Winter 2015 The Public ation of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Guild of Book W orkers Pressing Matter Message froM THe CHaPTer CHaIr More Collaboration! I hope this newsletter finds you all enjoying the holidays and not too stressed out. Tere have been plenty of fun activities since our last newsletter . I realize that when we have a collaborative book project going on, ther e is a flurr y of emails that I send out only to the participants. It might seem like we have had a few activ ities this past fall , when actual ly , it has been more of a whirlwin d. W e held our collation party in September and the 39 participant have either been busily binding or boxing their set of maps. Or, more likely, they have been contemplating what they will do with th eir maps! All this activity will culminate in an exhibit at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia openi ng on April 10, 2015. Mark your calen- dars! en members attended the Ethio- pian Bookbinding workshop in Octobe r. Bi ll Hanscom taught us three different bindings and it was an action packed weekend. Most of us even had “homework” and had to sew our books Saturday evening, in my case missing some of the World Serie s. Now , that ’s devot ion! See the article in the this newsletter. About a dozen members had a very stimulating tour at the Phila- delphia Museum of Art of a small exhibit titled “Te Art of the Book in South Asia” with the curator, Neeraja Poddar. She was impressed at questions we asked and the interest we took in the details of these amazing books, or in many cases, pages from books. Te books are on display in gallery 227 through February 2015. Jennifer Rosner Chapter Chair IthiiuSix Questions P2-3 Voynich Manuscript P4 Ethiopian Bookbinding P5 Girdle Book Model P7 Member News P9 Delaware Valley CHaPTer offICers JirChapter Chair aicautiVice Chair, Treasurer rrdSecretary DiCbPrograms Coordinator JsdNewsletter Designer Jsitz-lmmNewsletter Coordinator ViKmWebmaster ruth sctt BckMdilmbt Exhibitions Co-chairs Ctiptthatpjct.
The Publication of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers
Pressing Matter
Message froM THe CHaPTer CHaIr
More Collaboration
I
hope this newsletter finds you all enjoying the holidays and not too stressed out Tere have been plenty of fun activities since our last newsletter I realize
that when we have a collaborative book project going on there is a flurry of
emails that I send out only to the participants It might seem like we have had afew activities this past fall when actually it has been more of a whirlwind We held
our collation party in September andthe 39 participant have either beenbusily binding or boxing their setof maps Or more likely they havebeen contemplating what they willdo with their maps All this activity will culminate in an exhibit at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia openingon April 10 2015 Mark your calen-
dars en members attended the Ethio-
pian Bookbinding workshop inOctober Bill Hanscom taught usthree different bindings and it wasan action packed weekend Most ofus even had ldquohomeworkrdquo and had tosew our books Saturday evening inmy case missing some of the WorldSeries Now thatrsquos devotion See
the article in the this newsletter About a dozen members had a very stimulating tour at the Phila-delphia Museum of Art of a small
exhibit titled ldquoTe Art of the Book in South Asiardquo with the curator Neeraja PoddarShe was impressed at questions we asked and the interest we took in the details ofthese amazing books or in many cases pages from books Te books are on displayin gallery 227 through February 2015
Page 2 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
1
How long have you been a member
of the GBW I have been a member of the
GBW for a little under a year
2Where are you from originally
I am originally from a smalltown in Fauquier County VA(which is in Northern VA about anhour or two outside of DC)
3When did you realize you wantedto learn bookbinding
I read a book when I was quite young that had a book doctor asone of the main characters I lovedthe idea and when I was in collegeI realized book restoration was a viable career choice When I movedto Philadelphia two years ago Ifound a studio and started learning
4What is your favorite book struc-ture these days
At the moment I am intrigued bythe various bookbinding structuresused in Italy in the 15th century Tis is in part due to the woodenboards rampant clasp use and theintense focus on strong and durable
interior structures
5What are you working on rightnow
I am currently working on Te
Book of the Dead Te book is ap-proximately 2rsquo x 1 12rsquo (give or take)and needed some restoration and a box I can definitely say it is
the largest box I have ever made
6Tell us something about yourself that might surprise us
I am a big Detroit Lions fan even though I have neverlived in or even visited Detroit 983120
Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015 Page 3
1
How long have you been a member of the GBW
One year exactly
2Where are you from originally
I am originally from a small city in the North East of Englandcalled Durham It is famous for its Norman cathedral and 11th cen-tury castle
3When did yourealize you
wanted to learnbookbinding
I made a fewbooks while I was still living inEngland and wasexcited by thepossibilities of thebook form in myart practice I thentook a class inBook Structuresat yler School of
Art once I arrivedin Philadelphia Te class reallygave me a thirstfor learning moreabout bookbind-ing - making books repairing books and immersing myself in books
4What is your favorite book structure these days
Hmm I enjoy any type of Accordion it is so versatile and the
sculptural quality of the structure that requires no sewing is a bonus
5What are you working on right now
At work I am working on a few projects most notably a 34 re-back in calfskin leather of a ledger - the triple hinge system makes itespecially interesting In my studio at home I am working on a photo
album for my husbandrsquos 40th birthday
6Tell us something about yourself that might surprise us
I dabbled in tight wire walking in a past life 983120
Page 4 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
By Jon Sweitzer-Lamme
On July 10 the DVC GBW
and the Library Companyof Philadelphia co-hosted an
event at the Library Company delvingdeep into one of the most mysteriousbooks in the world Te MysteriousVoynich Manuscript Collaboration Yields New Insights talk was givenby Paula Zyats the Assistant ChiefConservator at Yale Universityrsquos Spe-cial Collections Te Voynich Manu-script donated to Yale in 1969 is a
book written in an unknown languageillustrated with surreal drawings ofunknown plants cavorting bathers andobscure cosmological diagrams Itsexact date and authorship is unknownalthough it is believed to be a productof Northern Italy
Zyatsrsquo talk introduced us to themanuscript itself and walked usthrough her process of conservation
and analysis which was funded by ateam making a documentary on theprocess Te textblock made of vellum was minimally conservedmdashit was inexcellent condition
Analysismdashincluding the first car-bon dating of this enigmatic docu-mentmdashdated the vellum as being frombetween 1404 and 1438 and the pig-ments as consistent with that period Tis information allowed the elimina-
tion of some suspected creatorsmdashsuchas Roger Bacon a friar and polymathfrom the 13th century and John Deean English mystic from the 16th cen-tury
Without hard evidence Zyats andthe audience speculated on its originsin a long and entertaining question andanswer session Zyatsrsquo theory is of aRenaissance Rain Man that the book was created by the severely autistic
child of a wealthy family Te wealth oftheories was astounding she said shehad been contacted by a person witha book-length treatise on the produc-tion of the book by aliens from Orion As she said much work remains to bedone but this research adds the firsthard facts to the speculation aroundthe manuscript in some time
Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015 Page 5
Ethiopian Bookbinding
By Jennifer Rosner
O ver the weekend of October
25th the DVC held a work-shop on Ethiopian book-
binding en students attended the workshop taught by Bill Hanscoma conservation technician for specialcollections at Harvard Library Bill is well-versed in Ethiopian bookbindingand is currently writing an essay to bepublished in the next volume of SuaveMechanicals Essays on the History of
Bookbinding At the beginning of the workshopBill showed images of Ethiopian bind-ings and explained the typical features Amazingly many of the features havenot changed for more than 1400 yearsHe showed some videos of the booksbeing made in a marketplace in Ethio-pia In one a man was working onthe ground applying paste to leather with his hand Next we examined
two Ethiopian bindings owned by theLibrary Company one rather largeand grand and the other very modestalmost primitive Now that we knewmore about how they were made andcould identify the various features welooked at them with new eyes It was very helpful for everyone to be able toexamine authentic examples
Ten we started working on our ownbooks We shaped and pierced woodenboards We made sewing ldquothreadrdquo bycutting a thin spiral out of a circle ofparchment and then moistening andtwisting it into one long strand Mostof us made three books with woodenboards one covered in leather one with a cloth wrapper called a ldquolebasrdquoand one with a parchment spine
oday Ethiopian bindings are stillmade with very few tools Unlike the
man in the video we did work at atable but tried to follow his techniqueotherwise For me it is always inspira-tional to make a historical model I tryto imagine how various binding fea-tures evolved over time and to considertheir purpose Was it structure deco-ration or tradition Whicheverit is having made my own modelhelps me know what I am lookingat and what is important when I
