When Cover Paper Meets Parchment: A Non-adhesive Variation of the Limp Parchment Binding

ABSTRACT

Thanks to Christopher Clarkson’s pioneering work on limp parchment binding, this structure has become an object of study in the international community of book conservators. An Italian late-sixteenth-century variation is presented here, found in a consistent number of volumes ascribed to the same hand from the same Renaissance private library, now preserved in the Marciana National Library (Venice, Italy). The binding combines the qualities of parchment and those of cover paper, a strong yet flexible material that is inserted in the endleaf area and considerably reinforces the text block/cover attachment. This study discusses the binding’s manufacturing details, its innovative and refined structure, its non-adhesive features and tested durability, and its potential as a present-day conservation binding model.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG

Dank der Pionierarbeit Christopher Clarksons, die er in Hinblick auf den flexiblen Pergamenteinband leistete, ist diese Einbandart in der internationalen Gemeinschaft der Buchrestauratoren viel studiert und erforscht. In diesem Artikel wird eine italienische Variante aus dem späten 16. Jahrhundert vorgestellt, die an einer Reihe von Bänden zu finden ist, welche derselben Hand und der gleichen Renaissance-Privatbibliothek zugeschrieben werden und jetzt in der Marciana-Nationalbibliothek (Venedig, Italien) aufbewahrt werden. Die Bindung vereint die Qualitäten von Pergament mit jenen von Umschlagpapier, einem starken und dennoch flexiblen Material, das im Bereich des Vorsatzes eingesetzt wird und die Verbindung von Buchblock und Einband erheblich verstärkt. In dieser Studie werden die Herstellungsdetails der Bindung, ihre innovative und raffinierte Struktur, ihre klebstofffreien Eigenschaften und überprüfte Haltbarkeit sowie ihr Potenzial als Modell für heutige Konservierungseinbände erörtert.

Keywords:

• Limp parchment binding
• Hand-made cover paper
• Non-adhesive binding
• Sixteenth-century Italian binding
• Melchior Guilandinus
• Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana

Schlüsselwörter:

• flexibler Pergamenteinband
• handgefertigtes Überzugspapier
• klebstofffreier Einband
• italienische Einbände des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts
• Melchior Guilandinus
• Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Claudia Benvestito, my long-time colleague in the Marciana Conservation and Preservation Department, for fruitful discussions and for her suggestions, and our intern Elisa Paro from Ca' Foscari University, Venice. I am also grateful to Conservation by Design Ltd., UK for supporting my participation in the second edition of the Paper Cover Workshop held by Christopher Clarkson and Jacques Brejoux at Moulin du Verger, France in 2008. The life and works of Melchior Guilandinus, with the history and composition of his library, have been the subject of my PhD research at the University of Udine, Italy, discussed in 2014.

Suppliers

Conservation by Design Ltd, 2 Wolseley Road, Kempston Bedford MK42 7AD, Great Britain. Tel: [phone], http://www.conservation-by-design.co.uk/ (Moulin du Verger CC2 Pasteless Cover Paper).

Notes

1 The degree of white L of the cover papers is between 74,99 and 81,72 while the same measure in the paper endleaves ranges between 85,63 and 90,13 the difference in colour ΔE, calculated on the basis of all the colour coordinates, is perceptible to the human eyes from a value equal to 5. Our results have a range between 8.16 and 12.54. The scientific analysis were carried out on six examples by Elisa Paro, preparing her MA thesis in Conservation Science and Technology for Cultural Heritage at Ca' Foscari University on the subject Board and Cover Paper in Historical Bookbindings: Study and Characterization. She used a Spectrophotometer CM-2600d, Konica Minolta Sensing, IN Japan, with a wavelength range between 360 nm and 740 nm.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Silvia Pugliese

Silvia Pugliese graduated as book and paper conservator from the European School for Conservators-Restorers of Book Materials in Spoleto, Italy in 1997. She spent two years as a freelance conservator at the conservation facilities of the Province of Trento, Italy. Since 1999 she has been working as book conservator in the Preservation and Conservation Department of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice, Italy. She spent 2010–2014 on sabbatical leave for a PhD in Bibliographical and Archival Sciences at the University of Udine, Italy, with a research on the sixteenth century library of the German scholar Melchior Guilandinus.