by Viviane Arnold, MSt. Modern Languages
As the term slowly is coming to the end we had another highlight in our History of the Book course. The class was taught by Andrew Honey, a Book Conservator from the Bodleian Libraries who gave us exciting insights in the method of bookbinding and showed us how the binding can tell details about the provenance of the manuscripts.
At the beginning Andrew introduced the handbook The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding by J.A. Szirmai which lays the fundament for an academic debate by providing specific methodological terms and a controlled vocabulary to describe bindings.
Afterwards, we looked at the bindings of seven manuscripts. The blogpost gives a short description of each object.
MS. Lyell 65
The Latin manuscript was written in Germany in the late 12th century. This manuscript is still in its first binding which is made of wooden boards with a white leather cover. Special features are the remaining of the tapes which were used for decorative aspects and the chain mark on the back of the cover. According to Andrew it seems to be likely that the manuscript was used in a monastery.
MS. Germ. e. 5
The next manuscript which was written in German and Latin is another brick shaped book which is the normal shape for a 12th century book. The binding is a left-to-right binding made from white pig skin. Within the binding there are printed pages from the 16th century in Latin. According to Andrew this is printing waste which was used to repair the volume. Furthermore, the object contains a repaired side strap. Those several layers of reparation show the history of the book within its binding.
MS. Lyell 60
This manuscript is in a remarkable good condition and has a gothic structure on its binding. The binding consists of wooden boards which are covered with white pig skin. The leather cover is made up out of two smaller leather pieces which are carefully sewn together. In the front we found a moveable bookmark which shows the continuing use of the book. There are two metal clasps on leather straps. One of the clasps is showing a lamp motive and was only added in the 20th century.
MS. Lat. liturg. e. 13
This small Latin manuscript has still its contemporary binding and is covered in a pink dyed sheep skin. It is a higher status book which can be seen in the four metal corner pieces and the center piece. Furthermore, it has two clasps with leather straps (one is missing).
MS. Lat. misc. d. 66
This interesting manuscript is an assemblage of five independent booklets which have been put together in the late 14th century. The fact that this is a later assembly is shown by the different sizes of the booklets and in the water damage that only appears on individual sides. The binding is a medieval parchment binding and the spine is made of thick leather. It is a more portable manuscript which was probably used privately. Another funny observation was a model letter for a student writing home for more money on page 69 recto.
MS. Douce 186
The next manuscript which we had looked at shows off in a contemporary paper binding of the 16th century. The paper binding is made from printed waste paper which is “clued” together. Furthermore, the binding has a beautiful and well-preserved closing mechanism. Henrike Lähnemann refers at this point to the Einbanddatenbank https://www.hist-einband.de/ which is a German resource to locate the binding with the help of the leather stamps.
MS. Digby 164
The last manuscript of the session was ordered by the Mst. student Matthew as a possible manuscript to examine on his History of the Book project. It is a Latin and Middle French manuscript from the 15th century. The manuscript from the Digby Collection was rebound in the 17th or 18th century for the purpose of the collection where a personal centre piece has been added. See the interesting and funny unboxing video
This interesting session on the History of the Book course gave us insights into the history of bookbinding. With the help of an expert, we had the rare opportunity to look at some remarkable manuscripts and to discover their history by looking at their bindings. The most important thing learned from the course is what Andrew Honey taught us: “Don’t ignore the binding!”. A sentence which we must keep in mind while working on our History of the Book projects.