ABRACADABRA

French graphic designer Marion Bataille's ABC3D, a movable ABC Book, is due out in October 2008. The promotional video is set to the New Orleans-born Boswell Sisters' "Roll On, Mississippi, Roll On." What is it about movable books? Rufus Butler Seder's Gallop! is another historically-minded contemporary movable, influenced by the animal locomotion photography of Eadweard Muybridge. But perhaps the greatest "paper engineer" was German children's book designer Lothar Meggendorfer, whose International Circus is one of the most impressive panorama books ever created. In many of his educational children's books, Meggendorfer employed spiraled copper wires to promote easy movement of multiple actions from a single tab pull. Samples of his die-cut movable pieces and tab components are held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Special Collections Department. For those interested in panorama books with an edgy polemic, Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa creates cityscapes focused on failed urbanism.

Tools of the Trade

Summer vacation is here and book historians, armed with their tools, flock to research libraries. What sorts of tools, you might ask? Well, a tipometro (a typographic ruler), is an invaluable one for those interested in pre-standardization types. Both Alonso Victor de Paredes (circa 1680) and Martin-Dominique Fertel (1723) describe the instrument as one used by the typecaster for measuring type. Chinese manufacturer SEAGO makes a UV light wand that may be used to more easily see watermarks (product number SG-151). Canon's Powershot 1100 is a good, reliable, easy-to-use digital camera for taking no-flash photographs of books. Most special collections libraries stock their own book supports, futons, weights and snakes. But a favorite pencil is essential. Mine is the Mirado Black Warrior (HB 2). And now, after reading Martin Boghardt's "Druck-analyse und Druck-beschreibung, " I have a curious envy for the McLeod Portable Collator as it's very "Inspector Gadget."

[upper image: The McLeod Portable Collator/Photograph: Pamela Harris; lower image: tipometro/typometer, from the Argentinian "Museo Virtual de la Imprenta"]

Structures: Patmos Binding

Recent announcement for study opportunity:

Workshops on Historic Bindings, Patmos 2008
Monastery of Saint John the Theologian
Patmos, Greece

1-5, 8-12, 15-19 and 22-26 September, 2008
Deadline for applications: 30 July, 2008

The 11th century Greek Orthodox monastery of Saint John the Theologian is situated on the island of the Apocalypse, Patmos. It preserves one of the most important monastic libraries of the Christian world, containing a wealth of Greek bound manuscripts, early documents and printed books.

Following the success of the program of workshops organized by the conservation studio of the monastery in 2006 and 2007, we are pleased to announce the workshops on historic bindings for 2008. The conservation workshop of the monastery will be hosting four 5-day long seminars at its premises, during September 2008.

This year, along with 2 practical workshops on historic bookbindings we have been honoured by the Ligatus Research Unit of Camberwell College of Art (University of the Arts, London) who will be joining us to give 2 theoretical courses.

The practical workshops focus on the making of different styles of historic bindings. The theoretical courses have the subject: "Identification and recording of bookbinding structures for
conservation and cataloguing" (Ligatus). The aim of the theoretical classes is to project the information contained in bookbindings of the 15th-19th centuries through their analytical study.

The first 2 weeks will focus on Western European bookbinding (1 week of theory and 1 week of practical workshop) and the latter 2 on Greek-Byzantine bookbinding.

Each of the courses is offered individually, since they are structured as such, however we feel that students may benefit more from the program by combining each of the theoretical courses
with its corresponding practical one: Weeks 1 & 2 (Western European bookbinding) or Weeks 3 & 4 (Greek-Byzantine bookbinding).

The practical workshops offered will be conducted at the book conservation studio of the monastery. The theoretical courses will be held at the library of the monastery. The library holds many original Byzantine and Western bindings, which will be examined by the students and used to demonstrate the structures being discussed during the courses, as well as to
highlight conservation issues.

The cost of the courses is 520 Euros for each week. For the practical workshops all materials will be provided, however students will be asked to bring with them some basic bookbinding
tools. The courses will be given in English.

Classes will be starting at 09.00. There will be a coffee break at 10.30 and a lunch break at 13.00, where students are invited to eat with the monks at the monastery's refectory.
Classes continue after lunch until 17.00. After the classes there will be enough time to explore the island, to visit the cave of the Apocalypse or walk around the beautiful village of Chora.

The classes are open to 12 individuals (theoretical courses) or 8 (practical workshops) from the fields of book conservation, bookbinding, librarianship or palaeography and those interested in the history and the making of the book. 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. Good bookbinding skills are essential for the practical workshops. A basic knowledge of databases is also desirable for those who will attend the course of the fourth week. An analytical schedule of the theoretical classes is available upon request.

