Summer Class 2024: Minimum Intervention, Conservation Techniques

A three-week course for practicing conservators is to engage with the theories, approaches, and techniques of minimum intervention, focusing on historical awareness and research-based decision-making. We will take no more than 8 students to ensure enough individual time with the instructor.

A book is made of several parts, and our goal as conservators is to preserve and protect each element, treating it as a complete object. The field of conservation has moved from the approach of extensive substitution, to one where the maximum historical components are conserved as-is; the role of the conservator is to maximize chemical and structural stability without compromising the original intention and context of the book. One of the conservators central to shifting this methodology and approach, Christopher Clarkson, said “Minimum intervention means minimum interference. Paradoxically, however, a book conservator needs to acquire considerable knowledge and experience before attempting to practice minimum intervention”.

Course project

The goal of this three-week course for practicing conservators is to engage with the theories, approaches, and techniques of minimum intervention, focusing on historical awareness and research-based decision-making. Students for this course will be familiarising themselves with a number of skills, including:

1. The use of unconventional tools, for example microdrill use in endband consolidation
2. Different kinds of support extension and consolidation
3. Sewing consolidation
4. Endband repair
5. Wooden and carton board repair
6. The ethics and techniques of working with fragments that are part of the book structure

Who is the course aimed at?

Due to the intensive, interactive nature of the course, we will take no more than 8 students so as to ensure enough individual time with the instructor. Applicants will be accepted based on their professional experience in book conservation, with priority given to those working with libraries/archives/museums, as this is not an introductory level course.

Report

Alternating between theoretical and practical lessons, this first edition of the Minimal Intervention course saw the participation of professional conservators from Mexico, Australia, China and Greece, who had the opportunity to deal with special techniques for the consolidation of the structural elements of the book, such as stitching supports, endbands and reused fragments and paper restoration without disbinding. Thanks to the valuable collaboration with the Historical Franciscan Library in Falconara, it was possible to closely analyse particular cases and work on precious 15th century incunabula.

The course was implemented by guided tours to the Historical Franciscan Library in Falconara and the Museum of Paper and Watermark in Fabriano during which the students had the opportunity to try the art of papermaking. During these three weeks, a true working team was created, which, by comparing and sharing its experiences, contributed day by day to professional and personal growth.