Course Description
A historical approach to bookbinding, tracing influences from the Near- and Middle-East through Europe, with examples from the eighth century to the late twentieth century. Topics include: the emergence and development of various decorative techniques and styles; readership and collecting; the history of bookbinding in a wider historical context; the pitfalls and possibilities of binding research. Enrollment in this course is limited to those who have already taken either Jan Storm van Leeuwen’s Introduction to the History of Bookbinding (B-10) or Nicholas Pickwoad’s European Bookbinding, 1500-1800 (B-60).There are two ways in which to approach the history of European decorative bindings: chronologically and thematically. This course combines both, in that it will treat decorative bookbinding in a series of themes and episodes. The themes (the relation between form and use; the influence of the spread of learning and the increase in readership on binding structure and design; styles and designs; patronage and collecting; the economics of the binding trade) may cover considerable chronological periods. They will be illustrated by episodes: in-depth treatment of specific manifestations or specific periods (e.g. twelfth-century Paris; monastic reform; turbulence in the nineteenth century). The course will be extensively illustrated with slides, and there will be a field trip to inspect actual examples.
The course is aimed at librarians, antiquarian book dealers, collectors, and conservators with an interest in history. Students should have a basic knowledge of European history and of the history of book production, as well as an understanding of book structures and a familiarity with bibliographical description and bookbinding terms. Please indicate any relevant previous training and/or experience you have had in this field, and state your own area of special interest. NB: students will in general not be able to touch or handle personally the books shown to them in class, because of the fragility and/or value of the material being used. Students who suspect that they will find this restriction overly frustrating are discouraged from applying for admission to the course.
Advance Reading List
General
Items marked * are essential. Read, or browse through, the other items on this list if you have time, before you come to class.
1. Foot, Mirjam M. The Henry Davis Gift, 2 vols. London: The British Library, 1978, 1983.
2. Foot, Mirjam M. Studies in the History of Bookbinding. Aldershot: Scholar Press, 1993.
3. *Goldschmidt, E[rnst]. P. Gothic & Renaissance Bookbindings, 2 vols. London: Ernest Benn/Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1928. Especially the introduction.
4. *Needham, Paul. Twelve Centuries of Bookbindings 400-1600. New York: Pierpont Morgan Library/London: Oxford University Press, 1979.
5. Nixon, Howard M. Broxbourne Library. Styles and Designs of Bookbindings from the Twelfth to the Twentieth Century. London: Maggs Brothers, 1956.
6. ______. Sixteenth-Century Gold-tooled Bookbindings in the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1971.
English
7. Hobson, G.D. English Bindings 1490-1940 in the Library of J.R. Abbey. London: privately printed, 1940.
8. *Middleton, Bernard C. A History of English Craft Bookbinding Technique. London 1963; second supplemented edn. London: Holland Press, 1978.
9. Nixon, Howard M. Five Centuries of English Bookbinding. London: Scholar Press, 1978.
10. *______, and Mirjam M. Foot. The History of Decorated Bookbinding in England. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.
11. Oldham, J. Basil. Blind Panels of English Binders. Cambridge University Press, 1958; reprinted NY: Garland, 1990.
12. _____. English Blind-Stamped Bindings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952; reprinted NY: Garland, 1990.
13. Pollard, H. Graham. “Changes in the Style of Bookbinding, 1550-1830,” in The Library, 5th ser 11 (1956), 71-94.
Early Bindings
14. Hobson, G. D. English Binding Before 1500. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1929.
15. Pollard, Graham. “The Construction of English 12th-Century Bindings,” in The Library, 5th ser 17 (1962), 1-22.
16.______. “Some Anglo-Saxon Bookbindings,” in The Book Collector 24 (1975), 130-59; use with caution.
17. Roberts, Colin H. and T. C. Skeat. The Birth of the Codex, 2nd edition. London: Oxford University Press, 1987.
18. Szirmai, J. A. The archaeology of medieval bookbinding. Aldershot & Brookfield, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 1999.
Medieval/Blind-Tooled Bindings
19. Foot, Mirjam M. “English Decorated Bookbindings,” in Jeremy Griffiths and Derek Pearsall, ed. Book Production and Publishing in Britain, 1375-1475. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 198 9.
20. Gid, Denise. Catalogue des reliures fran�aises estamp�es � froid (xve-xvie si�cle) de la Biblioth�que Mazarine, 2 vols. Paris: �ditions du CNRS, 1984.
21. Pollard, Graham. “The Names of Some English Fifteenth-Century Binders,” in The Library 5th ser 25 (1970), 193-218.
French
22. De Hamel, C[hristopher] F. R. Glossed Books of the Bible and the Origin of the Paris Booktrade. Woodbridge, Suffolk: D. S. Brewer, 1984; pp 64-86.
23. Devauchelle, Roger. La reliure en France de ses origines � nos jours, 3 vols. Paris: J. Rousseau-Girard, 1959-61.
24. Devaux, Yves. Dix si�cles de reliure. Paris: Editions Pygmalion, 1977; new edn 1981.
25. Gruel, L�on.Manuel historique et bibliographique de l’amateur de reliures, 2 vols. Paris: Gruel & Englemann, 1887, 1905.
26. Laffitte, Marie-Pierre and Fabienne Le Bars. Reliures royales de la Renaissance: La Librarie de Fontainebleau. Paris: Biblioth�que nationale de France, 1999.
27. Michon, Louis-Marie La reliure fran�aise. Paris: Larousse, 1951.
28. _____. Les reliures mosa�qu�es du XVIIIe si�cle. Paris: Soci�t� de la Reliure Originale, 1956.
29. [Nixon, Howard M.] Bookbindings from the Library of Jean Grolier. London: British Museum, 1965.
30. Thoinan, Ernest [=Antoine Ernest Rocquet]. Les relieurs fran�ais (1500-1800). Paris: Paul, Huard & Guillemin, 1893.
Spanish
31. Hueso Rolland, Francisco. Exposici�n de Encuadernaciones Espa�olas. Madrid: [Blass], 1934 [=1935].
32. Thomas, Henry. Early Spanish Bookbindings. London: The Bibliographical Society, 1939.
Italian
33. Hobson, A[nthony] R. A. Apollo and Pegasus. Amsterdam: Van Heusden, 1975.
34. _____. Humanists and Bookbinders. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989./P>
35. Marinis, Tammaro de. La legatura artistica in Italia, 3 vols. Florence: Fratelli Alinari, 1960.
German
36. Kyriss, Ernst. Verzierte gotische Einb�nde im alten deutschen Sprachgebiet, 4 vols. Stuttgart: Max Hettler, 1951-58.
37. Rabenau, Konrad von, with Susanne Rothe and Andreas Wittenberg. Deutsche Bucheinb�nde der Renaissance um Jakob Krause, Hofbuchbinder des Kurf�rsten August I. von Sachsen. 2 vols. Brussels: Bibliotheca Wittockiana.
Course History
- 1993–2002
Mirjam Foot taught this course several times during this period.