Montefiascone Conservation Project – Study Programme 2011 » Study Programme 2011

Montefiascone Conservation Project – Study Programme 2011 » Study Programme 2011: "STUDY PROGRAMME 2011

The cost of the classes is £445 GBP UK ($700 US, 520 Euro) per week and includes all tuition (which is in English) and most materials. The Montefiascone project is a not-for-profit organisation, and all extra monies are used to finance the cataloguing and conservation and preservation of the collection. Go to ‘How to Sign Up’ to download the application form for your placement.

The summer 2011 programme is as follows:
Week 1: July 25-29
Re-creating the Medieval Palette

This class will study the colours (made from rocks, minerals, metals, insects and plants) that were processed to produce the colours used by artists throughout the medieval era. The focus will mostly (though not exclusively) be on manuscript art (Islamic and European) and participants will re-create the colours using original recipes. Illustrated lectures, will address the history, geography, chemistry, iconography and conservation issues. Practical making and painting sessions will follow these lectures.

Course Tutor: Cheryl Porter
Week 2: August 1-5 - FULL!! Places available 8-12 August. Early enrolment is advised.
Reconstructing an early medieval Islamic Book Structure

Lectures on the early history of Islamic bookbinding by Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom:

The course will offer the opportunity of reconstructing a model of the so-called “box binding” – the earliest known Islamic book binding structure (8th-12th century AD). Many unique fragments of this structure are preserved – mainly in Yemen and Tunisia, and also in a number of important collections elsewhere. The binding style has until now, only been associated with the Qur’anic (Koranic) text, and no known historic treatises describe such a structure. For this reason, the reconstruction of this bookbinding is based on the published examples, and on the direct study of the Yemeni collection. Analysing different features and variations of the Yemeni fragments, participants will reconstruct one binding incorporating the most common features.

Participants will be provided with basic textblock and wooden boards, will sew the textblock to the boards, construct the endbands using one or both of the historic examples, and finally, cover the book in leather. The cover will then be tooled (decorated). The model will be constructed using traditional materials and techniques. Participants will study the history of the study of this structure, the variations in its features, the strengths and weaknesses of the structure, and discuss the origins and developments of this intriguing binding as well as some puzzling features, still unexplained. Participants will be required to bring some basic hand tools (a list will be provided following registration). All materials will be provided at nominal cost. No previous experience of bookbinding is necessary to do the class and curators and custodians of collections are welcome to apply.

Course Tutor: Marco di Bella (Assisted by John Mumford)
Week 3: August 8-12
Conservation Techniques for Islamic Binding

This workshop will provide an introduction to the specific considerations of conserving Islamic manuscript material. Through a series of focused sessions (including lectures by Dr Elaine Wright Curator of the Islamic collections at the Chester Beatty Library) and model-making, participants will examine individual components of Islamic book structures and discuss the ways they can be treated to best conserve them. Participants will examine the conservation of Islamic manuscript material – sewing and spine linings, end boards, board attachment and covering, as well as produce a model conservation structure for Islamic bindings. The result will reflect modern conservation techniques, and take account of best-suited materials and ethical considerations.

Course Tutor: Kristine Rose (Elaine Wright lecturing)
Week 4: August 15-19
Exploring the unique features of Spanish early modern account book bindings

Books created for accounting form a separate branch of the bookbinding craft, and these bindings can be found in archives and libraries all over the world. By the 16th century, a unique style of account book binding had developed in the Spanish peninsula, with elements including elaborate and colourful mozarabic or mudéjar geometric lacing as cover decoration, a substantial fore-edge flap, buttons of glass, ceramic, wood or leather, and loops of carefully twined leather.

The class will complete a 16th century account book model, based on examples featured in Spanish History of the Book texts. The case material will be parchment, the overbands tanned leather, and the lacing patterns will be done with a combination of tanned and tawed leather, with the option for cochineal-dyed tawed lacing. The binding will include button and loop closures, with a variety of button options. Some time will be spent each day examining accounting and bookkeeping history as related to book structures, with an emphasis on information from accounting instruction manuals of the time, and depictions of account books and accounting in art. We will examine conservation treatment of a stationer’s binding, and to discuss potential conservation problems and solutions. The Barbarigo Library of Montefiascone has fascinating examples of Italian stationary bindings, as well as many binding that draw on elements of the stationary binding tradition, such as paper and parchment bindings. Participants will have time to create sample cards for different button, loop, ticketing and lacing styles, in addition to the Spanish account book model.

