[Ekstationers] Beginnings of this List

[Lyle H. Gray]

On Sun, 6 Feb 2005, Rachael Schechter wrote:

> >_> I plan to teach at least one method of sewing textblocks.
> >_Out of curiosity, what method would that be?  I was teaching a
> >_class on Ethiopian-style (sometimes mistaken for Coptic) binding
> >_up at the Ruantallan EKU in November.
>
> I have experimented a good bit with Carolingian textblocks,
> so we'll probably have double cords on the two sewing frames
> we have and split leather cord for those who don't have
> sewing frames... and we can discuss the difference between
> the two.

Hmm...  Admittedly, I haven't tried Carolingian bindings yet.
I've done Romanesque, Gothic, Coptic, and Ethiopian so far.  I've
used the sewing frame for Romanesque, but the Gothic I sewed
in hand (they're fairly small books).

> If there is time, I would also love to have coptic bindings
> as well. Unfortunately, I have not yet made a single coptic
> binding.  I know someone fairly close who I am trying to talk
> into teaching that or teaching me so that I can pass it along
> as well.  I have good instructions in books as well.  One
> thing: do you need to start with binding the covers on or can
> they be attached later?

Well, I have seen Coptic styles done with the boards covered with
leather first, resulting in an exposed spine, but that might be a
modern interpretation.  According to Szimai [1], there hasn't
been a lot of work on classifying the Coptic bindings, and what
notes he has appear slightly different from the way that I
originally learned Coptic sewing [2].  It's hard to tell whether
the spines were generally covered or not -- in the earlier
bindings, such as the Nag Hammadi codices, they definitely were.

Aidan, I think you've done some work on studying the Nag Hammadi
codices; do you have anything to add?

Regards,
Lyle

[1] Szirmai, J. A.  _The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding_,
Ashgate, 1999.

[2] I learned a technique where the anchoring stitches are sewn
directly to the boards.  Szirmai describes a technique where
anchoring loops are attached to the boards, and the text block is
stitched to the anchoring loops.

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