Page 6 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
By Bruce Bumbarger
W orking as a book conservatorin a college library dealingprimarily with 18thndash20th
century materials I have never beencalled on to create a medieval-style wooden board binding However when I saw the opportunity to attend a
three-day class in August at the FolgerLibrary covering the construction ofa model of a fifteenth-century girdlebook curiosity led me to sign up for the workshop Sponsored by the PotomacChapter of the Guild and taught byRenate Mesmer head of conservationat the Folger and a bookbinder witha reputation as an able instructor thecourse promised to be an informativeand fun way to spend a long weekend
Te girdle book for those who areunfamiliar with the term is a bookgenerally smallish in format bound in wooden boards and covered with leath-er that extends beyond the bottom edgeof the book to form a tail by which thebook can be carried either in the userrsquoshand or hung from their belt or girdleIn some examples the leather tail issimply left loose or tied into a knot It
may also be finished off with a wovenleather knot fashioned around a hardcore known as a urkrsquos head (prob-ably after the turban worn by medievalMuslims) Brass clasps were sometimesused to keep the book closed while be-ing carried
Te term beutelbuch (German forbag or pouch book) is also used to referto this style of binding
Te limited number of examples
currently found in libraries date fromthe mid-fifteenth to mid-sixteenthcenturies Much of what is knownabout the variations in appearance and
structure of girdle books comes fromobservation of contemporary paintingsand sculpture as there are only sometwenty-three extant copies Te pictori-al records show that when worn on thegirdle the book hung head downwardready to be flipped upright and openedfor reading ndash like a fifteenth centuryKindle Te books are often pictured in
Beutelbuch BootcampConstructing a Girdle Book Model
Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015 Page 7
the possession of clergy or saints mostof the known bindings cover religious works with a few protecting legaltexts It is generally assumed that they
were used as working texts by monksand scholars or perhaps by the occa-sional noblewoman to protect a prizedbreviary Given the relatively largenumber artworks picturing the booksit is somewhat mysterious as to whyso few copies have survived althoughmany may have been ldquorestoredrdquo beyondrecognition by later generations ofbinders
For our workshop we were instruct-ed to prepare a somewhat chunkylittle text block sewn on double-raisedcords With this and a recommendedkit of binding woodworking and met-alworking tools in hand five of us met with Renate at noon on a Friday after-noon and were escorted to the Folgerlab It soon became apparent that this would be a fairly fast-paced weekendas Renate directed us to quickly find a
bench set up our tools and assemblearound her bench It turned out thatprevious workshops she had offered onthe structure had been five days longShe told us that this time we were par-ticipants in a ldquogirdle book bootcamprdquo with much to cover in two and a halfdays
We began by making and sewingon endsheets with leather hinges after which we pasted up our bookrsquos spines
When dry we gently rounded the textblocks and put them in a bench pressSpines were glued up with gelatinand lined using linen cloth and pasteleaving the area at top and bottomunlined When the text blocks hadonce again dried we worked endbandsand then added linings at the top andbottom of the spine
We next turned to shaping our oak
cover boards with rasps and plane sothat the inner spine edge of the boardfit nicely into the angle of the textblock shoulder and the outer edgeformed a curve that continued the arc
of the text block spine We then drilledholes to accommodate the laced-incords used gouges and rasps to formchannels for the cords on the innersides of the boards laced on the boardsand left the books to sit under pressureovernight
Te following morning we appliedgelatin to the cords and board chan-nels and pulling all up firmly used wooden pegs to aid in holding the
cords in place It took a fine touch toget the tension on the cords just right After sawing the pegs flush with theboards we cut pared and affixed withpaste a strip of leather to the bottomedge of the boards and worked theleather turn-in around the board andendband
We used cheap leather splits forcovering that tore easily so par-ing called for a sharp knife and even
Page 8 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
pressure Making a paper pattern wecut our cover leather about two and ahalf times as long as the book heightand wide enough to wrap around the
boards with an allowance for turn-insPasting up the leather in an area thesize of the book and applying pasteto the book spine we then repastedthe leather before placing the frontboard on the skin and rolling the bookover so that it was wrapped up in theleather Making cuts in the leather toaccommodate the endband we workedthe turn-ins at the head of the bookSmoothing the leather around theforedges we cut it at the corners toform long tongues covering the insideface of the wooden boards We pastedand folded over the leather down thelength of the tail and around the bot-tom forming a finished edge
At this point late on Sunday after-noon we realized that wersquod ldquowashedoutrdquo as girdle book camp recruits Ourbooks looked like proper girdle books
but lacked clasps and the all-important urkrsquos head knot Renate graciouslyoffered to host those of us who couldreturn for another session so we leftfor home with instructions on formingthe urkrsquos head knot core wo weekslater we once again convened confi-dent that we would finish up in thelong day allotted for the work
Te best laid planshellip Despiteour efforts the design and work-
ing of brass sheet to form clasps andthe weaving of the urkrsquos head knotproved to be more than we could ac-complish in the single day We didleave with our clasp pieces cut shapeddrilled and in a state where we couldfinish up in our own shops We alsoreceived enough instruction that withquite a bit of frustration and severalfalse starts I was able to eventually
form an acceptable urkrsquos head knot
Despite the seeming lack of almostany practical application for my worklife the workshop proved to be a veryenjoyable experience Having beentrained in a German bookbindingtradition I was schooled to approachevery facet of a binding operation with strict (perhaps overly so) atten-tion to precision and detail Te girdle
book project combining steps whichat times called for that same degree ofprecision with others for which ldquogoodenoughrdquo results sufficed was a goodexercise in an intuitive approach tobookbinding which I often miss in myday-to-day work Underlying structure was all-important board edges hadto be shaped just-so the shaping andfitting of the clasp took a great deal ofcare but having some variation in the
thickness of the cover leather didnrsquotreally matter Observing Renatersquosapproach to teaching was also instruc-tive and I relearned lessons that areuseful as I work with students in myshop Many thanks to her and to DanPaterson of the Potomac Group whohelped to organize the sessions
anks also to Alice Austin for permis-sion to use the photographs that accom- pany this article
Page 2 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
1
How long have you been a member
of the GBW I have been a member of the
GBW for a little under a year
2Where are you from originally
I am originally from a smalltown in Fauquier County VA(which is in Northern VA about anhour or two outside of DC)
3When did you realize you wantedto learn bookbinding
I read a book when I was quite young that had a book doctor asone of the main characters I lovedthe idea and when I was in collegeI realized book restoration was a viable career choice When I movedto Philadelphia two years ago Ifound a studio and started learning
4What is your favorite book struc-ture these days
At the moment I am intrigued bythe various bookbinding structuresused in Italy in the 15th century Tis is in part due to the woodenboards rampant clasp use and theintense focus on strong and durable
interior structures
5What are you working on rightnow
I am currently working on Te
Book of the Dead Te book is ap-proximately 2rsquo x 1 12rsquo (give or take)and needed some restoration and a box I can definitely say it is
the largest box I have ever made
6Tell us something about yourself that might surprise us
I am a big Detroit Lions fan even though I have neverlived in or even visited Detroit 983120
Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015 Page 3
1
How long have you been a member of the GBW
One year exactly
2Where are you from originally
I am originally from a small city in the North East of Englandcalled Durham It is famous for its Norman cathedral and 11th cen-tury castle
3When did yourealize you
wanted to learnbookbinding
I made a fewbooks while I was still living inEngland and wasexcited by thepossibilities of thebook form in myart practice I thentook a class inBook Structuresat yler School of
Art once I arrivedin Philadelphia Te class reallygave me a thirstfor learning moreabout bookbind-ing - making books repairing books and immersing myself in books
4What is your favorite book structure these days
Hmm I enjoy any type of Accordion it is so versatile and the
sculptural quality of the structure that requires no sewing is a bonus
5What are you working on right now
At work I am working on a few projects most notably a 34 re-back in calfskin leather of a ledger - the triple hinge system makes itespecially interesting In my studio at home I am working on a photo
album for my husbandrsquos 40th birthday
6Tell us something about yourself that might surprise us
I dabbled in tight wire walking in a past life 983120
Page 4 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
