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Tatiana Gersten is the head of the conservation department at the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR). As a book and paper conservator, she contributes to the technical documentation and structural preservation of manuscripts and rare books, particularly though the material study of bookbindings and the art technical study of objects from the institution’s collections.

July Van Malderen is a conservator at KBR, specializing in the conservation and restoration of written heritage. Her work focuses on the archeology of medieval bookbinding structures and the technical documentation of the institution’s collections. She regularly collaborates on international and interdisciplinary research programmes.

Abstract

This lecture uses the reproduction of a late medieval Gothic bookbinding as a practical framework for understanding historical binding structures, materials, and terminology. Using this step-by-step reconstruction, participants are guided through the making of a Gothic binding, from the preparation of the bookblock to the final application of the covering material. This reproduction is a representative example rather than a prescriptive model. Gothic bindings encompass considerable variations resulting from regional practices, workshop traditions, and the availability of materials. Drawing in particular on the work of scholars such as J.A. Szirmai and Nicholas Pickwoad, whose researches are fundamental to the study of bookbinding structures, and the practical experience of conservators at the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), the observation of the characteristics of the materials and techniques is also supported by examples from the KBR collections to explore this wide range of variations encountered in Gothic bindings.

Recognizing and documenting this variety requires precise and consistent terminology. We therefore will emphasize the importance of the use of controlled vocabulary that facilitates description and enables binding data to be connected and queried. Interactive quizzes will invite participants to test their knowledge of binding terminology, materials, and techniques while highlighting the challenges posed by multilingual and regionally varied craft vocabularies.

By the end of the session, participants will be able to identify the principal structural features and materials of Gothic bindings and describe them using a standardized terminology. More broadly, the lecture demonstrates how careful observation, accurate description, and the use of controlled vocabularies contribute to a deeper understanding of historical bindings and support future research into the history of the book which can then provide valuable information for the dating and localization of books.

Jeffrey F. Hamburger is Professor of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University and a leading scholar of medieval illuminated manuscripts. His research focuses on the art of the High and later Middle Ages, with particular attention to devotional imagery, the relationship between art, mysticism and theology, and diagrams in medieval art and thought. He has also explored the illumination of Latin and German vernacular literature, and the relationship between images, authorship and authority. Hamburger has devoted extensive research to the art and intellectual culture of female monasticism. His work has resulted in numerous publications, exhibitions and collaborative research projects on the libraries and artistic heritage of female religious communities in Central Europe. His publications address medieval liturgy and learning, diagrams and typology, devotional practices, authorship and the history of the book. His recent work includes The Birth of the Author: Pictorial Prefaces in Glossed Books of the Twelfth Century (2021) and Color in Cusanus (2021). In 2022, he delivered the Panizzi Lectures at the British Library, entitled “Drawing Conclusions: Diagrams in Medieval Art and Thought”.

Abstract

Taking the Sanskrit concept of avatar—divine descent into material form—as its point of departure, the presentation examines how medieval author portraits sought to overcome the epistemological gap between speech and writing. Rooted in a logocentric tradition running from Plato through Walter Ong, medieval culture regarded the spoken word as inherently more authoritative than the written, since speech seemed to proceed directly from its source while writing was vulnerable to the vagaries of transmission, copying error, and mediation. Author portraits in illuminated manuscripts—from the evangelists inspired by their symbolic animals to Boethius receiving Lady Philosophy—functioned as visual devices designed to close this gap: they staged the illusion that a text's words came to the reader as though spoken face-to-face by the author, lending the page presence, authenticity, and authority.

Tracing this convention from late antique and Carolingian Gospel imagery through Romanesque and early Gothic manuscripts, the essay shows how illuminators developed increasingly sophisticated pictorial strategies—dialogue, mirroring, chiasmus, inhabited initials—to dramatize the transfer of sacred and secular knowledge from divine or authoritative source to scribe to reader. It further traces a historical shift: as the twelfth century saw the rise of vernacular literature, university commentary culture, and a nascent "desacralization" of authorship, portraiture extended beyond saints and Church Fathers to contemporary scholars, poets, and musicians (Peter Lombard, Guido of Arezzo, Adenet le Roi), and increasingly depicted dialogue, dispute, and pedagogical exchange rather than one-directional inspiration. Many depictions of authorship stage debate between author and audience in images which anticipate and enact their own reception, inviting the reader, like the depicted interlocutors, to "talk back.” The presentation treats medieval manuscript illumination not as mere illustration but as a sustained meditation on the ontology of authorship itself, in which every image of an author is, in the deepest sense, an avatar.

After studying molecular biology at university, Cécile Brossard decided to change career direction. Fascinated by old books, she learnt the art of bookbinding. She began working as a library storekeeper, specialising in preventive conservation in the manuscripts department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and continued her training in the field of graphic arts restoration. In 2007, she joined the restoration service of the conservation department and worked her way up to the position of workshop manager. Thanks to the BnF’s extensive collection, Cécile Brossard restores books and manuscripts from all periods and all parts of the world. For nearly 20 years now, having trained with a restorer specialising in textiles, she has taken a particular interest in the restoration of book bindings covered in fabrics such as velvet, silk and damask… She is now a leading expert in this field at the BnF; following the presentation of an initial poster at a seminar in Berlin, she has given lectures, notably in Copenhagen, Moscow and at the Matenadaran in Armenia. She is also involved in the ‘Textiles in Libraries’ project, organised by the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Still passionate about the subject, she has published several articles in specialist journals and is currently preparing an annotated bibliography on the restoration of Western textile bookbindings.

Abstract

Medieval bookbindings that have survived to the present day, are usually covered with alum leather or reversed leather. These dull-looking covers were sometimes dyed using plant-based dyes, which were unfortunately unstable, causing them to fade over time. For the upper classes of that time, the few bookbindings preserved in libraries served as a clear indication of their social status. Then, an alternative emerged as the preferred choice: the use of fabric.

This material could be produced in a wide range of colours, which were particularly iridescent when made from silk fibres. In addition to the metal fittings often found on book bindings of that period, the cover fabric could also feature a textile design when it was woven or embellished with embroidery. The production of luxurious book bindings also extended to the ecclesiastical world, which believed that the word of God should be protected within a jewel case. This led to the emergence of goldsmith’s bindings. Their distinctive feature is a textile spine, usually made of patterned fabric, often imported from the East. Apart from these exceptional examples, the medieval fabric-bound books preserved in institutions today date mainly from the 14th and 15th centuries. It is harder to find older textile bindings, except in the form of remnants. Indeed, a binding dating from a later period may feature older textile elements, whether for aesthetic reasons or to preserve evidence of the original cover. Furthermore, fragments of medieval fabric may be found on the curtains or the clasps’ tabs. From a technical point of view, medieval bookbindings have distinctive features that make it possible to date them. The fabric coverings are mainly taffeta, satin, damask or velvet. However, due to their fragility, textile bindings have very often disappeared or been replaced by leather-covered bindings, thereby erasing the textile heritage they once possessed.

Textile bindings have long been excluded from restoration programmes. The graphic arts conservator is not fully familiar with the complexity of textile materials, while the conservator of historic textiles does not master the art of bookbinding. Today, the two disciplines work together and adapt their respective techniques to best preserve this fine heritage of the past, taking into account all the constraints involved.

Biography and abstract coming soon.