Medieval and Historical Bindings in a Modern Design (Czech Republic)

'Medieval and Historical Bindings in a Modern Design (Czech Republic)' consists of twelve hand-bound volumes of varying sizes, nine of which were made especially for the exhibition in 2006.

Commissioned by the Society for Czechoslovakian Bookbinders for the Lanskroun Castle Gallery and timed to open at the launch of its 5th Annual conference, nine new volumes were exhibited with 3 earlier pieces, all exploring the efficacy of historic binding techniques for contemporary bound volumes.

The binding of the volumes involved a number of research challenges and, in particular, to obviate the problem which occurs in single sheet binding. Single sheet bindings do not offer the opportunity of being sewn through the centre of a folded section and this can result in the swelling at the spine of the book. By adapting compression techniques from both English and German binding (medieval and later) the problem of swelling was resolved. A slight inner gutter bevel was seated again text thread swelling.

The exhibition also contained examples of the rounding and backing technique. This was particularly important in the medieval period and beyond for books that needed to be put on upright display or sacramental purposes or when they were being read either upright or opened flat. An example of the rounding and backing technique in the exhibition was used to bind a copy of the King James’ Bible which the researcher decorated in gold tooled in Cambridge Panel Design.

The exhibition also demonstrated the use of other historical materials and techniques recast into contemporary binding, all opening happily for reading. These included the use of transparent and veiled vellum, blind tooling and silk binding.

After Lanksroun, the exhibition moved to The Museum of Book Binding at Lockett in the Czechoslovakian Republic.

Three volumes were acquired by the Dodd Research Centre at the University of Connecticut, USA.

• http://www.lcc.arts.ac.uk/61002.htm