Illuminated Manuscripts: Hands on project 6 – medieval bookbinding

Coptic dos-a-dos; link stitch binding; limp vellum with wooden spine; model St Cuthbert; 18th century half binding with false raised bands

Picture above are some of the models I have made in workshops, and I thought I’d use them here.

For this week’s project I will do two bindings: a Byzantine binding with bi-axial sewing, something I’ve never done. For this I will use blank paper. Our project manuscript will be bound in a Coptic manner.

Byzantine binding:

Byzantine binding: Exposed linked sewing and endbands with board remnants. University of Canbridge Special Collections

According to Szirmai there are several methods of attaching the textblock to the boards, and I will use the most common method, which is to use the sewing thread to hinge the boards to the first quire (which is the same as in Coptic.). The sewing will be recessed. I will attach one fly leaf as a hooked leaf, to be pasted down on the board. I will attach the two halves with a link stitch. A thin linen cloth will be used as spine lining.

La imagen de arriba son algunos de los modelos que he hecho en talleres, y pensé que los usaría aquí.
Para el proyecto de esta semana haré dos encuadernaciones: una encuadernación bizantina con costura biaxial, algo que nunca he hecho. Para esto usaré papel en blanco. Nuestro manuscrito del proyecto estará vinculado de manera copta.

Encuardenacion bizantina:

Según Szirmai, hay varios métodos para unir el bloque de texto a los tableros, y utilizaré el método más común, que es usar el hilo de coser para articular los tableros al primer quire (que es lo mismo que en Coptic). La costura se empotrará. Adjuntaré una hoja de mosca como una hoja enganchada, para pegarla en el tablero. Adjuntaré las dos mitades con una puntada de enlace. Se utilizará un paño de lino fino como revestimiento del lado.

L’image ci-dessus est quelques-uns des modèles que j’ai réalisés dans des ateliers, et j’ai pensé les utiliser ici.

Pour le projet de cette semaine, je ferai deux reliures: une reliure byzantine avec couture bi-axiale, ce que je n’ai jamais fait. Pour cela, j’utiliserai du papier vierge. Le manuscrit de notre projet sera lié de manière copte.

Reliure byzantine:

Selon Szirmai, il existe plusieurs méthodes pour attacher le bloc de texte aux plats et j’utiliserai la méthode la plus courante, qui consiste à utiliser le fil à coudre pour articuler les plats au premier besoin (qui est le même qu’en copte). La couture sera en retrait. Je vais attacher une feuille de garde  comme une feuille crochue, à coller  à  l’interieur du plat. Je vais attacher les deux moitiés avec un point de lien. Une fine toile de lin sera utilisée comme doublure du dos.

1. Getting the boards ready:

Cut opposite grooves

Glue

Forms an edge groove

Press overnight

After letting dry overnight, I used lino cutting tools to define the grooves. After I used an awl to make the sewing holes in the board I made the grooves in which the sewing thread would lie.

Sewing the text block to the board.

I used herringbone sewing for this as it is a linked stitch; it will also fit in the cavity created in the spine of the gatherings. I have never done this sort of sewing before, this is one of the reason why I chose it. As with coptic books, the board is attached to the first gathering or quire. However when you attach the subsequent quire, unlike the coptic, you must still return to the board. It is only with the third gathering or quire that you start the herringbone pattern. This is done because you go down two quires to wrap the thread, thus making it a bit more solid. At each end is the change over station and you do a kettle stitch as per usual. If you are not a bookbinder you won’t know what that means, but once I realised this it all became clear in my head.

Después de dejar secar durante la noche, utilicé herramientas de corte de linóleo para definir los surcos. Después de usar un punzón para hacer los agujeros de costura en el tablero, hice las ranuras en las que se colocaría el hilo de coser.

Coser el bloque de texto al tablero.

