Montefiascone Project

Montefiascone Project
Summer 2016

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.  Participants come to enjoy
the medieval architecture, friendly people, a clean accessible lake,
books and scholarship.  The Montefiascone Project is a non-profit
making organisation, set up to fund the restoration of the Library
of the Seminario Barbarigo in Montefiascone.

Courses for Summer 2016:

    25-29 July 2016
    Re-creating the Medieval Palette

        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.  No previous
        experience is necessary.

        Course tutor: Cheryl Porter

    The Unicorn Binder
    1-5 August 2016

        This course will focus on the work of the Unicorn Binder, so
        named because of his use of a distinctive finishing tool cut
        to the design of a small woodland unicorn.  He is known to
        have bound at least seventy volumes between 1484 and 1505,
        of which eighteen are in Cambridge libraries.  His work can
        be securely placed in late fifteenth-century Cambridge,
        where several bindery workshops produced bindings of
        blind-tooled leather over wooden boards, with clasps to hold
        the volume closed.  The rich, warm, mahogany colour of the
        leather, seen on Cambridge bindings, sets them apart from
        the other main fifteen-century bookbinding centres of London
        and Oxford.  The tutors have examined extensively all
        eighteen Unicorn bindings in Cambridge libraries and have
        looked at more from other collections in the UK.  The
        Unicorn Binder successfully exploits the high quality
        materials at his disposal, both structurally and
        aesthetically, to produce some of the finest work seen in
        Cambridge bindings.

        The tutors will enable the course participants to recreate a
        binding based on the work of the Unicorn Binder.  Processes
        will include sewing the text-block, sewing endbands, shaping
        and attaching the boards and covering with leather.  The
        covered books will be blind tooled with replica finishing
        tools based on the Unicorn Binder's designs and have brass
        fittings and fixtures applied.  Complementing the practical
        aspect of the course the tutors will seek to set the binding
        into context.  The course will give an over-view of late
        English fifteenth-century structures and examine previous
        influences on their evolution and how they, in turn,
        influenced later bindings.

        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: Jim Bloxam and Shaun Thompson

    8-12 August 2016
    An al-Andalusian Islamic Binding

        From the 8th to the 15th century, the Iberian Peninsula was
        a cosmopolitan society governed by Muslims, where
        Christians, Jews and Muslims lived together.  The free
        exchange and influences between these cultures are reflected
        in the specific characteristics of the Andalusian book
        structure.

        In 1492 the kingdom of Granada surrendered to the Catholic
        monarchs and the period of Islamic rule in Spain came to an
        end.  The majority of books from the large libraries were
        burnt and destroyed, but a small number of manuscripts were
        hidden or moved to safer locations.

        The marriage of cultures exemplified by the Andalusian
        binding typology can be found in a number of the manuscripts
        that survive.  In this course, participants will make an
        accurate model of an exquisite example of the Andalusian
        binding structure, found recently in the village of
        Hornachos in the southwest of Spain.  Produced at the end of
        the 15th or beginning of the 16th century, this tiny
        devotional prayer manuscript contains a collection of
        prayers and chapters from the Quran along with a number of
        illustrations.  It is likely it was considered to have
        talismanic properties, providing protection to those who
        carried it.  Now held in the Extremadura Library, this
        manuscript demonstrates the significant variations made to
        sewing, endbands, treatment of the spine, and the covering
        process characteristic of the Andalusian structure.  It also
        bears witness to the Coptic heritage of Islamic binding
        traditions, and provides further evidence that the Islamic
        binding is not a casebinding structure.

        The course will be complemented by illustrated
        presentations, and a lecture by Dr Alison Ohta, Director of
        the Royal Asiatic Society in London.

        All materials will be provided though basic bookbinding
        tools will be needed.  Some knowledge of historic
        bookbinding would be helpful, but is not essential.

        Course tutors: Ana Beni, Kristine Rose (and Alison Ohta)

    15-19 August 2016
    Carolingian Binding

        The Carolingian binding style was used in western Europe
        from the seventh century and is often characterized by the
        paths of the slips of the sewing supports as they lace into
        the wooden boards.  This course will focus on the late
        Carolingian binding structure of a manuscript held at the
        Canterbury Cathedral Library Archives, written and bound in
        Canterbury in the late eleventh century.  Participants will
        recreate a model of the book in order to study and
        understand the distinctive features of a Carolingian
        binding, the historical influences upon it, and the ways
        that it differed from the structure of the Romanesque
        bindings that followed it.  The Canterbury binding features
        wooden boards of quarter-sawn oak, sewing supports of alum
        tawed leather, sewn endbands and tab ends, and a covering of
        alum tawed leather.

        All materials can be supplied at nominal cost.  Participants
        will need to bring basic bookbinding tools.  Some knowledge
        and experience of bookbinding or book history would be
        useful.

    Course tutor: Michael Burke

Biographies

    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.

    Jim Bloxam, Head of Conservation, Cambridge University Library,
    UK.  Jim is an Accredited Conservator of the Institute of
    Conservation.  His particular research interests lie mainly in
    the history of books; their structural qualities and their
    cultural context.  He has taught historical book structures in
    the UK, Europe and the US, focusing mainly on Romanesque and
    Gothic book structures.

    Shaun Thompson, Collection Care Manager, Cambridge University
    Library, UK.  Shaun has worked at Cambridge University Library
    since 2003 and during this time he has taken the opportunity to
    examine and recreate some of the medieval bindings within the
    library.  He has sought to share his knowledge and skills by
    teaching a number of practical workshops in the UK.  Shaun
    taught courses in 2013 and 2014 at Montefiascone and is looking
    forward to returning to share his ever-widening knowledge and
    experience.

    Ana Beny has been a freelance conservator since 1984.  She has
    worked for many prestigious Spanish institutions and treated
    diverse library items, but has always been dedicated to
    historical bookbinding.  Ana has worked on Islamic manuscripts
    from the Dar al-Kutub in Cairo, the Royal History Academy,
    Islamic Library of the Spanish Agency of Cooperation,
    Extremadura's Library, and several private collections in Spain.
    She has taught and lectured internationally, and now divides her
    time between Madrid and Cairo, where she works closely with the
    conservators at Dar al-Kutub.

    Kristine Rose Beers 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 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 the 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.

    Ana and Kristine have been working together on the importance of
    the Andalucian binding structure and its applications in
    contemporary manuscript conservation for a number of years.

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

    Michael Burke studied bookbinding with Dominic Riley and paper
    conservation with Karen Zukor.  Michael lives in the Lake
    District, where he teaches bookbinding.  In recent years he has
    taught and lectured at Society of Bookbinders conferences and
    seminars, and at Guild of Bookworkers meetings in the USA as
    well as teaching tours in Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil.
    Michael researches the structures of ancient and medieval
    bindings.  He has a Masters degree in the History of the Book
    from the University of London.

Costs: UKP445 UKP per week for all tuition (which is in English)

Scholarship: The Nicholas Hadgraft Montefiascone Scholarship is
awarded each year by Conservation-by-Design.  The successful
applicant will be offered UKP1000 (UKP) towards tuition and
accommodation for the Montefiascone course(s).  For further
information see Conservation-by Design website.

For further information, contact Cheryl Porter
<chezzaporter<-at->yahoo<.>com> or consult our website:

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

Maria Fredericks
Drue Heinz Book Conservator
Thaw Conservation Center
The Morgan Library and Museum
225 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016-3403
212-590-0379
Fax: 212-768-5673


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 29:36
                Distributed: Saturday, February 6, 2016
                       Message Id: cdl-29-36-015
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