By Jon Sweitzer-Lamme
On July 10 the DVC GBW
and the Library Companyof Philadelphia co-hosted an
event at the Library Company delvingdeep into one of the most mysteriousbooks in the world Te MysteriousVoynich Manuscript Collaboration Yields New Insights talk was givenby Paula Zyats the Assistant ChiefConservator at Yale Universityrsquos Spe-cial Collections Te Voynich Manu-script donated to Yale in 1969 is a
book written in an unknown languageillustrated with surreal drawings ofunknown plants cavorting bathers andobscure cosmological diagrams Itsexact date and authorship is unknownalthough it is believed to be a productof Northern Italy
Zyatsrsquo talk introduced us to themanuscript itself and walked usthrough her process of conservation
and analysis which was funded by ateam making a documentary on theprocess Te textblock made of vellum was minimally conservedmdashit was inexcellent condition
Analysismdashincluding the first car-bon dating of this enigmatic docu-mentmdashdated the vellum as being frombetween 1404 and 1438 and the pig-ments as consistent with that period Tis information allowed the elimina-
tion of some suspected creatorsmdashsuchas Roger Bacon a friar and polymathfrom the 13th century and John Deean English mystic from the 16th cen-tury
Without hard evidence Zyats andthe audience speculated on its originsin a long and entertaining question andanswer session Zyatsrsquo theory is of aRenaissance Rain Man that the book was created by the severely autistic
child of a wealthy family Te wealth oftheories was astounding she said shehad been contacted by a person witha book-length treatise on the produc-tion of the book by aliens from Orion As she said much work remains to bedone but this research adds the firsthard facts to the speculation aroundthe manuscript in some time
Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015 Page 5
Ethiopian Bookbinding
By Jennifer Rosner
O ver the weekend of October
25th the DVC held a work-shop on Ethiopian book-
binding en students attended the workshop taught by Bill Hanscoma conservation technician for specialcollections at Harvard Library Bill is well-versed in Ethiopian bookbindingand is currently writing an essay to bepublished in the next volume of SuaveMechanicals Essays on the History of
Bookbinding At the beginning of the workshopBill showed images of Ethiopian bind-ings and explained the typical features Amazingly many of the features havenot changed for more than 1400 yearsHe showed some videos of the booksbeing made in a marketplace in Ethio-pia In one a man was working onthe ground applying paste to leather with his hand Next we examined
two Ethiopian bindings owned by theLibrary Company one rather largeand grand and the other very modestalmost primitive Now that we knewmore about how they were made andcould identify the various features welooked at them with new eyes It was very helpful for everyone to be able toexamine authentic examples
Ten we started working on our ownbooks We shaped and pierced woodenboards We made sewing ldquothreadrdquo bycutting a thin spiral out of a circle ofparchment and then moistening andtwisting it into one long strand Mostof us made three books with woodenboards one covered in leather one with a cloth wrapper called a ldquolebasrdquoand one with a parchment spine
oday Ethiopian bindings are stillmade with very few tools Unlike the
man in the video we did work at atable but tried to follow his techniqueotherwise For me it is always inspira-tional to make a historical model I tryto imagine how various binding fea-tures evolved over time and to considertheir purpose Was it structure deco-ration or tradition Whicheverit is having made my own modelhelps me know what I am lookingat and what is important when I
Page 6 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
By Bruce Bumbarger
W orking as a book conservatorin a college library dealingprimarily with 18thndash20th
century materials I have never beencalled on to create a medieval-style wooden board binding However when I saw the opportunity to attend a
three-day class in August at the FolgerLibrary covering the construction ofa model of a fifteenth-century girdlebook curiosity led me to sign up for the workshop Sponsored by the PotomacChapter of the Guild and taught byRenate Mesmer head of conservationat the Folger and a bookbinder witha reputation as an able instructor thecourse promised to be an informativeand fun way to spend a long weekend
Te girdle book for those who areunfamiliar with the term is a bookgenerally smallish in format bound in wooden boards and covered with leath-er that extends beyond the bottom edgeof the book to form a tail by which thebook can be carried either in the userrsquoshand or hung from their belt or girdleIn some examples the leather tail issimply left loose or tied into a knot It
may also be finished off with a wovenleather knot fashioned around a hardcore known as a urkrsquos head (prob-ably after the turban worn by medievalMuslims) Brass clasps were sometimesused to keep the book closed while be-ing carried
Te term beutelbuch (German forbag or pouch book) is also used to referto this style of binding
Te limited number of examples
currently found in libraries date fromthe mid-fifteenth to mid-sixteenthcenturies Much of what is knownabout the variations in appearance and
structure of girdle books comes fromobservation of contemporary paintingsand sculpture as there are only sometwenty-three extant copies Te pictori-al records show that when worn on thegirdle the book hung head downwardready to be flipped upright and openedfor reading ndash like a fifteenth centuryKindle Te books are often pictured in
Beutelbuch BootcampConstructing a Girdle Book Model
Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015 Page 7
the possession of clergy or saints mostof the known bindings cover religious works with a few protecting legaltexts It is generally assumed that they
were used as working texts by monksand scholars or perhaps by the occa-sional noblewoman to protect a prizedbreviary Given the relatively largenumber artworks picturing the booksit is somewhat mysterious as to whyso few copies have survived althoughmany may have been ldquorestoredrdquo beyondrecognition by later generations ofbinders
For our workshop we were instruct-ed to prepare a somewhat chunkylittle text block sewn on double-raisedcords With this and a recommendedkit of binding woodworking and met-alworking tools in hand five of us met with Renate at noon on a Friday after-noon and were escorted to the Folgerlab It soon became apparent that this would be a fairly fast-paced weekendas Renate directed us to quickly find a
bench set up our tools and assemblearound her bench It turned out thatprevious workshops she had offered onthe structure had been five days longShe told us that this time we were par-ticipants in a ldquogirdle book bootcamprdquo with much to cover in two and a halfdays
We began by making and sewingon endsheets with leather hinges after which we pasted up our bookrsquos spines
When dry we gently rounded the textblocks and put them in a bench pressSpines were glued up with gelatinand lined using linen cloth and pasteleaving the area at top and bottomunlined When the text blocks hadonce again dried we worked endbandsand then added linings at the top andbottom of the spine
We next turned to shaping our oak
cover boards with rasps and plane sothat the inner spine edge of the boardfit nicely into the angle of the textblock shoulder and the outer edgeformed a curve that continued the arc
of the text block spine We then drilledholes to accommodate the laced-incords used gouges and rasps to formchannels for the cords on the innersides of the boards laced on the boardsand left the books to sit under pressureovernight
Te following morning we appliedgelatin to the cords and board chan-nels and pulling all up firmly used wooden pegs to aid in holding the
cords in place It took a fine touch toget the tension on the cords just right After sawing the pegs flush with theboards we cut pared and affixed withpaste a strip of leather to the bottomedge of the boards and worked theleather turn-in around the board andendband
We used cheap leather splits forcovering that tore easily so par-ing called for a sharp knife and even
Page 8 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
pressure Making a paper pattern wecut our cover leather about two and ahalf times as long as the book heightand wide enough to wrap around the
boards with an allowance for turn-insPasting up the leather in an area thesize of the book and applying pasteto the book spine we then repastedthe leather before placing the frontboard on the skin and rolling the bookover so that it was wrapped up in theleather Making cuts in the leather toaccommodate the endband we workedthe turn-ins at the head of the bookSmoothing the leather around theforedges we cut it at the corners toform long tongues covering the insideface of the wooden boards We pastedand folded over the leather down thelength of the tail and around the bot-tom forming a finished edge
At this point late on Sunday after-noon we realized that wersquod ldquowashedoutrdquo as girdle book camp recruits Ourbooks looked like proper girdle books
but lacked clasps and the all-important urkrsquos head knot Renate graciouslyoffered to host those of us who couldreturn for another session so we leftfor home with instructions on formingthe urkrsquos head knot core wo weekslater we once again convened confi-dent that we would finish up in thelong day allotted for the work
Te best laid planshellip Despiteour efforts the design and work-
ing of brass sheet to form clasps andthe weaving of the urkrsquos head knotproved to be more than we could ac-complish in the single day We didleave with our clasp pieces cut shapeddrilled and in a state where we couldfinish up in our own shops We alsoreceived enough instruction that withquite a bit of frustration and severalfalse starts I was able to eventually
