This course will help you recognise, describe and analyse bindings made in Europe between the fifteenth and the eighteenth centuries. The aim of the course is to provide you with in-depth understanding of binding structures and different types of materials and decorative elements that are commonly to be found in heritage libraries in Europe and North America.
The sessions are divided into two complementary parts. A first part is built around a general overview with an overarching description of the binding process, regional variations and changes over time, in order better to appreciate the choices made by binders over the centuries. A second part is devoted to practical examples based on the analysis of case studies. This will involve examining numerous books preserved in the extraordinary collections of the Allard Pierson. This part is conceived interactively: participants can try their hand at identifying and explaining what they see in specific copies, encouraging exchanges within the group.
The approach is archaeological and aims to emphasise what specific structures or decorative choices can tell us about where and when a binding was made, how possessors wished to read, use and preserve a volume, how it evolved over time - and what all this can, in turn, tell us about the text, the edition and the rest of a book's context.
This course is especially suitable for PhD-students and early career researchers who want to specialise in the study of early modern books, as well as for curators and cataloguers who work with rare books. It requires a basic knowledge in book history and material bibliography and some previous experience with handling and working with old books. It can be followed together with Course 1: Expert Approaches to Book Archaeology: from paper to provenances, or separately.
Instructor:
Malcolm Walsby is professor of book history at the French National Library and Information Science School, Enssib, in Lyon. He is director of the Gabriel Naudé research centre, and co-founder of the Universal Short Title Catalogue. He is the author of a number of monographies and articles on history and the history of the book in Europe during the Renaissance, the latest being Booksellers and Printers in Provincial France 1470–1600 (Brill, 2021), Winner of the 2021 SCSC Bainton Prize for Reference Works. He currently coordinates the international research network Sammelband 15-16, devoted to the material study of printed volumes and book collections.
Practical information:
The course will consist of 12 hours of teaching (4 sessions) for a small group (max. 15 people) with hands-on work on rare books from the collections of the Allard Pierson.
Registration fee includes course material and coffee breaks. It does not include meals, housing or travel arrangements.
Schedule:
Thursday 4 and Friday 5 September, 9:30-16:30
For more information on the course (content and level), please contact Katell Lavéant.
