Derry's Great Parchment Book at London's Guildhall

The Great Parchment Book is the 'City of London Treasure of the Month' for May 2017. Three original folios are on display in the Guildhall's Heritage Gallery, showing the level of distortion of the surviving fire-damaged pages of the 1639 manuscript.

Guildhall Art Gallery, London EC2

A major survey of all the estates in Derry managed by the City of London, The Great Parchment Book of the Honorable The Irish Society represents an important resource relating to the Protestant colonisation of Ulster.

All 165 pages of the Book were damaged as a result of a fire at the Guildhall in 1786 but have been the subject of an extensive conservation and digitisation project by the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust, Derry City Council Heritage and Museums Service and London Metropolitan Archives.

The project has its own dedicated website – www.greatparchment book – where the people, places and livery companies mentioned in the book can be searched and pages viewed.

On Wednesday 31 May, a curator's talk will be presented at 10:30am in the Heritage Gallery of the Guildhall Art Gallery. It is free to attend but booking is required.