Illuminated Manuscripts: Hands on project 2

Quire holes visible on spine – Coptic binding – see Pintrest

Difference between flesh and inside? MS 242 Fitzwilliam Library University of Cambrige

Hello

This week we are making quires. Even though I am a bookbinder there is still much to learn, and this course (Deciphering Illuminated Manuscripts) is making me pay attention. The vocab is slightly different to what I am used to, but then again so is the subject. I have Szirmai’s excellent book: The Archeology of medieval bookbinding, which concentrates on the bindings of the period we are studying. I would recommend it to any student of the medieval period.

Anyway onto the folding. As a bookbinder I use a bone folder and you will see me cut the folded edge in some quires, because that is what I would normally do to stop it puckering in the middle.

Esta semana estamos haciendo quires. Aunque soy un encuadernador, todavía hay mucho que aprender, y este curso (Descifrando manuscritos iluminados) me está haciendo prestar atención. El vocabulario es ligeramente diferente al que estoy acostumbrado, pero de nuevo también lo es el tema. Tengo el excelente libro de Szirmai: La arqueología de la encuadernación medieval, que se concentra en las encuardenaciones del período que estamos estudiando. Se lo recomendaría a cualquier estudiante de la época medieval. De todo manera en plegado. Como encuadernadora, uso una plegadora de hueso y me verán cortar el borde doblado en algunos cuadernos, porque eso es lo que normalmente haría para evitar que se arrugue en el medio

Cette semaine, nous faisons des “quires”. Même si je suis relieur, il y a encore beaucoup à apprendre, et ce cours (Déchiffrer les manuscrits enluminés) me fait prêter attention. Le vocabulaire est légèrement différent de ce à quoi je suis habitué, mais le sujet aussi. J’ai l’excellent livre de Szirmai: L’archéologie de la reliure médiévale, qui se concentre sur les reliures de la période que nous étudions. Je le recommanderais à tout étudiant de la période médiévale.Quoi qu’il en soit sur le pliage. En tant que relieur, j’utilise un plioir en os et vous me verrez couper le bord plié dans certains cahiers, car c’est ce que je ferais normalement pour l’empêcher de plisser au milieu.

Flesh side up – carne hacia arriba – côté chair vers le haut

All the quires, some with tackets

Now that I have taken the pictures, I can see that they don’t tell the story.First I decided to place all the sheets the same way up. For me the flesh side was rougher. Then I proceeded to fold them using Gregory’s Law, that is flesh to flesh, hair to hair various combinations:

Ahora que he tomado las fotos, puedo ver que no cuentan la historia. Primero decidí colocar todas las hojas de la misma manera. Para mí, el lado de la carne era más duro. Luego procedí a doblarlos usando la Ley de Gregory, que es carne a carne, pelo a pelo  de varias combinaciones:

Maintenant que j’ai pris les photos, je peux voir qu’elles ne racontent pas l’histoire. J’ai d’abord décidé de placer toutes les feuilles de la même manière. Pour moi, le côté chair était plus rugueux. Ensuite, j’ai procédé à leur pliage en utilisant la loi de Grégoire, c’est-à-dire chair à chair, cheveux à cheveux en diverses combinaisons:

1

I folded in-quarto, that is twice. After the first fold I cut the spine, then folded it again to produce the quartenio. I cut it because otherwise the second fold would produce some puckering.

Doblé en el cuarto, eso es dos veces. Después del primer doblez, corté el plegado y luego la volví a doblar para producir el cuarteto. Lo corté porque, de lo contrario, el segundo pliegue produciría algunas arrugas

J’ai plié en-quarto, c’est deux fois. Après le premier pli, j’ai coupé la pliure, puis je l’ai repliée pour produire le quartenio. Je l’ai coupé car sinon le deuxième pli produirait un plissement

2. I folded the sheet in-quarto and cut the fold halfway, to reduce puckering. I can’t turn all the pages, so will have to do the imposition later

Doblé el papel en el cuarto y corté el pliegue hasta la mitad, para reducir las arrugas. No puedo pasar todas las páginas, así que tendré que hacer la imposición más tarde

J’ai plié la feuille in-quarto et coupé le pli à mi-chemin, pour réduire le plissement. Je ne peux pas tourner toutes les pages, je devrai donc faire l’imposition plus tard

3.

I cut the sheet in half and then folded each sheet and put them together.

Corté la hoja por la mitad y luego doblé cada hoja y las puse juntas.

J’ai coupé la feuille en deux, puis j’ai plié chaque feuille et je les ai assemblées.

4.

Here you can see that I have an extra page with a fold. I made an irregular quire by adding one page, not two.

Aquí puedes ver que tengo una página adicional con un pliegue. Hice un trabajo irregular agregando una página, no dos.

Ici, vous pouvez voir que j’ai une page supplémentaire avec un pli. J’ai fait un quire irrégulier en ajoutant une page, pas deux

5.

I made different tackets for the quires. Tackets are used to keep the pages together until the scribe is ready to use the quire

Hice diferentes ‘tackets’ para los quires. Los ‘tackets’ se usan para mantener las páginas juntas hasta que el escriba esté listo para usar el requisito

J’ai fait différentes taquettes pour les quires. Les taquettes sont utilisés pour garder les pages ensemble jusqu’à ce que le scribe soit prêt à utiliser le quire

If you click here you will see a video on You tube.

Thanks

 

What’s wrong with this book, part secundus.

Two versions

“It’s alright like that; it’ll look handmade.”

How many times have I heard these words uttered by students, and even occasionally by myself?

The point that many people don’t make is that to make it handmade means that one wants to make it better than a machine.

I used to spin wool. I left irregular lumps in it because I couldn’t control the tension. My excuse was same as above: it would look earthy, handmade, natural. As I watched the old women around me spin fine wool, and as my control became better I realised where the challenge lay.

From a distance those two books in the picture above don’t look too bad. However  they are disappointing. I’m onto a third version now. All three are hand painted. I recently sent the last version to a competition so I can’t show it to you. It wasn’t too bad; still looked handpainted. I’ll post photos when it comes back.

I suppose it’s all about the expectations in my own head; my skills are a lot better in my own mind than in reality. I’m always flicking through fine bookbinding books; I want to do something like that one day, sooner rather than later. I am still in the practising phase, even though I learned bookbinding many years ago. However I probably haven’t even reached a thousand hours of (design) binding; I muck about in the evenings and on week ends.

I recently covered a paperback in leather. Why would I bother you may well ask; because I wanted the practise. Until recently I only used cloth and paper. So in order to practise I bought some cheap leather. I figured I would hone my skills on cheaper material before using the good stuff.

Wrong! It is not enjoyable to try to pare crap leather. I have persevered; I am putting a split board onto the paperback, but it is still not sufficiently pared at the turn ins, and looks ugly. And yet still I will continue to the completion for two reasons: firstly for the exercise. I’ll try leather mosaic. Secondly because I want to finish it. The effort I am now putting into making templates and planning the design will hopefully translate itself into better skills for the next book.

It is one of my favourite children’s books, and I’ll give it away to the Little Free Library once it is built. It isn’t as ugly as all that hopefully no other binder will see it. It’ll look handmade. Haha.