Utilicé la costura en espiga para esto, ya que es una puntada unida; También cabe en la cavidad creada en el lomo de los cuadernos. Nunca antes había hecho este tipo de costura, esta es una de las razones por las que lo elegí. Al igual que con los libros cópticos, el tablero se adjunta a lel primero cuaderno.  Sin embargo, cuando adjuntas la secuencia posterior, a diferencia del cóptico, aún debes volver al tablero. Es solo con el tercero cuaderno o quire que comienza el patrón en espiga. Esto se hace porque baja dos necesidades para envolver el hilo, lo que lo hace un poco más sólido. En cada extremo está el cambio de estación y se hace una cadena como de costumbre. Si no eres un encuadernador, no sabrás lo que eso significa, pero una vez que me di cuenta de esto, todo se aclaró en mi cabeza.

Après avoir laissé sécher toute la nuit, j’ai utilisé des outils de coupe lino pour définir les rainures. Après avoir utilisé un poinçon pour faire les trous de couture dans le plat, j’ai fait les rainures dans lesquelles le fil à coudre se trouverait.  

Coudre le bloc de texte au plat

J’ai utilisé la couture à chevrons pour cela car c’est un point lié; il s’insérera également dans la cavité créée dans lle dos des cahiers. Je n’ai jamais fait ce genre de couture auparavant, c’est une des raisons pour lesquelles je l’ai choisi. Comme pour les livres coptes, le plat est attaché au premier cahier. Cependant, lorsque vous attachez le quire suivant, contrairement au copte, vous devez toujours retourner au plat. Ce n’est qu’au troisième cahier que vous démarrez le motif à chevrons. Cela se fait parce que vous descendez deux cahiers pour envelopper le fil, le rendant ainsi un peu plus solide. À chaque extrémité se trouve la station de changement et vous faites une chainette. Si vous n’êtes pas relieur, vous ne saurez pas ce que cela signifie, mais une fois que j’ai réalisé cela, tout est devenu clair dans ma tête.

News: after reading Richard Horton’s amazing Booksewings by Hand, I have realised that the sewing was actually looping packed recessed link stitch! Herringbone is similar but not the same.

Noticias: ¡después de leer las increíbles Booksewings by Hand de Richard Horton, me di cuenta de que la costura en realidad era una puntada de enlace empotrada en bucle! La espiga es similar pero no igual.
Nouvelles: après avoir lu  Booksewings by Hand de Richard Horton, je me suis rendu compte que la couture bouclait en fait un point encastré! Le chevron est similaire mais pas le même.

Byzantine sewing:

I used 2 different colours of paper so that I could see how the two halves were joined together. Each half is sewn to the board and then joined with link stiches in the middle.

marking the sewing stations

v cut in the spine

both halves cut

mark board

drill holes in boards

using lino cutting tool to make channels

channels made

sewing the board and first quire

The sewing begins with the first quire being attached to the board. At the third quire the link stitch starts. Because of the V cut, the stitching is recessed.

Thread in channels

the needle going under section

needle going under section or quire

link stitch begins

two halves

stitching the halves together

detail of linking of halves

finished text block

Once this sewing is done spine lining of mull and linen is put on spine;this is to reinforce the spine. This will be a flat spine.

mull on spine

The difference between coptic and byzantine sewing is when to do the link stitch. It appears that in the Byzantine, the link is done 3 quires down, whereas in the Coptic it is done under the immediate previous quire. Here are the two finished bindings:

L: Coptic with headband R: Byzantine with headband and lining

 

Here is a sequence for the Coptic sewing:

text and boards

using a telephone book and a jog to prick holes

all holes made

adding board to first quire

adding second quire

under the previous quire

bone fold after each quire sewn

finished

adding the last board

Endbands -tranchefiles – capitelo(?)*

Collection of Byzantine endbands – University of Cambridge Special Collections

This is my favourite stage of bookbinding.There are such a variety and yes they are time consuming, but oh so satisfying to make. Despite the time constraints I did the endbands on the heads of both the Byzantine and the Coptic.

Byzantine headband

Coptic headband

Here is a sequence for the Byzantine headband. I have never done this before, so it is not that good looking. I looked at various books including :Headbands and how to work them by Greenfield and Hille, and really good basic videos by Robert and Sherif.  These will give you some good basics.

I made a half cover for the Byzantine. Normally with the Coptic I would have covered the boards first before sewing, but I am pretending they are wooden boards and I wouldn’t cover them.

