16th Century Archival / Stationery Bindings

Archival bindings, within the wide world of historical book structures, are very unique, and must be carefully analysed to be fully understood. Their creation and use are very different: they were ‘living’ structures, meant to grow (letters, new sections and parts added along many years), and not born as distinct defined codicological units like printed books. This peculiar nature has inevitably deeply influenced the craftsmanship of their making. Therefore, the conservation of those book structures requires an in depth understanding of their physical features and a specific knowledge essential when performing treatments that must be respectful and conservation based.

Course project

1. Practical and theoretical lessons in lab
2. Practical and theoretical lessons during the visit to the archive of Holy House in Loreto
3. Conservation treatment shadowing in the course

Who is the course aimet at?

This is an advanced class aimed at people who already have experience in the field of conservation.

Report

The course, designed with a strong hands-on, practical approach, explored, through the making facsimiles of historical archival examples, the features of 16th century leather archival bindings. The course has focus on each specific and unique structural feature, such as sewing, ‘tacketing’, ‘overbands/straps’, always analysing possible variations and the partecipants to become familiar with a unique and peculiar set of binding terminology. The course was implemented by guided tours to the Recanati Diocese Archive and the Archive of the Holy House in Loreto during which the srudents were able to examine original historical examples of archival bindings.