Bookbinding Posts You Shouldn’t Have Missed this February
Last month’s digest of bookbinding, book arts, book history and book conservation posts was quite popular and we have decided to try establishing a new series of posts at iBookBinding.
Current list was even more difficult in production. We’ve started with more than 100 pages and created a short list of 24 posts. The initial goal was to have only 10 posts in that digest. As you will find out, we have almost fit to that limitation.
It is really encouraging how many educative and beautiful bookbinding posts are there every month. We even try to check not only English language sources. However, not knowing the language it is harder to find these posts in the first place. If you would like to point us to your favorite blogs and bookbinding related resources in your native language, that would help our work in the future.
Without further ado, here is the list of posts you shouldn’t have missed this February.
Blog introligatorski — Jan Grochocki
The first entrant hasn’t really had any posts in February. Anyway, we decided to add this blog to the list because it’s a new web site of a Polish bookbinder Jan Grochocki.
He has a nice Facebook page and we hope his blog would be even better =)
There already are three posts at the Jan’s blog:
- 5 Factors Determining the Value of Books
- Headband on the Book — What is it and Where it Came From?
- Why Book Titles are Printed in Different Directions?
However, you should prepare to read in Polish or use automatic translation.
My Trip to Codex — Flash of the Hand
As you may know, the Codex Book Fair took place in San Francisco in the beginning of February. There are many accounts of the fair on Facebook. However, here is something we would like to share with you.
Erin Fletcher is a bookbinder from Boston. She is the owner of the Herringbone Bindery and several days ago, she posted her impressions of the Codex Book Fair.
http://www.herringbonebindery.com/blog/2017/02/26/my-trip-to-codex/
The digitized manuscripts of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana — Sexy Codicology
Read about the Laurentian Library and digitization project there. As usual with the Sexy Codicology, reading is entertaining and educating.
“How did the Laurentian Library come to be? The history of the library is extremely long; so let’s go back to the beginning: it’s 1519 and you are Giulio di Giuliano de’ Medici. You are a powerful Cardinal that will be pope just four years later. You want a library. Who do you call? Well, Michelangelo, of course! You spare no expense.”
You will find many useful links in the post and some musing on how copyright limitations may interfere in blogger’s life.
By the way, you can help Sexy Codicoligy by supporting them at Patreon.
https://sexycodicology.net/blog/laurentian-library-manuscripts/
Book Heist of the Year
Yes, we know that 2017 has only begun. However, this story really seems to be worth of the title. There is a chance you have already heard that in the end of January. 160 books, worth $3 million were stolen in West London.
The most valuable book among the stolen was a 1566 copy of Nicolaus Copernicus’s De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, worth about $300,000.
Here are some of the articles following the story:
- Thieves steal £2m of rare books by abseiling into warehouse
- Rare book trade hit by shocking £2m theft
- Thieves Steal Over 160 Rare Books in Major Heist
- Rare antique books worth £2 million stolen in ‘Mission: Impossible heist’ in west London
- ‘This was a big job’: Thieves nab $3M worth of rare books in Mission Impossible-style heist
- ‘Mission Impossible’ raiders’ £2million heist in the Great Book Robbery: How a gang abseiled 40ft down into a warehouse and stole 160 of the world’s rarest books
- Londra, furto da ‘Mission impossible’: sospesi nel vuoto rubano libri per 2 mln di sterline
On the Origin of Species — Book On Books
This post gives you several examples of how Darwin’s On the Origin of Species has inspired book artists.
We would also recommend you to check other posts at Books On Books.
https://books-on-books.com/2017/02/12/bookmarking-book-art-on-the-origin-of-species/
Liam’s Red Dragon — Blue Roof Designs
Another inspiring post from Elissa Campbell — owner of the Blue Roof Designs. This time she shares a story of making a book with electric circuit and LED lights inside of one of the covers.
http://blueroofdesigns.com/2017/02/03/liams-red-dragon/
OPEN • SET Competition Winners — American Bound
That’s a story we wanted to cover at iBookBinding. In the beginning of the year winners of the new competition supported by the American Academy of Bookbinding were announced. In that post by the American Bound you will find everything you need to know about the winners of the OPEN • SET. There also is a schedule of the planned exhibitions (tomorrow is the last day books are exhibited in San Francisco).
https://american-bound.com/2017/02/05/open-•-set-competition-winners/
Practicing and Teaching Endbands — The Pressbengel Project
Peter Verheyen has posted some of the photos at his Facebook account. However, here you will find much info on how he teaches sewing endbands. His endband models are astonishing!
“For practicing and teaching endbands, I first started out with little sewn textblocks, then chopped up telephone books (remember those) or directories, then thought to myself “why not wrap a core in gauze/super and sandwich between two boards…” That worked great, but just preparing the things was a pain. Eventually discovered coroplast making things perfectly easy.”
http://pressbengel.blogspot.ru/2017/02/teaching-endbands.html
Medieval Shelfies — Medieval manuscripts blog
Have you heard about shelfies? That’s like a selfie, but of your bookcases (or with your bookcases). Medieval manuscripts blog of the British Library shares with you some of the medieval shelfies.
http://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2017/02/medieval_shelfies.html
Historic Collections @Balliol
Blog of the Treasures of the Library at Balliol College, Oxford published seven posts past February. All of them are worth reading. However, here are the three we have chosen for you:
- Cataloguing Crouch: detective work
- Endbands and the conservation of the Coningesby catalogues
- Split spines and broken joints
https://balliollibrary.wordpress.com/
An Overview of Leather Paring Knives, Tools and Machines — Jeff Peachey
Jeff Peachey shares his thought on the different methods of paring leather. Here are the methods listed in his post:
- English Style Knives (a straight blade, usually around 45 degrees relative to the length)
- French or Swiss Style Knives (usually a slightly rounded blade, Swiss knives do not have a handle)
- German Style Knives
- Modified 151 Spokeshave
- Razor Blade Leather Paring Machines: Scharffix, Bockman Paring Machine, and the forthcoming Felsted Skiver
- Razor Blade Planes
- Sending your Skin to a Specialist
- Sanding or Grinding
To find all the details just follow this link: https://jeffpeachey.com/2017/02/28/an-overview-of-leather-paring-tools/
Other Posts, Blogs and Links
There were much more interesting posts last month. However, this list is becoming quite long. You will find all the other links that have made it to our short list at iBookBinding Facebook account over the next few weeks.
If you have anything to add — some posts you’ve liked a lot or blogs you are following, just leave the links in the comments below.
Top photo by Jeff Peachey
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