form an acceptable urkrsquos head knot
Despite the seeming lack of almostany practical application for my worklife the workshop proved to be a veryenjoyable experience Having beentrained in a German bookbindingtradition I was schooled to approachevery facet of a binding operation with strict (perhaps overly so) atten-tion to precision and detail Te girdle
book project combining steps whichat times called for that same degree ofprecision with others for which ldquogoodenoughrdquo results sufficed was a goodexercise in an intuitive approach tobookbinding which I often miss in myday-to-day work Underlying structure was all-important board edges hadto be shaped just-so the shaping andfitting of the clasp took a great deal ofcare but having some variation in the
thickness of the cover leather didnrsquotreally matter Observing Renatersquosapproach to teaching was also instruc-tive and I relearned lessons that areuseful as I work with students in myshop Many thanks to her and to DanPaterson of the Potomac Group whohelped to organize the sessions
anks also to Alice Austin for permis-sion to use the photographs that accom- pany this article
Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015 Page 3
1
How long have you been a member of the GBW
One year exactly
2Where are you from originally
I am originally from a small city in the North East of Englandcalled Durham It is famous for its Norman cathedral and 11th cen-tury castle
3When did yourealize you
wanted to learnbookbinding
I made a fewbooks while I was still living inEngland and wasexcited by thepossibilities of thebook form in myart practice I thentook a class inBook Structuresat yler School of
Art once I arrivedin Philadelphia Te class reallygave me a thirstfor learning moreabout bookbind-ing - making books repairing books and immersing myself in books
4What is your favorite book structure these days
Hmm I enjoy any type of Accordion it is so versatile and the
sculptural quality of the structure that requires no sewing is a bonus
5What are you working on right now
At work I am working on a few projects most notably a 34 re-back in calfskin leather of a ledger - the triple hinge system makes itespecially interesting In my studio at home I am working on a photo
album for my husbandrsquos 40th birthday
6Tell us something about yourself that might surprise us
I dabbled in tight wire walking in a past life 983120
Page 4 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
By Jon Sweitzer-Lamme
On July 10 the DVC GBW
and the Library Companyof Philadelphia co-hosted an
event at the Library Company delvingdeep into one of the most mysteriousbooks in the world Te MysteriousVoynich Manuscript Collaboration Yields New Insights talk was givenby Paula Zyats the Assistant ChiefConservator at Yale Universityrsquos Spe-cial Collections Te Voynich Manu-script donated to Yale in 1969 is a
book written in an unknown languageillustrated with surreal drawings ofunknown plants cavorting bathers andobscure cosmological diagrams Itsexact date and authorship is unknownalthough it is believed to be a productof Northern Italy
Zyatsrsquo talk introduced us to themanuscript itself and walked usthrough her process of conservation
and analysis which was funded by ateam making a documentary on theprocess Te textblock made of vellum was minimally conservedmdashit was inexcellent condition
Analysismdashincluding the first car-bon dating of this enigmatic docu-mentmdashdated the vellum as being frombetween 1404 and 1438 and the pig-ments as consistent with that period Tis information allowed the elimina-
tion of some suspected creatorsmdashsuchas Roger Bacon a friar and polymathfrom the 13th century and John Deean English mystic from the 16th cen-tury
Without hard evidence Zyats andthe audience speculated on its originsin a long and entertaining question andanswer session Zyatsrsquo theory is of aRenaissance Rain Man that the book was created by the severely autistic
child of a wealthy family Te wealth oftheories was astounding she said shehad been contacted by a person witha book-length treatise on the produc-tion of the book by aliens from Orion As she said much work remains to bedone but this research adds the firsthard facts to the speculation aroundthe manuscript in some time
Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015 Page 5
Ethiopian Bookbinding
By Jennifer Rosner
O ver the weekend of October
25th the DVC held a work-shop on Ethiopian book-
binding en students attended the workshop taught by Bill Hanscoma conservation technician for specialcollections at Harvard Library Bill is well-versed in Ethiopian bookbindingand is currently writing an essay to bepublished in the next volume of SuaveMechanicals Essays on the History of
Bookbinding At the beginning of the workshopBill showed images of Ethiopian bind-ings and explained the typical features Amazingly many of the features havenot changed for more than 1400 yearsHe showed some videos of the booksbeing made in a marketplace in Ethio-pia In one a man was working onthe ground applying paste to leather with his hand Next we examined
two Ethiopian bindings owned by theLibrary Company one rather largeand grand and the other very modestalmost primitive Now that we knewmore about how they were made andcould identify the various features welooked at them with new eyes It was very helpful for everyone to be able toexamine authentic examples
Ten we started working on our ownbooks We shaped and pierced woodenboards We made sewing ldquothreadrdquo bycutting a thin spiral out of a circle ofparchment and then moistening andtwisting it into one long strand Mostof us made three books with woodenboards one covered in leather one with a cloth wrapper called a ldquolebasrdquoand one with a parchment spine
oday Ethiopian bindings are stillmade with very few tools Unlike the
man in the video we did work at atable but tried to follow his techniqueotherwise For me it is always inspira-tional to make a historical model I tryto imagine how various binding fea-tures evolved over time and to considertheir purpose Was it structure deco-ration or tradition Whicheverit is having made my own modelhelps me know what I am lookingat and what is important when I
Page 6 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
By Bruce Bumbarger
W orking as a book conservatorin a college library dealingprimarily with 18thndash20th
century materials I have never beencalled on to create a medieval-style wooden board binding However when I saw the opportunity to attend a
three-day class in August at the FolgerLibrary covering the construction ofa model of a fifteenth-century girdlebook curiosity led me to sign up for the workshop Sponsored by the PotomacChapter of the Guild and taught byRenate Mesmer head of conservationat the Folger and a bookbinder witha reputation as an able instructor thecourse promised to be an informativeand fun way to spend a long weekend
Te girdle book for those who areunfamiliar with the term is a bookgenerally smallish in format bound in wooden boards and covered with leath-er that extends beyond the bottom edgeof the book to form a tail by which thebook can be carried either in the userrsquoshand or hung from their belt or girdleIn some examples the leather tail issimply left loose or tied into a knot It
may also be finished off with a wovenleather knot fashioned around a hardcore known as a urkrsquos head (prob-ably after the turban worn by medievalMuslims) Brass clasps were sometimesused to keep the book closed while be-ing carried
Te term beutelbuch (German forbag or pouch book) is also used to referto this style of binding
Te limited number of examples
currently found in libraries date fromthe mid-fifteenth to mid-sixteenthcenturies Much of what is knownabout the variations in appearance and
structure of girdle books comes fromobservation of contemporary paintingsand sculpture as there are only sometwenty-three extant copies Te pictori-al records show that when worn on thegirdle the book hung head downwardready to be flipped upright and openedfor reading ndash like a fifteenth centuryKindle Te books are often pictured in
Beutelbuch BootcampConstructing a Girdle Book Model
Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015 Page 7
the possession of clergy or saints mostof the known bindings cover religious works with a few protecting legaltexts It is generally assumed that they
were used as working texts by monksand scholars or perhaps by the occa-sional noblewoman to protect a prizedbreviary Given the relatively largenumber artworks picturing the booksit is somewhat mysterious as to whyso few copies have survived althoughmany may have been ldquorestoredrdquo beyondrecognition by later generations ofbinders
For our workshop we were instruct-ed to prepare a somewhat chunkylittle text block sewn on double-raisedcords With this and a recommendedkit of binding woodworking and met-alworking tools in hand five of us met with Renate at noon on a Friday after-noon and were escorted to the Folgerlab It soon became apparent that this would be a fairly fast-paced weekendas Renate directed us to quickly find a
bench set up our tools and assemblearound her bench It turned out thatprevious workshops she had offered onthe structure had been five days longShe told us that this time we were par-ticipants in a ldquogirdle book bootcamprdquo with much to cover in two and a halfdays
We began by making and sewingon endsheets with leather hinges after which we pasted up our bookrsquos spines
When dry we gently rounded the textblocks and put them in a bench pressSpines were glued up with gelatinand lined using linen cloth and pasteleaving the area at top and bottomunlined When the text blocks hadonce again dried we worked endbandsand then added linings at the top andbottom of the spine
We next turned to shaping our oak
cover boards with rasps and plane sothat the inner spine edge of the boardfit nicely into the angle of the textblock shoulder and the outer edgeformed a curve that continued the arc
