3s per copy) using his process. In addition to this James further outlined the cost of a single county to demonstrate the affordability of the process, using Cornwall as an example of one of the shorter entries in the volumes (eleven folio pages) and estimated the cost of 500 copies to be £11. 2s. 4d. In doing so he selected the first extract of Domesday Book that he would photozincograph. On 24 January 1861, Sir Henry was granted permission to photozincograph the

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

fragment of Domesday as a Treasury funded experiment to determine the success of the process. Joseph Burtt, one of the Assistant Keepers of the Records was directed to assist the Record Office binder, Hood, to unbind the relevant pages from Domesday and on Monday 4 February 1861 Burtt transported Domesday to Southampton by train.

Domesday Book in Southampton

On arrival at the Ordnance Survey offices in Southampton, Burtt expressed his satisfaction with the buildings' "fireproof principles, and…military guard", and was given use of the best room in the building in which Domesday was placed in a fireproof safe, and the key entrusted to Burtt. Burtt’s description of the preparations extends to the actual photozincographic process, including James’s insistence that all plates should be developed and printed before the folios were returned. Nevertheless, the photozincography of Cornwall was completed in 11 days and Burtt returned to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The process was carried out in the Ordnance Survey photography building nicknamed the glasshouse.

Permissions and difficulties

Having completed Cornwall, James requested permission to photozincograph the rest of Domesday. Despite his claim that the public sale of the bound and engraved copies could cover the entire cost of the photozincography of the counties, the Lords of the Treasury wished to consult the

Master of the Rolls The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the President of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and Head of Civil Justice. As a judge, the Master of ...

regarding the comparison of James’s photozincographic reproductions with a rival process employed by Rev. Lambert Larking of Kent. Larking (a local antiquarian) had employed an artist to assist the reproduction of the county of Kent using the lithographic process – a much more expensive means of reproduction than photozincography. However, in order to secure this permission over Larking's process James had to provide the Treasury with evidence of public interest and a guarantee of low-cost production. Thomas Letts of Letts Son & Co. Limited, London distributed a circular nationally bearing a foreword from James encouraging subscription, and by late October more than fifty subscribers to each county had been amassed. On 28 November 1861 Burtt returned to Southampton once more with Domesday for the aforementioned counties’ photozincographing, and by December James had secured permission from the Treasury to copy the remainder of Great Domesday – but he was explicitly forbidden from reproducing Kent, in defence of Larking’s lithograph. By 1864 the facsimile of the entirety of Great Domesday had been completed, and had been published in 32 county volumes including Kent following Larking's death, who granted James permission to complete the reproduction of the county due to his infirmity in the final stages of his life.T. Owen & E. Pilbeam, ''Ordnance Survey: Map Makers to Britain since 1791'' (Southampton: Ordnance Survey; London: H.M.S.O., 1992), p. 59 The volumes were published in two colours (red and black), replicating the colours used in the original manuscript.

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References

{{reflist Photographic processes dating from the 19th century History of printing Domesday Book 1860s works

Initial stages

Domesday Book in Southampton

Permissions and difficulties

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See also

References