Montefiascone Project

Montefiascone Project 2006

Montefiascone is a medieval walled city situated on a huge lake
about half way between Rome and Siena. Each summer conservators,
archivists, art historians, librarians, and others interested in the
history and the structure of the book, meet to participate in
classes which are held within the city walls. There are four week
long courses and participants may come for one or more weeks.

Summer School Programme 2006

Re-creating the medieval Palette
31 July-4 August, 2006

    Participants will study the history, chemistry and significance
    of the pigments used by the medieval artist. Rocks and minerals,
    plants and animal material will be studied and each of the
    colours will be made according to original recipes and painted
    out in traditional binding materials.

    No previous experience is necessary to do this course.

    Course Tutor:

        Cheryl Porter
        Freelance Conservator, England

Medieval Limp Vellum Book Structures: A North European Style
7-11 August, 2006

    This style of limp vellum binding is sewn through the cover with
    a rigid spine support, made from horn, wood or leather. The
    sewing is either link stitch or long stitch. Participants will
    make historical models, focusing on specific details, e.g. the
    use of a spine plate, signature make up, vellum guards and
    weaving over sewing thread   and study how these differentiate
    this structure and make it more durable than the more common
    limp structure with no spine support.

    Participants will need some basic bookbinding tools and some
    knowledge of binding would be helpful, but is not essential.

    Course Tutor:

        Adam Larsson
        Book Conservator at Uppsala University Library, Sweden

Archival and Account Book Bindings: History, structure, materials
    and decoration
14-17 August, 2006

    Participants will make a historic model, studying the sewing of
    the text block, endbands preparation, parchment cover, cover
    decoration with alum tawed strips and samples of decorated
    edges.

    Included in the week will be illustrated lectures on the Vatican
    Archives: a short historical introduction, main collections,
    binding styles etc.

    Some bookbinding experience is desirable, though not essential.

    Course Tutor:

        Enrico Flaiani
        Head of the Conservation Workshop of the Vatican Secret
        Archives

Syriac Bookbinding
21-25 August, 2006

    Syriac is the dialect of Eastern Aramaic, spoken in the early
    centuries of the Christian era in the area of Edessa, present
    day Northern Syria and Iraq and Southern Turkey. The week long
    course is an introduction to the history of the Syriac book.
    Through a series of lectures with slides and practical
    demonstrations, the student will gain an understanding of the
    construction of a Syriac binding including sewing, board
    preparation, endbanding and covering. All the necessary material
    required for making the book will be provided in order for
    participants to then re create the structure during the week.
    Participants will be required to bring some basic bookbinding
    equipment (to be specified). Some knowledge of the history of
    bookbinding is desirable, but is not essential. The course will
    be of interest to book binders, conservators, design binders and
    those interested in the history of the book. A pre course
    reading list is available.

    Course Tutors:

        John Mumford
        Head of Book Conservation at the British Library

        Caroline Checkley Scott
        Senior Conservator at the Wellcome Trust Library

        Nigel Allan
        Wellcome Trust

About the course tutors:

    Cheryl Porter set up the Montefiascone Project in 1994 and has
    been Director of the programme since its inception. She is a
    freelance conservator, teacher and researcher and has conducted
    workshops and lectured widely in Australia, Canada, the USA and
    Europe.

    Adam Larsson studied contemporary and historic book binding and
    book and paper conservation at the FolkHogSKola in Sweden and
    has since worked at the Uppsala University Library in book
    conservation.  He has lectured and conducted workshops
    throughout Sweden, the USA and Europe, and is a regular teacher
    at the North Bennet Street School in Boston, FHSK in Sweden and
    other European and North American centres. He is also interested
    in contemporary creative bookbinding and exhibits regularly in
    Europe and the USA.

    Enrico Flaiani is the Head of the Conservation Workshop at the
    Vatican Secret Archives, where his duties include the
    coordination of staff and the training of interns. He studied
    Medieval History in Rome and trained in conservation in Italy,
    Germany and Switzerland. He has also completed archive courses
    at the Vatican School of Palaeography and Diplomatics.

    John Mumford served a five year apprenticeship at the British
    Museum and subsequently helped 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 at St Pancras. John is currently the Head of Book
    Conservation at the British Library. He has taught at the London
    College of Printing, The Colchester Institute, as well as
    undertaking many workshops in the UK and abroad.

    Caroline Checkley Scott studied printing and bookbinding in
    Dublin, Ireland. She was appointed trainee book conservator at
    the British Library, London in 1991, where she worked at the
    House of Lords in the Palace of Westminster, and the Oriental
    and India Office Library and Records. Here she specialised in
    the conservation of early Christian manuscripts from the Middle
    East. In February 2001 Caroline started work at the Wellcome
    Library in the Preservation and Conservation Department with
    Tony Bish. In this year she became an accredited member of the
    Institute of Paper Conservation. She is now the Senior
    Conservator at the Wellcome Trust Library. She has lectured both
    nationally and internationally in Slovenia, Argentina and
    Brazil.

    Nigel Allan is the former Curator of the Oriental Collection of
    the Wellcome Library in London.

Costs: The cost of each course is UKP345.00 ($620.00) per week. This
includes all materials (except skins) and tuition, which is in
English. The programme is non profit making and any extra money is
used to buy materials for the Barbarigo library, the archives and
their collections.

Classes are from 9am to 1.30pm, and afternoons can be used for
private study or for finishing work, though many prefer to take
advantage of the spectacular setting to swim in the local, clean,
huge volcanic lake, or to explore the town, with its Romanesque and
late medieval architecture and friendly inhabitants. For much of the
time, the library will be open and participants may wish to help
with the cataloguing programme and other preservation / conservation
initiatives in progress.

For further information please contact

    Cheryl Porter
    7 Venice Lodge
    55 Maida Vale
    London W9 1SD, England
    <cheryl [at] caporter__co__uk>

More information is available at

    <URL:http://www.monteproject.com>
    barnea [at] foundationstone__org

For details of the Nicholas Hadgraft Montefiascone Scholarship for
2006, see <URL:http://www.conservation-by-design.co.uk/>


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 19:36
                Distributed: Wednesday, February 8, 2006
                       Message Id: cdl-19-36-013
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