of the text block spine We then drilledholes to accommodate the laced-incords used gouges and rasps to formchannels for the cords on the innersides of the boards laced on the boardsand left the books to sit under pressureovernight
Te following morning we appliedgelatin to the cords and board chan-nels and pulling all up firmly used wooden pegs to aid in holding the
cords in place It took a fine touch toget the tension on the cords just right After sawing the pegs flush with theboards we cut pared and affixed withpaste a strip of leather to the bottomedge of the boards and worked theleather turn-in around the board andendband
We used cheap leather splits forcovering that tore easily so par-ing called for a sharp knife and even
Page 8 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
pressure Making a paper pattern wecut our cover leather about two and ahalf times as long as the book heightand wide enough to wrap around the
boards with an allowance for turn-insPasting up the leather in an area thesize of the book and applying pasteto the book spine we then repastedthe leather before placing the frontboard on the skin and rolling the bookover so that it was wrapped up in theleather Making cuts in the leather toaccommodate the endband we workedthe turn-ins at the head of the bookSmoothing the leather around theforedges we cut it at the corners toform long tongues covering the insideface of the wooden boards We pastedand folded over the leather down thelength of the tail and around the bot-tom forming a finished edge
At this point late on Sunday after-noon we realized that wersquod ldquowashedoutrdquo as girdle book camp recruits Ourbooks looked like proper girdle books
but lacked clasps and the all-important urkrsquos head knot Renate graciouslyoffered to host those of us who couldreturn for another session so we leftfor home with instructions on formingthe urkrsquos head knot core wo weekslater we once again convened confi-dent that we would finish up in thelong day allotted for the work
Te best laid planshellip Despiteour efforts the design and work-
ing of brass sheet to form clasps andthe weaving of the urkrsquos head knotproved to be more than we could ac-complish in the single day We didleave with our clasp pieces cut shapeddrilled and in a state where we couldfinish up in our own shops We alsoreceived enough instruction that withquite a bit of frustration and severalfalse starts I was able to eventually
form an acceptable urkrsquos head knot
Despite the seeming lack of almostany practical application for my worklife the workshop proved to be a veryenjoyable experience Having beentrained in a German bookbindingtradition I was schooled to approachevery facet of a binding operation with strict (perhaps overly so) atten-tion to precision and detail Te girdle
book project combining steps whichat times called for that same degree ofprecision with others for which ldquogoodenoughrdquo results sufficed was a goodexercise in an intuitive approach tobookbinding which I often miss in myday-to-day work Underlying structure was all-important board edges hadto be shaped just-so the shaping andfitting of the clasp took a great deal ofcare but having some variation in the
thickness of the cover leather didnrsquotreally matter Observing Renatersquosapproach to teaching was also instruc-tive and I relearned lessons that areuseful as I work with students in myshop Many thanks to her and to DanPaterson of the Potomac Group whohelped to organize the sessions
anks also to Alice Austin for permis-sion to use the photographs that accom- pany this article
Page 4 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
By Jon Sweitzer-Lamme
On July 10 the DVC GBW
and the Library Companyof Philadelphia co-hosted an
event at the Library Company delvingdeep into one of the most mysteriousbooks in the world Te MysteriousVoynich Manuscript Collaboration Yields New Insights talk was givenby Paula Zyats the Assistant ChiefConservator at Yale Universityrsquos Spe-cial Collections Te Voynich Manu-script donated to Yale in 1969 is a
book written in an unknown languageillustrated with surreal drawings ofunknown plants cavorting bathers andobscure cosmological diagrams Itsexact date and authorship is unknownalthough it is believed to be a productof Northern Italy
Zyatsrsquo talk introduced us to themanuscript itself and walked usthrough her process of conservation
and analysis which was funded by ateam making a documentary on theprocess Te textblock made of vellum was minimally conservedmdashit was inexcellent condition
Analysismdashincluding the first car-bon dating of this enigmatic docu-mentmdashdated the vellum as being frombetween 1404 and 1438 and the pig-ments as consistent with that period Tis information allowed the elimina-
tion of some suspected creatorsmdashsuchas Roger Bacon a friar and polymathfrom the 13th century and John Deean English mystic from the 16th cen-tury
Without hard evidence Zyats andthe audience speculated on its originsin a long and entertaining question andanswer session Zyatsrsquo theory is of aRenaissance Rain Man that the book was created by the severely autistic
child of a wealthy family Te wealth oftheories was astounding she said shehad been contacted by a person witha book-length treatise on the produc-tion of the book by aliens from Orion As she said much work remains to bedone but this research adds the firsthard facts to the speculation aroundthe manuscript in some time
Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015 Page 5
Ethiopian Bookbinding
By Jennifer Rosner
O ver the weekend of October
25th the DVC held a work-shop on Ethiopian book-
binding en students attended the workshop taught by Bill Hanscoma conservation technician for specialcollections at Harvard Library Bill is well-versed in Ethiopian bookbindingand is currently writing an essay to bepublished in the next volume of SuaveMechanicals Essays on the History of
Bookbinding At the beginning of the workshopBill showed images of Ethiopian bind-ings and explained the typical features Amazingly many of the features havenot changed for more than 1400 yearsHe showed some videos of the booksbeing made in a marketplace in Ethio-pia In one a man was working onthe ground applying paste to leather with his hand Next we examined
two Ethiopian bindings owned by theLibrary Company one rather largeand grand and the other very modestalmost primitive Now that we knewmore about how they were made andcould identify the various features welooked at them with new eyes It was very helpful for everyone to be able toexamine authentic examples
Ten we started working on our ownbooks We shaped and pierced woodenboards We made sewing ldquothreadrdquo bycutting a thin spiral out of a circle ofparchment and then moistening andtwisting it into one long strand Mostof us made three books with woodenboards one covered in leather one with a cloth wrapper called a ldquolebasrdquoand one with a parchment spine
oday Ethiopian bindings are stillmade with very few tools Unlike the
man in the video we did work at atable but tried to follow his techniqueotherwise For me it is always inspira-tional to make a historical model I tryto imagine how various binding fea-tures evolved over time and to considertheir purpose Was it structure deco-ration or tradition Whicheverit is having made my own modelhelps me know what I am lookingat and what is important when I
Page 6 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
By Bruce Bumbarger
W orking as a book conservatorin a college library dealingprimarily with 18thndash20th
century materials I have never beencalled on to create a medieval-style wooden board binding However when I saw the opportunity to attend a
three-day class in August at the FolgerLibrary covering the construction ofa model of a fifteenth-century girdlebook curiosity led me to sign up for the workshop Sponsored by the PotomacChapter of the Guild and taught byRenate Mesmer head of conservationat the Folger and a bookbinder witha reputation as an able instructor thecourse promised to be an informativeand fun way to spend a long weekend
Te girdle book for those who areunfamiliar with the term is a bookgenerally smallish in format bound in wooden boards and covered with leath-er that extends beyond the bottom edgeof the book to form a tail by which thebook can be carried either in the userrsquoshand or hung from their belt or girdleIn some examples the leather tail issimply left loose or tied into a knot It
may also be finished off with a wovenleather knot fashioned around a hardcore known as a urkrsquos head (prob-ably after the turban worn by medievalMuslims) Brass clasps were sometimesused to keep the book closed while be-ing carried
Te term beutelbuch (German forbag or pouch book) is also used to referto this style of binding
Te limited number of examples
currently found in libraries date fromthe mid-fifteenth to mid-sixteenthcenturies Much of what is knownabout the variations in appearance and
structure of girdle books comes fromobservation of contemporary paintingsand sculpture as there are only sometwenty-three extant copies Te pictori-al records show that when worn on thegirdle the book hung head downwardready to be flipped upright and openedfor reading ndash like a fifteenth centuryKindle Te books are often pictured in
Beutelbuch BootcampConstructing a Girdle Book Model
Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015 Page 7
the possession of clergy or saints mostof the known bindings cover religious works with a few protecting legaltexts It is generally assumed that they
were used as working texts by monksand scholars or perhaps by the occa-sional noblewoman to protect a prizedbreviary Given the relatively largenumber artworks picturing the booksit is somewhat mysterious as to whyso few copies have survived althoughmany may have been ldquorestoredrdquo beyondrecognition by later generations ofbinders
