Montefiascone Project

Montefiascone Project
Summer 2011

Montefiascone is a small medieval walled city about 100 k (80 miles)
north of Rome, on Lake Bolsena. Since 1988 conservators and others
interested in books and their history have met here to work, to
learn about books and to enjoy this special place. The Montefiascone
Project is pleased to announce the programme for summer 2011 is as
follows:

Re-creating the Medieval Palette
July 25-29, 2011
Course Tutor: Cheryl Porter

    This class will study the colours (made from rocks, minerals,
    metals, insects and plants) that were processed to produce the
    colours used by artists throughout the medieval era. The focus
    will mostly (though not exclusively) be on manuscript art
    (Islamic and European) and participants will re-create the
    colours using original recipes. Illustrated lectures, will
    address the history, geography, chemistry, iconography and
    conservation issues. Practical making and painting sessions will
    follow these lectures.

Reconstructing an early medieval Islamic Book Structure
August 1-5, 2011 (Full)
Places available 8-12 August 2011.
Course Tutor: Marco di Bella (Assisted by John Mumford)

    Lectures on the early history of Islamic bookbinding by Sheila
    Blair and Jonathan Bloom:

    The course will offer the opportunity of reconstructing a model
    of the so-called "box binding" - the earliest known Islamic book
    binding structure (8th-12th century AD). Many unique fragments
    of this structure are preserved - mainly in Yemen and Tunisia,
    and also in a number of important collections elsewhere. The
    binding style has until now, only been associated with the
    Qur'anic (Koranic) text, and no known historic treatises
    describe such a structure. For this reason, the reconstruction
    of this bookbinding is based on the published examples, and on
    the direct study of the Yemeni collection.  Analysing different
    features and variations of the Yemeni fragments, participants
    will reconstruct one binding incorporating the most common
    features.

    Participants will be provided with basic textblock and wooden
    boards, will sew the textblock to the boards, construct the
    endbands using one or both of the historic examples, and
    finally, cover the book in leather. The cover will then be
    tooled (decorated). The model will be constructed using
    traditional materials and techniques. Participants will study
    the history of the study of this structure, the variations in
    its features, the strengths and weaknesses of the structure, and
    discuss the origins and developments of this intriguing binding
    as well as some puzzling features, still unexplained.
    Participants will be required to bring some basic hand tools (a
    list will be provided following registration). All materials
    will be provided at nominal cost. No previous experience of
    bookbinding is necessary to do the class and curators and
    custodians of collections are welcome to apply.

Conservation Techniques for Islamic Binding
August 8-12, 2011
Course Tutor: Kristine Rose (Elaine Wright lecturing)

    This workshop will provide an introduction to the specific
    considerations of conserving Islamic manuscript material.
    Through a series of focused sessions (including lectures by Dr
    Elaine Wright Curator of the Islamic collections at the Chester
    Beatty Library) and model-making, participants will examine
    individual components of Islamic book structures and discuss the
    ways they can be treated to best conserve them. Participants
    will  examine the conservation of Islamic manuscript material -
    sewing and spine linings, end boards, board attachment and
    covering, as well as produce a model conservation structure for
    Islamic bindings. The result will reflect modern conservation
    techniques, and take account of best-suited materials and
    ethical considerations.

Exploring the unique features of Spanish early modern account book
    bindings
August 15-19)
Course Tutor: Chela Metzger

    Books created for accounting form a separate branch of the
    bookbinding craft, and these bindings can be found in archives
    and libraries all over the world. By the 16th century, a unique
    style of account book binding had developed in the Spanish
    peninsula, with elements including elaborate and colourful
    mozarabic or mudejar geometric lacing as cover decoration, a
    substantial fore-edge flap, buttons of glass, ceramic, wood or
    leather, and loops of carefully twined leather.

    The class will complete a 16th century account book model, based
    on examples featured in Spanish History of the Book texts. The
    case material will be parchment, the overbands tanned leather,
    and the lacing patterns will be done with a combination of
    tanned and tawed leather, with the option for cochineal-dyed
    tawed lacing. The binding will include button and loop closures,
    with a variety of button options. Some time will be spent each
    day examining accounting and bookkeeping history as related to
    book structures, with an emphasis on information from accounting
    instruction manuals of the time, and depictions of account books
    and accounting in art.  We will examine conservation treatment
    of a stationer's binding, and to discuss potential conservation
    problems and solutions. The Barbarigo Library of Montefiascone
    has fascinating examples of Italian stationary bindings, as well
    as many binding that draw on elements of the stationary binding
    tradition, such as paper and parchment bindings. Participants
    will have time to create sample cards for different button,
    loop, ticketing and lacing styles, in addition to the Spanish
    account book model.

    Materials can be provided at a nominal cost and a list of hand
    tools required will be provided at registration. The class is
    designed to be fun and useful for the experienced
    binder/conservator and the interested but novice participant.