Materials can be provided at a nominal cost and a list of hand tools required will be provided at registration. The class is designed to be fun and useful for the experienced binder/conservator and the interested but novice participant.

Course Tutor: Chela Metzger
An electronic catalogue of the books in the Seminary Library is underway and work continues each year with a small team of volunteers, under the direction of Julianne Simpson (John Rylands University Library). There will be an opportunity to visit the library and learn more about its history, conservation, preservation and the cataloguing work.


About the Course Tutors:

Cheryl Porter has been Director of the Montefiascone Project since its inception in 1988. After graduating from Camberwell College (University of the Arts, London) she worked at University College London Paintings Analysis Unit, analysing the use of pigments in paintings and manuscripts. From 1992-2006 she worked as a freelance conservator, mostly for universities and learned institutions. She was Manager of Conservation and Preservation at the Dar al-Kutub (National Library and Archives of Egypt) and Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation 2007-2010 and is currently employed as a Consultant for a number of institutions with book, papyrus and manuscript collections in Egypt. She has published many articles concerning colour in manuscripts and has lectured in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and throughout Europe.

Marco di Bella graduated from the “European Course for conservators-restorers of book materials” in Spoleto, Italy and subsequently joined the Conservation survey and first aid for the incunabula collection of the Franciscan monastery library in Dubrovnik, Croatia. In 2003 he was first employed by the St Catherine Foundation-Camberwell College of Arts, London for the St Catherine’s Monastery Library Conservation Project. From 2004-2006 he worked as Assistant Consultant of the Social Fund for Development (Sana’a, Yemen Republic) for the project “Enhancement of the conservation capacities of the manuscript libraries of Sana’a, Tarim and Zabid”. During this time he was invited by UNESCO to give training courses on Islamic binding and conservation for conservators the Dar al-Makhtutat (house of the manuscripts) in Sana’a. In 2006 he was invited to join the Dar al-Kutub (National Library and Archives of Egypt) and Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation, where he is still involved. When he is not travelling abroad, he works as a book conservator at a number of conservation laboratories in Palermo, Italy. He has recently been appointed conservation consultant for the National Archive of Libya in Tripoly.

John Mumford is currently Head of Manuscript Conservation at the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation in Cairo, Egypt. He was formerly Head of Book Conservation at the British Library. John served a five-year apprenticeship at the British Museum and subsequently helped to establish the Rare and Early Book Conservation Studio at the British Library. In 1992 he was appointed Manager of the Oriental and India Office Book Conservation Studio, furthering his study of early Oriental and Eastern binding structures. In 1998 he became manager of the Oriental and Eastern Book Conservation Studio at the new British Library premises at St Pancras, London. He has frequently taught at Montefiacone and lectured and run workshops throughout the UK, Argentina, Patmos and many European locations.

Kristine Rose is the Senior Conservator at the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin and an accredited member of the Institute of Conservation. Her work has focussed on Islamic manuscript material for a number of years. Prior to this she worked at Cambridge University Library on a wide range of Western rare book material, though with particular interest in Islamic binding structures. She has a degree in Conservation from the Camberwell College of Arts and is a member of The Islamic Manuscript Association.

Dr Elaine Wright has been Curator of the Chester Beatty Library since early 1998. She holds an M.Phil and D.Phil from the Oriental Institute, Oxford University and is the author of a number of books including Islam,Faith, Art, Culture. Manuscripts of the Chester Beatty Library.

Chela Metzger recently started as Conservator for Library Collections at the Winterthur Museum of Delaware, and became part of the conservation faculty at the Winterthur/Delaware Program in Art Conservation. She taught book conservation at the University of Texas from 2001-2010, and previously worked as a project conservator at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. She is a graduate of the North Bennet Street School bookbinding program, with a background in librarianship, and taught a graduate seminar for nine years on “The History of the Book” at the University of Texas. She has collaborated with colleagues in Latin America for many years, teaching in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Guatemala and Mexico. She has a long-standing interest in account book binding and has taught stationers’ binding workshops around the USA.

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