[EKStationers] Fwd: ["EXLIBRIS-L"] Folger launches Bindings Image Database

[Wendy Gale]

Bonjour mes amis!

I thought people might be interested in the announcement below.

         -Sabine


---------- Forwarded message ----------
The Folger Shakespeare Library is pleased to announce public access to
a new database of digital images: the Folger Bindings Image
Collection, now accessible as an additional resource at
http://luna.folger.edu, or via direct link.

About this database:

The Folger Bindings Image Collection provides access to high
resolution images and descriptions of bindings from the rare book and
manuscript collections of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Bindings are
chosen from the collection for photography and description not only
because of decorative tooling but also for their physical features as
functional objects and cultural artifacts. Recording information about
binding structure and decoration can reveal items where the same or
similar tools may have been used at different times by different
binders or binding workshops. Uncovering such similarities can also
help link multiple bindings to individual owners, collectors, binders,
or workshops --even in cases where a binder may be as yet unidentified
--as well as to specific geographical regions or time periods.


Contents of the database:

Included among the over 3,000 images depicting over 1,000 bindings are
descriptions and depictions of:

·         bindings in our collection of incunabula, including for
instance this 15th century German half-leather and wood board binding
on a 1481 Nuremberg edition of Platina's Vitae pontificum;

·         bindings by specific people or workshops, for instance by
the 18th century English bookbinder Roger Payne; and a
newly-identified group of bindings referred to here as by the "Tulip
Spine Binder, ca. 1670";

·         fore-edges that are gauffered or painted;

·         identified and unidentified armorial bindings.


Most of the records in this database represent new bindings research
and photography created by Folger Rare Bindings Specialist and former
Head of Conservation J. Franklin Mowery, with the assistance of
Bindings Database Intern Rachel Bartgis. Some of the contents of the
database were imported from past projects, including: a 1992
exhibition catalog Fine and Historic Bookbindings from the Folger
Shakespeare Library, by Frederick A. Bearman, Nati H. Krivatsy, J.
Franklin Mowery, photographs by Julie Ainsworth; a
previously-unpublished guide to The Bindings of Edward Gwynn in the
Folger Shakespeare Library, by J. Franklin Mowery; and
previously-unpublished conservation documentation and photography of
Shakespeare First Folio bindings in the Folger Library, by J. Franklin
Mowery.


Continuing work:


Work on the Folger Bindings Collection continues, focused on: revision
of existing entries; upgrading existing image files; addition of
information and images for newly-researched bindings; continued
addition of terms from the RBMS controlled vocabulary, Binding Terms:
A Thesaurus for Use in Rare Book and Special Collections Cataloging,
updating vocabulary lists, a bibliography, and additional links to
other resources.


Corrections, additions, and questions would be welcome.



Please email: fmowery at folger.edu or bindingshelp at folger.edu.



Stephen Enniss

Eric Weinmann Librarian

Folger Shakespeare Library

201 East Capitol Street, SE

Washington, DC  20003

202-675-0327

202-675-0313 (fax)