Montefiascone Project

Montefiascone Project
Summer 2015

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 come together to work, to
learn and to enjoy this special place.  2015 is the 500th
anniversary of the death of Aldus Manutius, an Italian humanist
scholar and printer who founded the Aldine Press in Venice.  This
also coincides with 25 years of the conservation project in
Montefiascone.  To mark both of these events, two courses this year
focus on this period.  We plan to host an exhibition and evening
seminar on the Wednesday of week 3, 12 August 2015.

The summer 2015 programme is as follows:

Week 1:  July 27-31, 2015
Re-creating the Medieval Palette

    Through illustrated lectures, participants will examine the
    story of colour in medieval times.  The class will address the
    history, geography, chemistry and iconographic importance, and
    the actual techniques of colour manufacture, with special
    reference to manuscript painting.  Using original recipes,
    participants will make and paint out the colours.  No previous
    experience is necessary.

    Course tutor: Cheryl Porter

Week 2: August 3-7, 2015
Italian Stiff-Board Vellum Binding with Slotted Spine

    This course will explore the use of parchment as a covering
    material for stiff-board bindings.  Participants will recreate a
    vellum over boards binding of Hesiod's Works and Days printed by
    Bartolomeo Zanetti in Venice in 1537.  This style of binding was
    used in Venice ca. 1490 - 1670 and often characterized by the
    use of recycled vellum manuscripts applied flesh side out.  The
    binding features sewing supports covered with alum tawed
    patches; the vellum over the patches is cut away, creating small
    slots, which allow for greater flexibility in opening.
    Additional structural features, including transverse spine
    linings and a wide fore edge turn-in, help to balance the
    tension of the vellum on the boards and limit warping.

    Drawing on their recent study of similar bindings at the New
    York Public Library, the Newberry Library and the University of
    Chicago, course tutors will discuss how this binding style
    evolved and eventually fell out of use, providing an interesting
    case study of the economics and aesthetics of 16th and early
    17th century Venetian book production.

    Some knowledge and experience of bookbinding or book history
    would be useful, but is not essential.  All materials will be
    supplied at a nominal cost.  Participants will need to bring
    basic bookbinding tools.  The tutors will contact prospective
    students well in advance of the class with suggested readings
    and a list of recommended tools.

    Course Tutors: Scott W. Devine and Tonia Grafakos

Week 3: August 10-14, 2015
The Rylands Fontainebleau Aldine

Course Tutors: Caroline Checkley-Scott, Stefania Signorello and
Julianne Simpson

    The publishing legacy of the Aldine press includes scholarly
    editions of classical authors, the introduction of italic type,
    and the development of books in small formats that were read
    much like modern paperbacks.  The smaller pocket books may have
    been less expensive, but they could still be made luxurious with
    decoration added by hand and bindings embellished with gold.
    They quickly became popular and were collected throughout Europe
    by scholars, aristocrats and kings.  Special copies were also
    produced, printed on parchment instead of paper.

    This class will focus on a copy of an edition of the Greek poet
    Oppian, published in 1517, bound by the Royal Binder for Henri
    II King of France and part of the Royal Library at
    Fontainebleau.  Bound in full leather in the alla Greca style, a
    wooden boarded, Western /Greek style binding with claps and
    bosses, with gold finishing and hand painting, it is a complex
    book that would ordinarily take many weeks and a high level of
    binding skill to complete.  We will complete a beautiful book
    with many of the features, in the 5 half days (some may be
    longer), with full explanations, through a series of talks, of
    how the original would have been made.  Please note on this
    occasion, due to time restraints, it will not be a complete
    replica.

    Those with more advanced skills may achieve results closer to
    the replica.  All materials can be supplied at cost.Some
    previous binding skill is advantageous, but even those without,
    will finish with a wonderful book.  Follow our blog

        <URL:https://manutiusinmanchester.wordpress.com>

    The book is currently on display at the John Rylands Manchester
    in the Merchants of Print exhibition.

Week 4: August 17-21, 2015
An early Islamic binding

    Course Tutor: Kristine Rose

    This course will focus on a small 9th century Abbasid Qur'an
    from Cambridge University Library in an early historic binding.
    There are relatively few early Islamic bindings extant, fewer
    still that remain intact and attached to their textblock.  This
    manuscript provides the evidence and opportunity to explore the
    structure and materials of a codex which is probably from the
    third century A.H. / ninth century C.E.