An electronic catalogue of the books in the Seminary Library is
underway and work continues each year with a small team of
volunteers, under the direction of Julianne Simpson (John Rylands
University Library). There will be an opportunity to visit the
library and learn more about its history, conservation, preservation
and the cataloguing work.

Tutors:

    Cheryl Porter has been Director of the Montefiascone Project
    since its inception in 1988. After graduating from Camberwell
    College (University of the Arts, London) she worked at
    University College London Paintings Analysis Unit, analysing the
    use of pigments in paintings and manuscripts. From 1992-2006 she
    worked as a freelance conservator, mostly for universities and
    learned institutions. She was Manager of Conservation and
    Preservation at the Dar al-Kutub (National Library and Archives
    of Egypt) and Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation 2007-2010 and is
    currently employed as a Consultant for a number of institutions
    with book, papyrus and manuscript collections in Egypt. She has
    published many articles concerning colour in manuscripts and has
    lectured in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and throughout
    Europe.

    Marco di Bella graduated from the "European Course for
    conservators- restorers of book materials" in Spoleto, Italy and
    subsequently joined the Conservation survey and first aid for
    the incunabula collection of the Franciscan monastery library in
    Dubrovnik, Croatia. In 2003 he was first employed by the St
    Catherine Foundation-Camberwell College of Arts, London for the
    St Catherine's Monastery Library Conservation Project. From
    2004-2006 he worked as Assistant Consultant of the Social Fund
    for Development (Sana'a, Yemen Republic) for the project
    "Enhancement of the conservation capacities of the manuscript
    libraries of Sana'a, Tarim and Zabid". During this time he was
    invited by UNESCO to give training courses on Islamic binding
    and conservation for conservators the Dar al-Makhtutat (house of
    the manuscripts) in Sana'a. In 2006 he was invited to join the
    Dar al-Kutub (National Library and Archives of Egypt) and
    Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation, where he is still involved. When
    he is not travelling abroad, he works as a book conservator at a
    number of conservation laboratories in Palermo, Italy.  He has
    recently been appointed conservation consultant for the National
    Archive of Libya in Tripoli.

    John Mumford is currently Head of Manuscript Conservation at the
    Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation in Cairo, Egypt. He was formerly
    Head of Book Conservation at the British Library. John served a
    five-year apprenticeship at the British Museum and subsequently
    helped to establish the Rare and Early Book Conservation Studio
    at the British Library. In 1992 he was appointed Manager of the
    Oriental and India Office Book Conservation Studio, furthering
    his study of early Oriental and Eastern binding structures. In
    1998 he became manager of the Oriental and Eastern Book
    Conservation Studio at the new British Library premises at St
    Pancras, London. He has frequently taught at Montefiacone and
    lectured and run workshops throughout the UK, Argentina, Patmos
    and many European locations.

    Kristine Rose is the Senior Conservator at the Chester Beatty
    Library, Dublin and an accredited member of the Institute of
    Conservation. Her work has focussed on Islamic manuscript
    material for a number of years. Prior to this she worked at
    Cambridge University Library on a wide range of Western rare
    book material, though with particular interest in Islamic
    binding structures. She has a degree in Conservation from the
    Camberwell College of Arts and is a member of The Islamic
    Manuscript Association.

    Dr Elaine Wright has been Curator of the Chester Beatty Library
    since early 1998. She holds an M.Phil and D.Phil from the
    Oriental Institute, Oxford University and is the author of a
    number of books including Islam,Faith, Art, Culture. Manuscripts
    of the Chester Beatty Library.

    Chela Metzger recently started as Conservator for Library
    Collections at the Winterthur Museum of Delaware, and became
    part of the conservation faculty at the Winterthur/Delaware
    Program in Art Conservation. She taught book conservation at the
    University of Texas from 2001-2010, and previously worked as a
    project conservator at the Huntington Library in San Marino,
    California. She is a graduate of the North Bennet Street School
    bookbinding program, with a background in librarianship, and
    taught a graduate seminar for nine years on "The History of the
    Book" at the University of Texas. She has collaborated with
    colleagues in Latin America for many years, teaching in
    Argentina, Chile, Peru, Guatemala and Mexico. She has a
    long-standing interest in account book binding and has taught
    stationers' binding workshops around the USA.

The cost of the classes is UKP445 UK ($700 US, 520 Euro) per week
and includes all tuition (which is in English) and most materials.
The Montefiascone project is a not-for-profit organisation, and all
extra monies are used to finance the cataloguing and conservation
and preservation of the collection.

For further information or to register for one or more weeks, please
contact Cheryl Porter: chezzaporter<-a t->yahoo< . >com. More information is
available at

    <URL:http://www.monteproject.com>


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:34
                Distributed: Thursday, January 13, 2011
                       Message Id: cdl-24-34-021
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