Here is the sequence for adding leather to the Byzantine block:

folded over corners

Corners with tongue

head covered in leather

leather in the grooves

The endleaves are sometimes called the pastedown. Technically the endleaves are the leaves at either end of the book, usually loose. The pastedown is the sheet that is pasted onto the board. It may have been under the leather cover, but more usually is it over the leather cover.

Glueing out the endleaf

Cover with pasted endleaf

Pastedown and first page of the Coptic

 

Both books now finished:

Coptic and Byzantine

L: Coptic with headband R: Byzantine with headband

That’s it!

This was by far the most enjoyable part of the course. Even though I am a bookbinder, I had never done a Byzantine binding nor its headband. NEither am I very good at Cptic headbands. So this was  good challenge for me.

Here is a short movie about how I learned to make a model St Cuthbert Gospel book in 2017.

Thanks for reviewing for the course Decipering Illuminated Manuscripts.

Here is an image of a Romanesque binding:

Romanesque binding as described in https://heraldry.sca.org/kwhss/2017/The%20Art%20of%20Bookbinding.pdf

We can see the herringbone sewing on double supports that are laced into the wooden boards, as well as the double endbands.

 

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

 

Worker 1 and worker 2: trials and tribulations of edition binding

I am worker 1 and I roped my partner Watkins into being worker 2. I go to work everyday, while he has binding opportunities at home. He is more of a paper artist, but has learned some bookbinding, and when it comes down to it, is much more finicky about it than I am.

We have to bind two editions of 15 or so books. It is printed on glossy/semi matte paper and 400 pages weighs quite a lot.

So we sew.

Yes we used a sewing frame each. Watkins, as a beginner sewed relatively loosely. I, as an intermediate binder, sewed relatively tighter than he. We did 6 each.

The paper we used was very slippery. The sections were six sheets. Was that too many? I couldn’t round mine. I went to my day job and left worker 2 to do the rounding. He rounded his with some ease; he tried one of mine and swore a lot.

So, as boss lady, I decided that we would back half of them. I rounded (finally) and backed one of my own, and it was hard work. It did not please me. Like, where where my 90o turns? Now let me be honest with you. I don’t actually do much binding. I don’t have time. If you follow my blog, you might have guessed that I only bind a few books a year. So even though I teach bookbinding, I don’t do much of it myself. BUt intellectually, I know what needs to be done. Those who can, do, those who can’t, teach….

I’m not being negative; I’m being realistic.

So, to get back to the production line.

I left Watkins in the bindery today to back his 6 books plus one of mine. This is the result:

Shirts neatly folded in his drawer. What does that say? He told me he had to leave the bindery before he chucked something on the wall.

It took him 5 hours to back 6 books. I had warned him that setting the book in the press would be difficult. He was cursing and swearing as the textblock moved about. He was cursing and swearing as the sections seemed to move of their own accord.  I gave him this job because he can back far better than me; yes, he had done it before. But neither of us had experienced this paper. The lesson here is that if you have shiny, slippery paper, you will have a hell of a time backing it. Bookbinders out there, if you read this, please send me your advice!

You must admit that for a beginner, that’s pretty good. He was very hard on himself. As the Q & A  person, yes I could find fault, but neither of us have the experience to make the perfect backing; we simply haven’t done enough of them.

I was sewing endbands last night:

See, I was crafty; I decided that if I couldn’t round the books, I’d just keep them straight. I don’t believe there is any shame in that. This is certainly a learning process.

1. don’t use shiny paper
2. check your sewing
3. practise on something not important
4. practise some more.

Any advice gratefully accepted. The books will look great at the end of the day, but their journey will have been long and painful.

 

 

 

 

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London Day 3: all about European bindings in 1460 in one week…

Day 3 and I’m onto my fourth fire alarm. Not a drill, but fire scare. One at the V & A, just as I had left my stuff in the cloakroom, 2 at Senate House and one at Waterloo Station, just as I got off the train.

