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ABSTRACT
The knot-tack is a technique for sewing books on double supports which features a prominent knot settled over the centre of split-strap sewing supports. This method can be found in archive and library bindings, on manuscripts or printed-books, with stiff or limp covers.
Up until a few years ago, the knot-tack had only been observed in books from Austria and described by Eleonore Klee. Recent findings at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice (Italy), followed by new sightings in central Italy have opened the way to an expansion of Klee’s observations. Whilst the relationship between the Austrian and the Italian knot-tack sewing structures is not yet clear, this essay aims to describe, with the aid of pictures, the path of the thread in the making of the knot. It presents a number of possible applications for the book conservator, who can make effective use of the knot-tack sewing.
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
Die Knotenheftung ist eine Technik zum Binden von Büchern auf doppelte Bünde, bei der ein Knoten direkt in der Mitte eines geschlitzten Heftbundes ausgeführt wird. Diese Methode ist bei Archiv- und Bibliotheksbindungen, bei Manuskripten oder gedruckten Büchern, mit festen oder flexiblen Buchdecken zu finden. Bis vor einigen Jahren war die Knotenheftung nur in Büchern aus Österreich beobachtet und von Eleonore Klee beschrieben worden. Jüngste Ergebnisse in der Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venedig (Italien) und weitere neue Beobachtungen in Mittelitalien haben den Weg für eine Erweiterung der Beobachtungen von Klee geebnet. Während die Beziehung zwischen der österreichischen und der italienischen Knotenheftung noch nicht klar ist, soll in diesem Aufsatz die Fadenführung für die Herstellung des Knotens mit Hilfe von Bildern beschrieben werden. Es werden eine Reihe von Anwendungsmöglichkeiten der Knotenheftung für den Buchrestaurator vorgestellt.
Acknowledgements
In memory of Chris Clarkson, whose love for book structures has taught her so much during training and over time, the athor whishes to thank Nicholas Pickwoad first. Rosa Marulo, Claudio Ciociola and Stefano Zamponi for the textual expertise of the manuscripts, Richard Hopkins and the International Guild of Knot Tyers (IGKT), Ioanna Georgiou for information about Gratiadei. Not less she thanks Alberto Campagnolo, Maria Rosaria Castelletti, Gaia Petrella, Silvia Pugliese, Miriam Rampazzo.
Notes
1 Only one out of the eight Italian knot-tack bindings presented in this essay is seriously damaged.
2 Manuscripts which may present knot-tack sewing structures are: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, (Vatican City) Vat. Lat. 13690 and Vat. Lat. 13724; Staatsbibliothek (Berlin, Germany), Hamilton 99 and Hamilton 333; Beinecke Rare Book Library, Yale University, (New Haven, U.S.A.) ms. 266.
3 BNM, It. IX, 181 (6314), San Michele 101 (Merolla Citation2010: 97) and BNM, It. XI, 57 (6729), San Michele 98 (Merolla Citation2010: 95).
4 The two manuscripts were checked by Rosa Marulo, for the research project "CSC - Corpus dei Serventesi caudati", among the TLIon project -Tradition of Italian Literature online (TLIon 2019). The linguistic analysis revealed the provenance of BNM, It. IX, 181 (6314) from southern Tuscany and of BNM, It. XI, 57 (6729) from a Senese area.
5 Biblioteca Comunale San Gimignano (Siena, Italy), Inc. 18, Sancti Hyeronimi Epistulas ad eruditionem christianam, Venezia 1480.
6 Archivio Storico Comunale Todi (Perugia, Italy), Armadio III, scansia 8, AO 151 (1562). This invention led to the spotting of a series of 13 registers with knot-tack sewing structure, out of the 20 kindly checked by Maria Rosaria Castelletti (conservator at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana).
7 Biblioteca Provinciale dei Frati Minori (Firenze, Italy), BPF 10, fourteenth-century, probably bound in the second half of the fifteenth-century. Provenance: Montepulciano (Siena, Italy); Biblioteca Provinciale dei Frati Minori (Firenze, Italy), BPF 14, fifteenth-century. Provenance: Selva di Santa Fiora (Grosseto, Italy). Another Senese manuscript was pointed out by Jenny Hill who referenced Jane Greenfield’s finding in the Beinecke Rare Book Library (Dorsey, Citation1989: 13). But, there are not details to identify the book.
8 BNM, It. IX, 212 (6644).
9 The Kapitalbünde is rather exceptional and currently associated with German bookbinding, according to Szirmai (Szirmai Citation1999: 187–188). However, any other structural as well as material feature denotes that BNM, It. IX, 212 (6644) could have been bound outside Italy.
10 BNM, It. VI, 144 (5909).
11 BNM, It. VI, 144 (5909), is the only text not linguistically traceable back to central Italy: it may be better ascribed to a wide Venetian area. The technical features of this binding settle it somehow far away from the bulk of other Italian knot-tack bindings: the half packing of the sewing, skewed to one part of the strap; the thin thread used, although double; the apparently flat effect of the knot; the number and position of clasps, placed on the left board.
12 Either the Austrian bindings were not packed, according to my observation of Benediktinerstift, (Kremsmünster, Austria) CC 352 in Klee’s article, as of CC 354. Not treated for conservation, the latter is the only knot-tack sewing still visible in the monastery.
13 BNM, It. VII, 1869 (8134).
14 This technique was used for the sewing of two manuscripts from San Michele di Murano, now in the BNM, Lat. III, 115 (2746), San Michele 102 (Merolla Citation2010: 98); BNM, Lat. XIV, 115 (4710), San Michele 145 (Merolla Citation2010: 117) and for the BNM, It. VII, 1869 (8134). In addition, Nicholas Pickwoad has brought to my attention two bindings of Italian incunabula in the Biblioteca Comunale of Foligno (Perugia, Italy) and in the Huntington Library (Los Angeles, U.S.A.).
15 BNM, Diogenes Laertius, Vitae et sententiae philosophorum, Inc. 1246 [Rome 1472].
16 BNM Lat. XIV, 216 (4630).
17 In my opinion, the most interesting track to follow is the Venetian Antonius Gratiadei. From 1483 to 1491 abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Admont (Austria) where more than 40% of Austrian knot-tack have been found, Gratiadei was a collector of books and manuscripts. It is said about him that he loved books more than gems (Tournoy Citation1976: 39–48).
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Notes on contributors
Claudia Benvestito
Claudia Benvestito has been a book conservator at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice since 1999. From 1992 to 1995 she trained at the European Course for Conservators/Restorers of Book Materials in Spoleto, Italy. She studied under some of the leading specialists in the field including Christopher Clarkson, Nicholas Pickwoad, Anthony Cains, Tom and Sylvia Albro and Robert Futernick. She then trained at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Claudia is especially interested in the physical structure and behaviour of books and bookbindings. She has worked out solutions for the preservation and/or display of library's materials with the main aim of reducing the direct manipulation of each object while respecting its particular shape.