For our workshop we were instruct-ed to prepare a somewhat chunkylittle text block sewn on double-raisedcords With this and a recommendedkit of binding woodworking and met-alworking tools in hand five of us met with Renate at noon on a Friday after-noon and were escorted to the Folgerlab It soon became apparent that this would be a fairly fast-paced weekendas Renate directed us to quickly find a
bench set up our tools and assemblearound her bench It turned out thatprevious workshops she had offered onthe structure had been five days longShe told us that this time we were par-ticipants in a ldquogirdle book bootcamprdquo with much to cover in two and a halfdays
We began by making and sewingon endsheets with leather hinges after which we pasted up our bookrsquos spines
When dry we gently rounded the textblocks and put them in a bench pressSpines were glued up with gelatinand lined using linen cloth and pasteleaving the area at top and bottomunlined When the text blocks hadonce again dried we worked endbandsand then added linings at the top andbottom of the spine
We next turned to shaping our oak
cover boards with rasps and plane sothat the inner spine edge of the boardfit nicely into the angle of the textblock shoulder and the outer edgeformed a curve that continued the arc
of the text block spine We then drilledholes to accommodate the laced-incords used gouges and rasps to formchannels for the cords on the innersides of the boards laced on the boardsand left the books to sit under pressureovernight
Te following morning we appliedgelatin to the cords and board chan-nels and pulling all up firmly used wooden pegs to aid in holding the
cords in place It took a fine touch toget the tension on the cords just right After sawing the pegs flush with theboards we cut pared and affixed withpaste a strip of leather to the bottomedge of the boards and worked theleather turn-in around the board andendband
We used cheap leather splits forcovering that tore easily so par-ing called for a sharp knife and even
Page 8 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
pressure Making a paper pattern wecut our cover leather about two and ahalf times as long as the book heightand wide enough to wrap around the
boards with an allowance for turn-insPasting up the leather in an area thesize of the book and applying pasteto the book spine we then repastedthe leather before placing the frontboard on the skin and rolling the bookover so that it was wrapped up in theleather Making cuts in the leather toaccommodate the endband we workedthe turn-ins at the head of the bookSmoothing the leather around theforedges we cut it at the corners toform long tongues covering the insideface of the wooden boards We pastedand folded over the leather down thelength of the tail and around the bot-tom forming a finished edge
At this point late on Sunday after-noon we realized that wersquod ldquowashedoutrdquo as girdle book camp recruits Ourbooks looked like proper girdle books
but lacked clasps and the all-important urkrsquos head knot Renate graciouslyoffered to host those of us who couldreturn for another session so we leftfor home with instructions on formingthe urkrsquos head knot core wo weekslater we once again convened confi-dent that we would finish up in thelong day allotted for the work
Te best laid planshellip Despiteour efforts the design and work-
ing of brass sheet to form clasps andthe weaving of the urkrsquos head knotproved to be more than we could ac-complish in the single day We didleave with our clasp pieces cut shapeddrilled and in a state where we couldfinish up in our own shops We alsoreceived enough instruction that withquite a bit of frustration and severalfalse starts I was able to eventually
form an acceptable urkrsquos head knot
Despite the seeming lack of almostany practical application for my worklife the workshop proved to be a veryenjoyable experience Having beentrained in a German bookbindingtradition I was schooled to approachevery facet of a binding operation with strict (perhaps overly so) atten-tion to precision and detail Te girdle
book project combining steps whichat times called for that same degree ofprecision with others for which ldquogoodenoughrdquo results sufficed was a goodexercise in an intuitive approach tobookbinding which I often miss in myday-to-day work Underlying structure was all-important board edges hadto be shaped just-so the shaping andfitting of the clasp took a great deal ofcare but having some variation in the
thickness of the cover leather didnrsquotreally matter Observing Renatersquosapproach to teaching was also instruc-tive and I relearned lessons that areuseful as I work with students in myshop Many thanks to her and to DanPaterson of the Potomac Group whohelped to organize the sessions
anks also to Alice Austin for permis-sion to use the photographs that accom- pany this article
Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015 Page 5
Ethiopian Bookbinding
By Jennifer Rosner
O ver the weekend of October
25th the DVC held a work-shop on Ethiopian book-
binding en students attended the workshop taught by Bill Hanscoma conservation technician for specialcollections at Harvard Library Bill is well-versed in Ethiopian bookbindingand is currently writing an essay to bepublished in the next volume of SuaveMechanicals Essays on the History of
Bookbinding At the beginning of the workshopBill showed images of Ethiopian bind-ings and explained the typical features Amazingly many of the features havenot changed for more than 1400 yearsHe showed some videos of the booksbeing made in a marketplace in Ethio-pia In one a man was working onthe ground applying paste to leather with his hand Next we examined
two Ethiopian bindings owned by theLibrary Company one rather largeand grand and the other very modestalmost primitive Now that we knewmore about how they were made andcould identify the various features welooked at them with new eyes It was very helpful for everyone to be able toexamine authentic examples
Ten we started working on our ownbooks We shaped and pierced woodenboards We made sewing ldquothreadrdquo bycutting a thin spiral out of a circle ofparchment and then moistening andtwisting it into one long strand Mostof us made three books with woodenboards one covered in leather one with a cloth wrapper called a ldquolebasrdquoand one with a parchment spine
oday Ethiopian bindings are stillmade with very few tools Unlike the
man in the video we did work at atable but tried to follow his techniqueotherwise For me it is always inspira-tional to make a historical model I tryto imagine how various binding fea-tures evolved over time and to considertheir purpose Was it structure deco-ration or tradition Whicheverit is having made my own modelhelps me know what I am lookingat and what is important when I
Page 6 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
By Bruce Bumbarger
W orking as a book conservatorin a college library dealingprimarily with 18thndash20th
century materials I have never beencalled on to create a medieval-style wooden board binding However when I saw the opportunity to attend a
three-day class in August at the FolgerLibrary covering the construction ofa model of a fifteenth-century girdlebook curiosity led me to sign up for the workshop Sponsored by the PotomacChapter of the Guild and taught byRenate Mesmer head of conservationat the Folger and a bookbinder witha reputation as an able instructor thecourse promised to be an informativeand fun way to spend a long weekend
Te girdle book for those who areunfamiliar with the term is a bookgenerally smallish in format bound in wooden boards and covered with leath-er that extends beyond the bottom edgeof the book to form a tail by which thebook can be carried either in the userrsquoshand or hung from their belt or girdleIn some examples the leather tail issimply left loose or tied into a knot It
may also be finished off with a wovenleather knot fashioned around a hardcore known as a urkrsquos head (prob-ably after the turban worn by medievalMuslims) Brass clasps were sometimesused to keep the book closed while be-ing carried
Te term beutelbuch (German forbag or pouch book) is also used to referto this style of binding
Te limited number of examples
currently found in libraries date fromthe mid-fifteenth to mid-sixteenthcenturies Much of what is knownabout the variations in appearance and
structure of girdle books comes fromobservation of contemporary paintingsand sculpture as there are only sometwenty-three extant copies Te pictori-al records show that when worn on thegirdle the book hung head downwardready to be flipped upright and openedfor reading ndash like a fifteenth centuryKindle Te books are often pictured in
Beutelbuch BootcampConstructing a Girdle Book Model
Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015 Page 7
the possession of clergy or saints mostof the known bindings cover religious works with a few protecting legaltexts It is generally assumed that they
were used as working texts by monksand scholars or perhaps by the occa-sional noblewoman to protect a prizedbreviary Given the relatively largenumber artworks picturing the booksit is somewhat mysterious as to whyso few copies have survived althoughmany may have been ldquorestoredrdquo beyondrecognition by later generations ofbinders
For our workshop we were instruct-ed to prepare a somewhat chunkylittle text block sewn on double-raisedcords With this and a recommendedkit of binding woodworking and met-alworking tools in hand five of us met with Renate at noon on a Friday after-noon and were escorted to the Folgerlab It soon became apparent that this would be a fairly fast-paced weekendas Renate directed us to quickly find a
bench set up our tools and assemblearound her bench It turned out thatprevious workshops she had offered onthe structure had been five days longShe told us that this time we were par-ticipants in a ldquogirdle book bootcamprdquo with much to cover in two and a halfdays
