[EKStationers] Bookbinding in the Bhakail vicinity

[Lyle H. Gray]

On Thu, 21 Apr 2005, Rachael Schechter wrote:

> We had 6 people at last night's bookbinding class in
> Hartshorn-dale, and we made coptic bindings... a few of the
> books even ended up with endbands (and we learned that the
> headbands work much better if the boards are cut flush with
> the textblock, instead of with the margin that modern books
> have).

That's definitely true, especially with the Coptic endbands, but
it works as a good rule of thumb for other medieval and
Renaissance binding styles as well.

> We will be just going on to the next chapter in Szirmai's
> _Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding_, and trying to teach an
> Ethiopian codex for the next class.  As far as I know, no one
> in the area has made this style binding, so I will try to
> figure it out from the pictures.

That should be fun.  With Ethiopian bindings, you have the option
of not attaching the endbands (apparently common with those
bindings without leather covers).  Also keep in mind that the
Ethiopian binding apparently wasn't well known until the 1500s,
when missionaries brought back books.

> Please note -- this looks like a difficult style of binding
> with two needles and pushing thread through the same hole
> three or four times.

You only have to do that at the first and last gatherings.  In
the middle, you only have to push a needle in and out through
each sewing station.  It's just the _other_ needle that gets
pushed out the sewing station.

Get used to passing the needle through a given sewing station
more than once -- in the later bindings, only the end sewing
stations have the needle pass through it once.

> If anyone has tried to make this kind of book, I would
> welcome a guest teacher or helpful tips.

I've done several, as has M. Iheronimus.  Feel free to ask
questions.

Regards,
M. Lyle

-- 
Lyle H. Gray
gray at cs.umass.edu -- text only, please
http://members.verizon.net/~vze3wwx7
 --
Shared knowledge is preserved knowledge.