Description of Courses:

Week 1, European Bookbinding 1500 - 1800 (Theoretical course)
Tutor: Professor Nicholas Pickwoad (Ligatus)

1 - 5 September 2008

This course will follow European bookbinding from the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, using the bindings themselves to illustrate the aims and intentions of the binding trade. A large part of the course will be devoted to the identification of both broad and detailed distinctions within the larger groups of plain commercial bindings and the possibilities of identifying the work of different countries, cities, even workshops without reference to finishing tools. The identification and significance of the different materials used in bookbinding will be examined, as well as the classification of bookbindings by structural type, and how these types developed through the three centuries covered by the course. The development of binding decoration will be touched on, but will not form a major part of the discussion.

Week 2, Limp and Semi-limp Vellum Bindings (Practical workshop)
Tutor: Flavio Marzo
8 - 12 September 2008

Parchment has always been a very popular and versatile material, in the history of book making. It was used in the past mainly as a medium for writing but also as a sewing support or for spine lining and covering. In more recent times, it has become a material for conservation, mainly used as a covering material, due to its stability, strength and flexibility.

In this 5-day course we will produce some examples of bindings where the use of parchment will be the basis of the structures.

Based on true historical binding structures that originate from Italy and the broader geographic area of South-eastern Europe, we will produce 3 different long-stitch, limp and semi-limp vellum bindings, within the current concepts of conservation.

Limp and semi-limp book structures have been studied and developed by important leading conservators, such as Chris Clarkson and Prof. Nicholas Pickwoad. The Florence flood experience of the 1960s gave, during this emergency situation, a rare opportunity to study, many different book structures. It was apparent that limp structures in paper and parchment
were the most adaptable and resistant to the devastating effects of the flood. The flexibility of the structure, free from stiff and thick layers of glue on the spine and without the hindrance
of glued leather or parchment boards, gave better protection to the text block and resulted in simpler and less invasive subsequent conservation treatments.

Week 3, A practical introduction to Byzantine Binding (Practical workshop)
Tutor: John Mumford
15 - 19 September 2008

This 5-day course is an introduction to Byzantine bookbinding. The model that will be made is based on a 15th c. manuscript binding currently housed at the British Library, (Royal.1.A.xv -
Bible, St.Nilos commentaries). The workshop will include all the stages for the completion of the model. Through a series of practical demonstrations the student will gain an understanding of
the construction of a Byzantine binding which will include sewing, board preparation, endbands, and covering with leather. They will then embellish their bindings with blind tooled decoration,
drawing on the classic motifs used on historical Byzantine bindings, with finishing tools copied from original impressions. Finally, they will construct the edge pins and laced leather straps.

Week 4, Byzantine Bookbinding and Bookbinding Documentation
(Theoretical course)
Tutors: Dr. George Boudalis & Dr. Athanasios Velios (Ligatus)
22 - 26 September 2008

This 5-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 relation of these bindings with the early bindings of the Coptic and other Eastern Mediterranean cultures will
also be discussed. This session will consist of eight 90-minute PowerPoint presentations supplemented by hands-on sessions in which original bookbindings from the library of the St.John Theologian Monastery will be examined.

The second session will be run by Dr. Athanasios Velios and will deal with the data management and storage of bookbinding information. This session is updated this year to include recent advancements in the use of XML for recording bookbindings. Alongside a brief reference to the relational databases this session will mainly involve discussions on a) the semantic web
and XML, b) commercial and open source software options for XML documents, c) job advertising for XML database developers and administrators, and d) long-term preservation of digital XML data. A large part of this session will be devoted to the actual development and use of an XML schema for recording binding details. This session will consist of two 90-minutes presentations and eight 90-minutes hands-on workshops, at the end of which the students will have the chance to record bookbindings from the library of the Monastery using the XML schema that they created.

Applications for the courses should be made by email to Nikolas Sarris (i...@patmosworkshop.com) with the subject "Patmos Bookbinding Workshops 2008". The applicant must state the course/s he/she is interested in attending as well as a short biography, showing relevant experience with the subjects of the courses.

For more information please visit: www.patmosworkshop.com

or contact:

Nikolas Sarris
Supervisor of Book Conservation Studio,
St. John Theologian Monastery
Patmos, Greece

[Pictured above: Albrecht Durer, St. John Devouring the Book, woodcut Plate 9 from his Apocalypse (Latin edition, 1511)].