Ligatus Summer School 2022

University of the Arts London / Dublin, Ireland / September 2022

A survey of the history of bookbinding structures in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean regions.  We learned about the evolution of bookbinding styles and materials, and also ways to record and describe bookbinding information.  

We also looked at examples from the collections of Edward Worth Library and the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin.  

European Bookbinding Structures 1450-1830, Prof. Nicholas Pickwoad

This course covered the identification of broad and detailed distinctions of commercial bindings, and the possibilities of identifying the work of different countries, cities, or even workshops without reference to finishing tools. We also examined the identification and significance of the different materials used in bookbinding, as well as the classification of bookbindings by structural type, and how these types developed through the three centuries covered in the course. 

Eastern Mediterranean Bookbinding Structures, Dr. Georgios Boudalis

This course focused on the major structural and decorative features of the different bookbinding traditions that have developed in the eastern Mediterranean – including the Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian and Islamic – with a special focus on the Byzantine and post-Byzantine bookbindings. 

Linked Data for Bookbinding Research, Dr. Athanasios Velios

On this course, we learned methodologies and techniques used to record bookbinding information.  We learned about Linked Data, the semantic web and the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM), and also some standardised vocabularies for book descriptions (Language of Bindings and SKOS).  We also practiced developing and mapping database schemas for book descriptions. 

Class lecture at the Chester Beatty by Dr. Georgios Boudalis, looking at their collection of Eastern Mediterranean bindings