    Participants will make a model of the structure, paying
    particular attention to the significant properties of the spine
    lining, board attachment and endbands, before undertaking the
    raised cord work decoration.  This technique is found in
    contemporary binding examples across both North Africa and
    northern Europe.The influence of Coptic binding traditions and
    the transmission of binding techniques during this period will
    be discussed.

    Lectures will be given by Dr Alison Ohta, Director of the Royal
    Asiatic Society.

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.  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
a consultant for a number of institutions with book, papyrus and
manuscript collections.  She has published many articles concerning
colour in manuscripts and has lectured in the USA, UK, Canada,
Australia and throughout Europe.

Scott W. Devine is the Marie A. Quinlan Director of Preservation and
Conservation at Northwestern University Library, where he has worked
since 2006.  He holds a Masters of Information Science with an
Advanced Certificate in Conservation Studies from the University of
Texas at Austin and received additional training in rare book
conservation at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and at
the Centro del bel libro in Ascona, Switzerland.  He is a
Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation of
Historic and Artistic Works (AIC).

Tonia Grafakos is the Chief Conservator at Northwestern University
Library, where she has worked since 2008.  She holds a Masters of
Information Science with an Advanced Certificate in Conservation
Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and was the Harper
Inglis Conservation Fellow at the Library of Congress.  Ms. Grafakos
participated in the Gulf Coast Recovery Project after the hurricanes
in Louisiana and Mississippi and has contributed to conservation
projects at the Pinos y Sarriera Archives in Vilassar de Dalt,
Spain.  She is a Professional Associate of the American Institute
for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC).

Caroline Checkley-Scott is Collection Care Manager at the University
of Manchester Library, also co-managing the Centre of Heritage
Imaging and Collection Care(CHICC).She has held posts at both the
British Library and Wellcome Library.  She has acted as Chair of the
Book and Paper Group for ICON.  Her research interests include the
conservation of early Christian manuscripts from the Middle East,
particularly the Syriac Book and the science of parchment.  She
teaches conservation and book history both nationally and
internationally.  She is a trustee of the National Manuscripts
Conservation Trust UK.

Julianne Simpson is Rare Books and Maps Manager at the John Rylands
Library, University of Manchester.  She has a first degree in
History from the University of Western Australia and Graduate
Diploma in Librarianship.  She previously worked in London, Oxford
and Melbourne and completed the MA in the History of the Book at the
University of London in 1997.  Her research interests include the
international book trade in the 16th century, in particular the
Plantin-Moretus archives in Antwerp.  She is also interested in the
study of libraries in the early modern period, annotated books and
the recording of provenance in library catalogues.  She has been
involved with the Monte project since 1994, supervising the
cataloguing of the library and archives.

Stefania Signorello has been a conservator at the Wellcome Library,
London for 12 years.  She has a Degree in Fine Arts, and then
studied Book and Paper Conservation at Palazzo Spinelli in Florence.
She has worked in Rome, Florence, Milan, Austria, Prague and London.
She held posts at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Theatre Museum,
at the Bodleian Library, and the Oxford University Archives.  Her
research interests include book history and book structures.  She
was Chair of the Book and Paper Group for ICON for 3 years.

Kristine Rose is Senior Conservator at the Chester Beatty Library in
Dublin and an accredited member of the Institute of Conservation.
Her research interests include the conservation of Islamic
manuscript material, early binding structures and the use of
pigments and dyes in medieval manuscripts.  Before moving to
Ireland, Kristine has worked at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge
as Assistant Keeper (Conservator of Manuscripts and Printed Books);
at the Chester Beatty Library with a particular focus on the Turkish
manuscript collection; and at Cambridge University Library.  She
graduated from the Conservation programme at Camberwell College of
Arts in 2002 and is a member of The Islamic Manuscript Association.

Alison Ohta is currently Director of the Royal Asiatic Society of
Great Britain and Ireland.  She completed her thesis at SOAS on
Mamluk bindings and has published and lectured extensively on the
subject.

The cost of the classes is: 445 British pounds per week and includes
all tuition(which is in English) and (most) materials.  The
Montefiascone Project is a not-for-profit organization, and all
extra monies are used to finance the cataloguing and the
conservation and preservation of the collection.

For further information or to register for one week or more, please
contact Cheryl Porter <chezzaporter<-at->yahoo<.>com>.  More information is
on the Montefiascone Facebook page, or website:

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


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 28:35
               Distributed: Wednesday, February 11, 2015
                       Message Id: cdl-28-35-013
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