Panizzi Lectures

Panizzi Lectures 2008

"Reading Bindings: Bindings as evidence of the culture and business
    of books"
A series of three lectures by Nicholas Pickwoad

This series of lectures looks at different aspects of bookbinding to
show how bindings can be interpreted and how physical evidence can
offer a key not only to the history of individual books and
bookbinding workshops, but also to a wider understanding of the
function and value of books.

At 18.15 in the Conference Centre, British Library, Euston Road.

Lecture 1
The Art of Bookbinding: bookbindings in art and art on a bookbinding
Wednesday 26 November 2008

    Explores through a number of specific examples how artists
    consciously used different types of binding in their paintings
    and sculptures with the intention of conveying specific
    meanings, and shows a rare sixteenth-century example of a work
    of art by an acknowledged artist used to decorate a binding.

Lecture 2
The binder who was not Vincent Williamson: working habits and their
    use in identifying who actually bound the book
Tuesday 2 December 2008

    Finishing tools have long been used to identify where and by
    whom books may have been bound, but by looking at the structures
    of the same books, it is often possible to identify the
    different individuals who made the books within the same
    workshop.

Lecture 3
On the deckle edge: indications of status and economy
Wednesday 10 December 2008

    When all paper was hand-made, the deckle edge was seen as an
    awkward inconvenience, to be removed to make books easier to
    handle and keep clean. The survival therefore of deckle edges on
    a bound textblock gives an important indication of the status of
    a binding within the booktrade, but their survival on other
    parts of a binding, such as endleaves and covers, can also offer
    clues to the economics of the book trade.

The Lecturer:

    D. Phil at Oxford University (1978), trained with Roger Powell
    and established a conservation workshop in Norfolk, England in
    1977.  In 1978 became Adviser on Book Conservation to the
    National Trust and in 1983 was appointed conservation consultant
    to the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Served
    on the Committee of the Institute of Paper Conservation
    (1977-88) and was editor of the Paper Conservator from 1984 to
    1989.   Lecturer on The History of European Bookbinding
    1500-1800  at the annual Rare Book School in the U.S. 1985-2003.
    Elected Fellow of the I.I.C in 1988 and was 1989 Rosenbach
    Fellow in Bibliography at the University of Pennsylvania.  Was
    Visiting Professor in the Columbia University School of Library
    Service, Conservation Education Program from 1990-92.   From
    1992-5 was Chief Conservator in the Harvard University Library.
    In 1993, gave the Homee Randeria Lecture in Bookbinding for the
    Bibliographical Society of Great Britain. Research fellow at the
    Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbuttel in 1996.  In 1998
    appointed Visiting Professor at the London Institute to lead the
    conservation project in the library of the monastery of St
    Catherine on Mount Sinai, Egypt (appointed full professor in
    2005).  Director of the newly-created research unit, Ligatus, in
    2007.

Free Admission  by ticket.  Book online at
<URL:http://boxoffice.bl.uk> or call +44 1937 546 546.


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 22:16
                Distributed: Sunday, September 21, 2008
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