We began by making and sewingon endsheets with leather hinges after which we pasted up our bookrsquos spines
When dry we gently rounded the textblocks and put them in a bench pressSpines were glued up with gelatinand lined using linen cloth and pasteleaving the area at top and bottomunlined When the text blocks hadonce again dried we worked endbandsand then added linings at the top andbottom of the spine
We next turned to shaping our oak
cover boards with rasps and plane sothat the inner spine edge of the boardfit nicely into the angle of the textblock shoulder and the outer edgeformed a curve that continued the arc
of the text block spine We then drilledholes to accommodate the laced-incords used gouges and rasps to formchannels for the cords on the innersides of the boards laced on the boardsand left the books to sit under pressureovernight
Te following morning we appliedgelatin to the cords and board chan-nels and pulling all up firmly used wooden pegs to aid in holding the
cords in place It took a fine touch toget the tension on the cords just right After sawing the pegs flush with theboards we cut pared and affixed withpaste a strip of leather to the bottomedge of the boards and worked theleather turn-in around the board andendband
We used cheap leather splits forcovering that tore easily so par-ing called for a sharp knife and even
Page 8 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
pressure Making a paper pattern wecut our cover leather about two and ahalf times as long as the book heightand wide enough to wrap around the
boards with an allowance for turn-insPasting up the leather in an area thesize of the book and applying pasteto the book spine we then repastedthe leather before placing the frontboard on the skin and rolling the bookover so that it was wrapped up in theleather Making cuts in the leather toaccommodate the endband we workedthe turn-ins at the head of the bookSmoothing the leather around theforedges we cut it at the corners toform long tongues covering the insideface of the wooden boards We pastedand folded over the leather down thelength of the tail and around the bot-tom forming a finished edge
At this point late on Sunday after-noon we realized that wersquod ldquowashedoutrdquo as girdle book camp recruits Ourbooks looked like proper girdle books
but lacked clasps and the all-important urkrsquos head knot Renate graciouslyoffered to host those of us who couldreturn for another session so we leftfor home with instructions on formingthe urkrsquos head knot core wo weekslater we once again convened confi-dent that we would finish up in thelong day allotted for the work
Te best laid planshellip Despiteour efforts the design and work-
ing of brass sheet to form clasps andthe weaving of the urkrsquos head knotproved to be more than we could ac-complish in the single day We didleave with our clasp pieces cut shapeddrilled and in a state where we couldfinish up in our own shops We alsoreceived enough instruction that withquite a bit of frustration and severalfalse starts I was able to eventually
form an acceptable urkrsquos head knot
Despite the seeming lack of almostany practical application for my worklife the workshop proved to be a veryenjoyable experience Having beentrained in a German bookbindingtradition I was schooled to approachevery facet of a binding operation with strict (perhaps overly so) atten-tion to precision and detail Te girdle
book project combining steps whichat times called for that same degree ofprecision with others for which ldquogoodenoughrdquo results sufficed was a goodexercise in an intuitive approach tobookbinding which I often miss in myday-to-day work Underlying structure was all-important board edges hadto be shaped just-so the shaping andfitting of the clasp took a great deal ofcare but having some variation in the
thickness of the cover leather didnrsquotreally matter Observing Renatersquosapproach to teaching was also instruc-tive and I relearned lessons that areuseful as I work with students in myshop Many thanks to her and to DanPaterson of the Potomac Group whohelped to organize the sessions
anks also to Alice Austin for permis-sion to use the photographs that accom- pany this article
Page 6 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
By Bruce Bumbarger
W orking as a book conservatorin a college library dealingprimarily with 18thndash20th
century materials I have never beencalled on to create a medieval-style wooden board binding However when I saw the opportunity to attend a
three-day class in August at the FolgerLibrary covering the construction ofa model of a fifteenth-century girdlebook curiosity led me to sign up for the workshop Sponsored by the PotomacChapter of the Guild and taught byRenate Mesmer head of conservationat the Folger and a bookbinder witha reputation as an able instructor thecourse promised to be an informativeand fun way to spend a long weekend
Te girdle book for those who areunfamiliar with the term is a bookgenerally smallish in format bound in wooden boards and covered with leath-er that extends beyond the bottom edgeof the book to form a tail by which thebook can be carried either in the userrsquoshand or hung from their belt or girdleIn some examples the leather tail issimply left loose or tied into a knot It
may also be finished off with a wovenleather knot fashioned around a hardcore known as a urkrsquos head (prob-ably after the turban worn by medievalMuslims) Brass clasps were sometimesused to keep the book closed while be-ing carried
Te term beutelbuch (German forbag or pouch book) is also used to referto this style of binding
Te limited number of examples
currently found in libraries date fromthe mid-fifteenth to mid-sixteenthcenturies Much of what is knownabout the variations in appearance and
structure of girdle books comes fromobservation of contemporary paintingsand sculpture as there are only sometwenty-three extant copies Te pictori-al records show that when worn on thegirdle the book hung head downwardready to be flipped upright and openedfor reading ndash like a fifteenth centuryKindle Te books are often pictured in
Beutelbuch BootcampConstructing a Girdle Book Model
Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015 Page 7
the possession of clergy or saints mostof the known bindings cover religious works with a few protecting legaltexts It is generally assumed that they
were used as working texts by monksand scholars or perhaps by the occa-sional noblewoman to protect a prizedbreviary Given the relatively largenumber artworks picturing the booksit is somewhat mysterious as to whyso few copies have survived althoughmany may have been ldquorestoredrdquo beyondrecognition by later generations ofbinders
For our workshop we were instruct-ed to prepare a somewhat chunkylittle text block sewn on double-raisedcords With this and a recommendedkit of binding woodworking and met-alworking tools in hand five of us met with Renate at noon on a Friday after-noon and were escorted to the Folgerlab It soon became apparent that this would be a fairly fast-paced weekendas Renate directed us to quickly find a
bench set up our tools and assemblearound her bench It turned out thatprevious workshops she had offered onthe structure had been five days longShe told us that this time we were par-ticipants in a ldquogirdle book bootcamprdquo with much to cover in two and a halfdays
We began by making and sewingon endsheets with leather hinges after which we pasted up our bookrsquos spines
When dry we gently rounded the textblocks and put them in a bench pressSpines were glued up with gelatinand lined using linen cloth and pasteleaving the area at top and bottomunlined When the text blocks hadonce again dried we worked endbandsand then added linings at the top andbottom of the spine
We next turned to shaping our oak
cover boards with rasps and plane sothat the inner spine edge of the boardfit nicely into the angle of the textblock shoulder and the outer edgeformed a curve that continued the arc
of the text block spine We then drilledholes to accommodate the laced-incords used gouges and rasps to formchannels for the cords on the innersides of the boards laced on the boardsand left the books to sit under pressureovernight
Te following morning we appliedgelatin to the cords and board chan-nels and pulling all up firmly used wooden pegs to aid in holding the
cords in place It took a fine touch toget the tension on the cords just right After sawing the pegs flush with theboards we cut pared and affixed withpaste a strip of leather to the bottomedge of the boards and worked theleather turn-in around the board andendband
We used cheap leather splits forcovering that tore easily so par-ing called for a sharp knife and even
Page 8 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
pressure Making a paper pattern wecut our cover leather about two and ahalf times as long as the book heightand wide enough to wrap around the
boards with an allowance for turn-insPasting up the leather in an area thesize of the book and applying pasteto the book spine we then repastedthe leather before placing the frontboard on the skin and rolling the bookover so that it was wrapped up in theleather Making cuts in the leather toaccommodate the endband we workedthe turn-ins at the head of the bookSmoothing the leather around theforedges we cut it at the corners toform long tongues covering the insideface of the wooden boards We pastedand folded over the leather down thelength of the tail and around the bot-tom forming a finished edge
At this point late on Sunday after-noon we realized that wersquod ldquowashedoutrdquo as girdle book camp recruits Ourbooks looked like proper girdle books
but lacked clasps and the all-important urkrsquos head knot Renate graciouslyoffered to host those of us who couldreturn for another session so we leftfor home with instructions on formingthe urkrsquos head knot core wo weekslater we once again convened confi-dent that we would finish up in thelong day allotted for the work