I am here to study. And my head is exploding – yes information overload. We have three sessions a day in the dark, listening to the Prof. Actually it really seemed more like he was downloading his knowledge, or part thereof, because I am sure his brain has so much more information stored away.

The Prof warned us that he spoke fast, and boy did he! None of us could keep up. His enthusiasm was catching; I understood every word he said, but will I remember it? I have notes and hope I can decipher them.

Day 1 started with introduction to the booktrade; how the binder fitted into the book trade, what pressures the new printing press brought onto bookbinders. This whole period really was make do and mend kind of mentality. Trying to get the most out of everything; not wasting any material. Session 2 covered illustrations about binderies and bookbinders. It is from these images that we can compose a history of what workshops looked like, and how they worked.

The first day ended with drinkies and a mixer. A great way to continue cementing ties.

Day 2 started with the session on stitching. There is sewing and there is stitching. There is a difference between text block and bookblock. There is primary and secondary stitching. I learned all about greek style binding and the kapitalbund, which is particular to southern german binders.

The next session was about non-greek bindings. I should have started country pages on this day. I waited until the third day to classify the information according to country of origin. This might make the rewriting of my notes a little difficult.

We also looked at deceptive techniques, ie false raised bands on less sewing supports, why edges weren’t cut and the different types of spine linings. In the afternoon we sat in a small room in Lambeth Palace looking over a variety of bindings.

Me with Morgan and Dianne

Day 3 was devoted to temporary bindings. You could say that the majority of bindings were in some way purposefully temporary: either the bindings were sold as text blocks to be taken to the binder later, or bound cheaply in order to reduce transport cost, and sometimes never actually got to the binder’s and were therefore left in that temporary state. We studied the usefulness of longstitch bindings and how flexible and durable they are.

After that it was onto laced-case bindings in parchment and vellum, with different types of boards before moving into the world of adhesive case binding.

Are your eyes going cross eyed already? We haven’t even gotten to session 6 yet!

Session 6 was the visit to Senate House library. All this meant was that books from the rare stack were brought to our room and we were able to get a close look at the different binding and sewing structures; we did not handle the books. The Prof had made some displays for us to touch:

I want to make some when I get home.

Day 4 was devoted to boards. It appears the Germans liked wooden boards that warped concave because it was more pleasing to the eye. We talked about sca’boards, laminated boards and pulp boards.  Of course from there we needed to visit board attachments, and I was very glad I was a bookbinder at this stage. Even though my experience is very limited, it was absolutely fascinating to see the different methods of lacing in boards, and the different kinds of slips you could use.

The session on endbands was fascinating; if only I could have taken photos of the slides and written at the same time. (No we were not allowed to record him in any fashion – I asked!) It was at this point that I started taking photos of the slides. I hope that when I rewrite my notes I will be able to find the correct photos to insert. To get back to endbands; who would have thought they had already invented stuck on endbands! I just thought it was a product of modern manufacturing. They usually used alum tawed animal skin with a core, which they then glued on and sewed over.

That day’s library visit was devoted to the Wellcome library

Sculpture at the Wellcome Institute

Actually, we went to the Wellcome Institute rooms, which were next to the Library. I must say that the library visits were not what I expected. We basically swapped our hot dark room for another hot room. I thought we’d actually get to walk around these libraries we were visiting as well as looking at their collection items.

By day 5: I was tired of sandwiches and bought soup at the canteen. Our bunch developed a nice rapport, and we talked a lot in the breaks. This day’s sessions centered on covering materials and covering techniques. We were able to physically experience goat skin, hair sheep, parchment, calf, russia calf. We looked at books with paper covers; wrappers that had ink tooling. In the 3rd quarter of the 17th century, for example, purple paper as a cover was very popular. It is interesting to note that different cultures cut their corners in different manners.

Now is your head a bit weary. At the end of this day I went to tango, and it was a relief.  I will be giving a few talks on my trip as part of my fellowship acquittal. I hope that I can remember interesting anecdotes the Prof told us.

This course certainly was a challenge and an eye opener. It’s given me, yet again, renewed interest in bookbindings, and I am hoping to spend some time in our secure stacks trying to apply some of this knowledge to items in the National collection. Phew!