Course on European bookbinding 1450-1820

European Bookbinding 1450 - 1820
Tutor: Professor Nicholas Pickwoad

York Minster Library
23-27 November 2009

Maximum class number: 12
Course fee: GBP445

York Minster Library and Archive are delighted that Nicholas
Pickwoad has offered to come to York again to teach his
highly-regarded course on the History of European Bookbinding.

Course programme: The history of bookbinding is not simply the
history of a decorative art, but that of a craft answering a
commercial need. 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
developed throughout 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.

The course consists of two 90-minute sessions each morning which
take the form of illustrated lectures (over 800 pictures will be
shown).  Actual examples of the bindings are shown and discussed in
the afternoon sessions, making use of the historic bindings held at
York Minster's Library to supplement the pictures.  The participants
are expected to have a reasonable knowledge of bookbinding terms and
a basic knowledge of the history of book production in the period
under discussion.  The purpose of the course is to encourage an
awareness of the possibilities latent in the detailed study of
bookbindings and is thus aimed at all those handling books bound in
this period, but has particular relevance for those involved in the
repair and conservation of such materials.

This course will incorporate elements of the new glossary of
bookbinding terms being compiled by the Ligatus Research Unit at the
University of the Arts, London.  Nicholas Pickwoad, ACR, FIIC is a
highly-esteemed book conservator and Visiting Professor at the
University of the Arts, London.  He is Project Leader of the
Camberwell / St Catherine's Monastery Library, Sinai Project.

>From 1992 to 1995, he was Conservator at the Harvard University
Library.  He has been an Advisor to the National Trust on book
conservation since 1978.  He is also Director of Ligatus--a new
Research Unit of the University of the Arts, London and a recent
winner of the Plowden Medal for Conservation.

For bookings and further information please contact Jeni or Sandra
on +44 1904 557213 or e-mail suep<-at->yorkminster<.>org


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 23:2
                  Distributed: Thursday, May 28, 2009
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