[EKStationers] Fwd: Ligatus Summer School 2011

[woodwindy]

If only... *swoon*  :)

           -Sabine


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Athanasios Velios <a.velios at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 10:35 AM
Subject: [EXLIBRIS-L] Ligatus Summer School 2011
To: EXLIBRIS-L at listserv.indiana.edu


The History of European Bookbinding 1450-1830 and Identifying and
recording bookbinding structures for conservation and cataloguing.

Istituto Ellenico di Studi Bizantini e Postbizantini di Venezia, Venice (Italy)

19-23 and 26-30 September 2011

The 6th Ligatus Summer School, following the success of the courses in
Volos, Patmos, Thessaloniki and Wolfenbüttel, is to be held this year
in collaboration with the Istituto Ellenico di Studi Bizantini e
Postbizantini di Venezia. We are delighted to announce the summer
school in the historic city of Venice and particularly in the Istituto
Ellenico, which has a distinguished reputation in the field of book
studies. This year students will have the opportunity to see bindings
from historic collections in the city, including the Biblioteca
Marciana. With access to a range of important libraries and the unique
environment that the city offers, this year's summer school will be a
unique experience.
http://www.ligatus.org.uk/summerschool

Summer school context:
The contribution that bindings can make to our understanding of the
history and culture of the book is often neglected, but they can offer
insights into the study of readership, the booktrade, and the
provenance of books which are often not available elsewhere. In order
to realise this potential, it is important to understand not only the
history of the craft but also to learn how to record what is seen in a
consistent and organised way. Librarians, cataloguers, conservators,
book historians and all scholars who work with early books, need
therefore to understand the structure and materials of the bindings
they encounter in order to be able to record and describe them. Such
descriptions of bindings are not only valuable for the management of
library collections, pursuing academic research and making informed
decisions about conservation, but are also important for digitisation
projects as they can radically enrich the potential of image and text
metadata. It is our belief that bindings should be seen as an integral
part of the book, without which, our understanding of the history and
use of books is often greatly circumscribed.
The purpose of the summer school is to uncover the possibilities
latent in the detailed study of bookbinding and it mainly focuses on
books which have been bound between the fifteenth and the early
nineteenth century. While both courses concentrate in particular on
the structure and materials of bookbindings, each of the two courses
offered in this summer school looks at bindings from different
geographical areas and with a different approach. The first course
looks at the history of bookbinding as it was carried out in Europe in
the period of the hand press (1450-1830), with the opportunity to look
at examples from different collections during the afternoons, while
the second course looks at the development of bookbinding in the
eastern Mediterranean and gives hands-on training in how to observe
and record bindings, again working with examples from the collections.
Part of this course includes technical hands-on session for the
development of a digital documentation system for recording
bookbindings.
The courses are taught in English and each is open to 12 participants.
Although the courses can be attended individually, participants are
encouraged to attend both courses in order to get a more complete
understanding of the issues discussed, through the comparison of the
wide range of bookbindings considered in each week. Since these are
not beginner-level courses, the participants are expected to be
familiar with bookbinding terminology and have a basic knowledge of
the history of book production in the periods under discussion. A
basic understanding of the use of databases is also desirable for
those who will attend the course in the second week.

Description of courses:

Week 1, European Bookbinding 1450-1830
Tutor: Professor N. Pickwoad
This course will follow European bookbinding from the end of the
Middle Ages to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, using the
bindings themselves to illustrate the aims and intentions of the
binding trade. A large part of the course will be devoted to the
identification of both broad and detailed distinctions within the
larger groups of plain commercial bindings and the possibilities of
identifying the work of different countries, cities, even workshops
without reference to finishing tools. The identification and
significance of the different materials used in bookbinding will be
examined, as well as the classification of bookbindings by structural
type, and how these types developed through the three centuries
covered by the course. The development of binding decoration will be
touched on, but will not form a major part of the discussion.
The course consists of ten 90-minute sessions with Powerpoint
presentations (over 800 images will be shown). Actual examples of
bindings will be shown in the first four afternoon sessions while the
final afternoon will look at bookbinding terminology and offer the
opportunity for the discussion of questions and issues raised during
the week.

Week 2, Identifying and recording bookbinding structures
Tutors: Dr. G. Boudalis and Dr. A. Velios
This five-day course will be divided in two interconnected sessions.
The first session, run by Dr. Georgios Boudalis, will focus upon the
major structural and decorative features of the Byzantine and
post-Byzantine bookbindings and their evolution in time and space. The
relationship of these bindings with the early bindings of the Coptic
and other Eastern Mediterranean cultures will be discussed, during
lectures, slide-shows and demonstrations of real bookbindings from
Venetian collections. This session will centre on the influences and
comparisons of these different bookbindings. It will consist of eight
90-minute computer presentations supplemented by hands-on sessions.
The second session will be run by Dr. Athanasios Velios and will deal
with the data management and storage of bookbinding descriptions.
Alongside a brief reference to the relational databases this session
will mainly involve discussions on a) the semantic web and XML, b)
schemas and terminologies for bookbinding descriptions, c) commercial
and open source software options and d) methodologies and workflows
for surveying collection. A large part of this session will be devoted
to the actual development and use of a documentation system for
recording binding structures and the actual recording of specific
bindings. This session will consist of two 90-minutes presentations
and eight 90-minutes hands-on workshops. Basic knowledge of database
use is desirable for this course.

The courses are supported by Ligatus and the University of the Arts,
London, with generous help from the Istituto Ellenico. We have
therefore been able to reduce the cost of the course for this year to
£350.00 per week, excluding travel, meals and accommodation.
A number of accommodation options will be provided to the
participants. A detailed schedule of the courses can be sent upon
request. Applications, including a short CV can be submitted online
(http://www.ligatus.org.uk/summerschool/). For information about
registration please email Ewelina Warner
(e.warner at camberwell.arts.ac.uk) and mark  the message subject with:
'Ligatus Summer School'. A reading list will be sent to those who will
attend the courses in advance. Deadline for applications is the 1st of
July. The participants will be contacted by the end of July.

About the Istituto Ellenico:
The Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in
Venice was founded in 1955 and is housed in the building of the former
Flanghinis College. The Institute's main objective is to study
Byzantine and Post-Byzantine history - focussing primarily on the
history of Greek territories under Latin domination, on the basis of
Italian and in particular Venetian archives - and to publish the
relevant historical sources. Its old library (belonging to the former
Flanghinis College) includes 2,000 volumes produced by the Greek
printing houses of Venice from the 16th to the 18th century. Most of
these old books come from the printing houses of Glykis and
Theodosiou, and are mainly ecclesiastical works and school texts; the
new library includes 30,000 volumes. The library also holds 41
Byzantine and Post-byzantine manuscripts from as early as the 12th
century. The Institute's archive holds an important collection of
documents from as early as 1498 which capture the history of Greeks in
Venice. For more information about the Institute see:
http://www.istitutoellenico.org/

About Venice in September 2011:
Venice always offers a number of great cultural activities including
museums and churches. The summer school coincides with the Venice
Biennale exhibition which is another good reason to join us this year.
For a calendar of events in Venice see:
http://www.comune.venezia.it/flex/FixedPages/IT/Eventi.php/L/EN/YY/2011/MM/9/DD/1

About Ligatus:
Ligatus is a research unit of the University of the Arts London with
particular interest in the history of bookbinding, book conservation,
archiving and the application of digital technology to these fields.
Ligatus's main research projects currently include the conservation of
the books in the library of St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai
and the development of a multi-lingual glossary of bookbinding terms.
Find out more about Ligatus here: http://www.ligatus.org.uk