Te best laid planshellip Despiteour efforts the design and work-
ing of brass sheet to form clasps andthe weaving of the urkrsquos head knotproved to be more than we could ac-complish in the single day We didleave with our clasp pieces cut shapeddrilled and in a state where we couldfinish up in our own shops We alsoreceived enough instruction that withquite a bit of frustration and severalfalse starts I was able to eventually
form an acceptable urkrsquos head knot
Despite the seeming lack of almostany practical application for my worklife the workshop proved to be a veryenjoyable experience Having beentrained in a German bookbindingtradition I was schooled to approachevery facet of a binding operation with strict (perhaps overly so) atten-tion to precision and detail Te girdle
book project combining steps whichat times called for that same degree ofprecision with others for which ldquogoodenoughrdquo results sufficed was a goodexercise in an intuitive approach tobookbinding which I often miss in myday-to-day work Underlying structure was all-important board edges hadto be shaped just-so the shaping andfitting of the clasp took a great deal ofcare but having some variation in the
thickness of the cover leather didnrsquotreally matter Observing Renatersquosapproach to teaching was also instruc-tive and I relearned lessons that areuseful as I work with students in myshop Many thanks to her and to DanPaterson of the Potomac Group whohelped to organize the sessions
anks also to Alice Austin for permis-sion to use the photographs that accom- pany this article
Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015 Page 7
the possession of clergy or saints mostof the known bindings cover religious works with a few protecting legaltexts It is generally assumed that they
were used as working texts by monksand scholars or perhaps by the occa-sional noblewoman to protect a prizedbreviary Given the relatively largenumber artworks picturing the booksit is somewhat mysterious as to whyso few copies have survived althoughmany may have been ldquorestoredrdquo beyondrecognition by later generations ofbinders
For our workshop we were instruct-ed to prepare a somewhat chunkylittle text block sewn on double-raisedcords With this and a recommendedkit of binding woodworking and met-alworking tools in hand five of us met with Renate at noon on a Friday after-noon and were escorted to the Folgerlab It soon became apparent that this would be a fairly fast-paced weekendas Renate directed us to quickly find a
bench set up our tools and assemblearound her bench It turned out thatprevious workshops she had offered onthe structure had been five days longShe told us that this time we were par-ticipants in a ldquogirdle book bootcamprdquo with much to cover in two and a halfdays
We began by making and sewingon endsheets with leather hinges after which we pasted up our bookrsquos spines
When dry we gently rounded the textblocks and put them in a bench pressSpines were glued up with gelatinand lined using linen cloth and pasteleaving the area at top and bottomunlined When the text blocks hadonce again dried we worked endbandsand then added linings at the top andbottom of the spine
We next turned to shaping our oak
cover boards with rasps and plane sothat the inner spine edge of the boardfit nicely into the angle of the textblock shoulder and the outer edgeformed a curve that continued the arc
of the text block spine We then drilledholes to accommodate the laced-incords used gouges and rasps to formchannels for the cords on the innersides of the boards laced on the boardsand left the books to sit under pressureovernight
Te following morning we appliedgelatin to the cords and board chan-nels and pulling all up firmly used wooden pegs to aid in holding the
cords in place It took a fine touch toget the tension on the cords just right After sawing the pegs flush with theboards we cut pared and affixed withpaste a strip of leather to the bottomedge of the boards and worked theleather turn-in around the board andendband
We used cheap leather splits forcovering that tore easily so par-ing called for a sharp knife and even
Page 8 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
pressure Making a paper pattern wecut our cover leather about two and ahalf times as long as the book heightand wide enough to wrap around the
boards with an allowance for turn-insPasting up the leather in an area thesize of the book and applying pasteto the book spine we then repastedthe leather before placing the frontboard on the skin and rolling the bookover so that it was wrapped up in theleather Making cuts in the leather toaccommodate the endband we workedthe turn-ins at the head of the bookSmoothing the leather around theforedges we cut it at the corners toform long tongues covering the insideface of the wooden boards We pastedand folded over the leather down thelength of the tail and around the bot-tom forming a finished edge
At this point late on Sunday after-noon we realized that wersquod ldquowashedoutrdquo as girdle book camp recruits Ourbooks looked like proper girdle books
but lacked clasps and the all-important urkrsquos head knot Renate graciouslyoffered to host those of us who couldreturn for another session so we leftfor home with instructions on formingthe urkrsquos head knot core wo weekslater we once again convened confi-dent that we would finish up in thelong day allotted for the work
Te best laid planshellip Despiteour efforts the design and work-
ing of brass sheet to form clasps andthe weaving of the urkrsquos head knotproved to be more than we could ac-complish in the single day We didleave with our clasp pieces cut shapeddrilled and in a state where we couldfinish up in our own shops We alsoreceived enough instruction that withquite a bit of frustration and severalfalse starts I was able to eventually
form an acceptable urkrsquos head knot
Despite the seeming lack of almostany practical application for my worklife the workshop proved to be a veryenjoyable experience Having beentrained in a German bookbindingtradition I was schooled to approachevery facet of a binding operation with strict (perhaps overly so) atten-tion to precision and detail Te girdle
book project combining steps whichat times called for that same degree ofprecision with others for which ldquogoodenoughrdquo results sufficed was a goodexercise in an intuitive approach tobookbinding which I often miss in myday-to-day work Underlying structure was all-important board edges hadto be shaped just-so the shaping andfitting of the clasp took a great deal ofcare but having some variation in the
thickness of the cover leather didnrsquotreally matter Observing Renatersquosapproach to teaching was also instruc-tive and I relearned lessons that areuseful as I work with students in myshop Many thanks to her and to DanPaterson of the Potomac Group whohelped to organize the sessions
anks also to Alice Austin for permis-sion to use the photographs that accom- pany this article
Page 8 Delaware Valley Guild of Bookworkers PressIng MaTTers Winter 2015
pressure Making a paper pattern wecut our cover leather about two and ahalf times as long as the book heightand wide enough to wrap around the
boards with an allowance for turn-insPasting up the leather in an area thesize of the book and applying pasteto the book spine we then repastedthe leather before placing the frontboard on the skin and rolling the bookover so that it was wrapped up in theleather Making cuts in the leather toaccommodate the endband we workedthe turn-ins at the head of the bookSmoothing the leather around theforedges we cut it at the corners toform long tongues covering the insideface of the wooden boards We pastedand folded over the leather down thelength of the tail and around the bot-tom forming a finished edge
At this point late on Sunday after-noon we realized that wersquod ldquowashedoutrdquo as girdle book camp recruits Ourbooks looked like proper girdle books
but lacked clasps and the all-important urkrsquos head knot Renate graciouslyoffered to host those of us who couldreturn for another session so we leftfor home with instructions on formingthe urkrsquos head knot core wo weekslater we once again convened confi-dent that we would finish up in thelong day allotted for the work
Te best laid planshellip Despiteour efforts the design and work-
ing of brass sheet to form clasps andthe weaving of the urkrsquos head knotproved to be more than we could ac-complish in the single day We didleave with our clasp pieces cut shapeddrilled and in a state where we couldfinish up in our own shops We alsoreceived enough instruction that withquite a bit of frustration and severalfalse starts I was able to eventually
form an acceptable urkrsquos head knot
Despite the seeming lack of almostany practical application for my worklife the workshop proved to be a veryenjoyable experience Having beentrained in a German bookbindingtradition I was schooled to approachevery facet of a binding operation with strict (perhaps overly so) atten-tion to precision and detail Te girdle
book project combining steps whichat times called for that same degree ofprecision with others for which ldquogoodenoughrdquo results sufficed was a goodexercise in an intuitive approach tobookbinding which I often miss in myday-to-day work Underlying structure was all-important board edges hadto be shaped just-so the shaping andfitting of the clasp took a great deal ofcare but having some variation in the
thickness of the cover leather didnrsquotreally matter Observing Renatersquosapproach to teaching was also instruc-tive and I relearned lessons that areuseful as I work with students in myshop Many thanks to her and to DanPaterson of the Potomac Group whohelped to organize the sessions
anks also to Alice Austin for permis-sion to use the photographs that accom- pany this article
