Ligatus Summer School

University of Udine Ligatus Summer School 2011

Identifying and recording bookbinding structures for conservation
    and cataloguing
Istituto Ellenico di Studi Bizantini e Postbizantini di Venezia
Venice (Italy)
26-30 September 2011

Tutors: Dr. G. Boudalis and Dr. A. Velios

Four positions are available due to last minute cancellations.
Deadline for new applications: 15 August 201 2011 ]

The 6th Ligatus Summer School, following the success of the courses
in Volos, Patmos, Thessaloniki and Wolfenbuttel, is to be held this
year in collaboration with the Istituto Ellenico di Studi Bizantini
e Postbizantini di Venezia. We are delighted to announce the summer
school in the historic city of Venice and particularly in the
Istituto Ellenico, which has a distinguished reputation in the field
of book studies. This year students will have the opportunity to see
bindings from historic collections in the city, including the
Biblioteca Marciana. With access to a range of important libraries
and the unique environment that the city offers, this year's summer
school will be a unique experience.

    <URL:http://www.ligatus.org.uk/summerschool>

Summer school context: The contribution that bindings can make to
our understanding of the history and culture of the book is often
neglected, but they can offer insights into the study of readership,
the booktrade, and the provenance of books which are often not
available elsewhere. In order to realise this potential, it is
important to understand not only the history of the craft but also
to learn how to record what is seen in a consistent and organised
way. Librarians, cataloguers, conservators, book historians and all
scholars who work with early books, need therefore to understand the
structure and materials of the bindings they encounter in order to
be able to record and describe them. Such descriptions of bindings
are not only valuable for the management of library collections,
pursuing academic research and making informed decisions about
conservation, but are also important for digitisation projects as
they can radically enrich the potential of image and text metadata.
It is our belief that bindings should be seen as an integral part of
the book, without which, our understanding of the history and use of
books is often greatly circumscribed.

The purpose of the summer school is to uncover the possibilities
latent in the detailed study of bookbinding and it mainly focuses on
books which have been bound between the fifteenth and the early
nineteenth century. While both courses concentrate in particular on
the structure and materials of bookbindings, each of the two courses
offered in this summer school looks at bindings from different
geographical areas and with a different approach. The first course
looks at the history of bookbinding as it was carried out in Europe
in the period of the hand press (1450-1830), with the opportunity to
look at examples from different collections during the afternoons,
while the second course looks at the development of bookbinding in
the eastern Mediterranean and gives hands-on training in how to
observe and record bindings, again working with examples from the
collections. Part of this course includes technical hands-on session
for the development of a digital documentation system for recording
bookbindings.

The courses are taught in English and each is open to 12
participants. Although the courses can be attended individually,
participants are encouraged to attend both courses in order to get a
more complete understanding of the issues discussed, through the
comparison of the wide range of bookbindings considered in each
week. Since these are not beginner-level courses, the participants
are expected to be familiar with bookbinding terminology and have a
basic knowledge of the history of book production in the periods
under discussion. A basic understanding of the use of databases is
also desirable for those who will attend the course in the second
week.

Description of course: This five-day course will be divided in two
interconnected sessions. The first session, run by Dr. Georgios
Boudalis, will focus upon the major structural and decorative
features of the Byzantine and post-Byzantine bookbindings and their
evolution in time and space. The relationship of these bindings with
the early bindings of the Coptic and other Eastern Mediterranean
cultures will be discussed, during lectures, slide-shows and
demonstrations of real bookbindings from Venetian collections. This
session will centre on the influences and comparisons of these
different bookbindings. It will consist of eight 90-minute computer
presentations supplemented by hands-on sessions. The second session
will be run by Dr. Athanasios Velios and will deal with the data
management and storage of bookbinding descriptions.

Alongside a brief reference to the relational databases this session
will mainly involve discussions on a) the semantic web and XML, b)
schemas and terminologies for bookbinding descriptions, c)
commercial and open source software options and d) methodologies and
workflows for surveying collection. A large part of this session
will be devoted to the actual development and use of a documentation
system for recording binding structures and the actual recording of
specific bindings. This session will consist of two 90-minutes
presentations and eight 90-minutes hands-on workshops. Basic
knowledge of database use is desirable for this course.

The courses are supported by Ligatus and the University of the Arts,
London, with generous help from the Istituto Ellenico. We have
therefore been able to reduce the cost of the course for this year
to Euro400.00, excluding travel, meals and accommodation.

A number of accommodation options will be provided to the
participants.

A detailed schedule of the courses can be sent upon request. For
information about registration please email Ewelina Warner
<e.warner<-a t->camberwell< . >arts< . >ac< . >uk> and mark the message subject with:
'Ligatus Summer School'.

A reading list will be sent to those who will attend the courses in
advance. New deadline for applications is 15 August 2011.

About the Istituto Ellenico:: The Hellenic Institute of Byzantine
and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice was founded in 1955 and is
housed in the building of the former Flanghinis College. The
Institute's main objective is to study Byzantine and Post-Byzantine
history focussing primarily on the history of Greek territories
under Latin domination, on the basis of Italian and in particular
Venetian archives and to publish the relevant historical sources.
Its old library (belonging to the former Flanghinis College)
includes 2,000 volumes produced by the Greek printing houses of
Venice from the 16th to the 18th century. Most of these old books
come from the printing houses of Glykis and Theodosiou, and are
mainly ecclesiastical works and school texts; the new library
includes 30,000 volumes. The library also holds 41 Byzantine and
Post-byzantine manuscripts from as early as the 12th century. The
Institute's archive holds an important collection of documents from
as early as 1498 which capture the history of Greeks in Venice. For
more information about the Institute see:

    <URL:http://www.istitutoellenico.org/>

About Venice in September 2011: Venice always offers a number of
great cultural activities including museums and churches. The summer
school coincides with the Venice Biennale exhibition which is
another good reason to join us this year. For a calendar of events
in Venice see:

    <URL:http://www.comune.venezia.it/
        flex/FixedPages/IT/Eventi.php/L/EN/YY/2011/MM/9/DD/1>

    **** Moderator's comments: The above URL has been wrapped for
    email. There should be no newline.

About Ligatus: Ligatus is a research unit of the University of the
Arts London with particular interest in the history of bookbinding,
book conservation, archiving and the application of digital
technology to these fields. Ligatus's main research projects
currently include the conservation of the books in the library of
St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai and the development of a
multi-lingual glossary of bookbinding terms. Find out more about
Ligatus at:

    <URL:http://www.ligatus.org.uk>


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