🧵 Here's a behind-the-scenes look at the work that goes into lovingly repairing historic books from The Portico's 19th-century collection...

FINAL CALL! ⏰ One week left to apply for our Nottebohm Fellowship! ☟ ☟ ☟

A 17th-century bookbinding in full bloom! While screening the collections for books to show during a hands-on workshop on historical bookbindings, we stumbled upon this devotional book bound in a beautiful embroidered binding featuring flowers, usually associated with female makers and/or owners.

Marbled boards- wait there’s more! In #RareBook collection 2/4 vols Livy’s Decades by Venice printer Aldus Manutius have edges gilded (painted in gold) & gauffered (stamped decorative detail). bit.ly/livy-decades... #MarbledMonday #GaufferedEdges #Marbling #MarbledPaper #AldinePress #PrintersDevice

This manuscript by Anselmus Faust, dated 1612, is the oldest surviving European manual on bookbinding. Written in Latin & Dutch, it was created for the St Bernard's Abbey near Antwerp. What makes it especially unique is its rare dos à dos binding: 2 books bound back-to-back, sharing a single spine.

Embroidered binding made for George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, with his portrait on a presentation copy of Bacon's Essays (1625). After the Duke's assassination on 23 Aug 1628 the book was given to the Bodleian by Lewes Roberts, London merchant. (Bodleian Library Oxford

Well, @sibyllacumae.bsky.social and I are back (on schedule), with a longer-ish issue - we're talking about bindings! Read it here: 📜 #bookhistory open.substack.com/pub/twohalfs...

This Is NOT A Chain Binding But what the heck kind of pastiche IS it? Book from 1621 in the Greenlee Collection at #NewberryLibrary.

Some more bindings from the KBR collections.

A day of looking at bookbindings at the Royal Library of Belgium, hosted by July Van Malderen! Showing here some of the oldest bindings in the KBR, including the oldest binding from the Low Countries. 📜 📚💙 💎 #BookHistory

This month’s highlight focuses on the unique bookbinding techniques of an account and rental book, which has captivated the interest of our Senior Conservator. #ArchiveConservation #Archive30 Read the blog to find out more: bit.ly/4iDAfSc

A 16th-century German binding in the collections of the University of Cyprus in Nicosia @ucy1.bsky.social decorated with the medallions of great reformers and pre-reformers, notably Erasmus, Luther and Melanchthon: #bookhistory #bindings #reformation

The cords threaded through the front board were used to line pages before adding text! The cover isn’t attached to the textblock & loose pages are wrapped in a case, a binding style common on West African books. Mukhtasar (epitome of Maliki law) manuscript copied in 18c?, Yale Arabic MSS 198

Still a few weeks left to submit an abstract for our wonderful conference in November! ☟ ☟ ☟ #earlymodern #bookhistory #rarebooks 💙📚📜

Bound Together: Modern British Bookbinding (18 February-3 May 2025) Explore the life and work of renowned bookbinder Roger Powell, whose work transformed generations of bookbinding. 📖 Discover the extraordinary designs of contemporary binders with 20+ books from members of Designer Bookbinders. 📚

Look at the different bookbinding styles 😍

Doen jullie even allemaal @huisvanhetboek.bsky.social volgen?

Register now! January 17 (15.00h CET): Bookbindings Academy 2025 session 1. Alberto Campagnolo: Carolingian-Romanesque bookbinding practices Melissa Moreton, Suzanne Conklin and Ian McCallum: beaverskin and birchbark book covers Registration: boekbandengenootschap.nl/activiteiten... Share=👍

Kids these days, always messing around with books. wapo.st/49Gdd9M #bookbinding

The @bookbindings.bsky.social conference was a succes. Lovely to be there, talking about reused bookbindings with my colleague @daniel-ermens.bsky.social

Registration open! 🎉 The Belgian-Dutch Bookbindings Society celebrates its 40th anniversary on 22 November at the Radboud University in Nijmegen. We invite everyone to come to the conference (in Dutch) and to celebrate with us! boekbandengenootschap.nl/veertig-jaar... Share=👍