Throw off those white gloves

I have never been persuaded of the use of white gloves when consulting manuscripts — in my experience, it is not just cumbersome, it can be positively harmful: you grip the page more tightly because of the lessened senstivity of touch and, in the process, are in danger of damaging the leaf. So I could only cheer when I read the advice from the British Library (advice, by the way, that I came across thanks to the twittering of ‘Richard Debury‘ — is that really his name?!).