Binding Repair

Disbinding the Ellesmere Chaucer

On April 4, 1994, Anthonoy G. Cains and his colleague Maria Fredricks (conservator of rare books at the Huntington Library) made leaf-by-leaf assessments of the parchment and pigment of the Ellesmere manuscript. Cains and Fredricks were preparing the manuscript for repair and treatment--a two week process. The goal of the disbinding was to observe and record evidence of earlier bindings of the manuscript and treatment and trimming of the leaves. They sought to disbind the manuscript to study the structure of the binding. The binding was redone in 1911, so my analysis of the binding will reflect the 1911 bindings, but also recount where the original binding might have been placed.

Riviere and Sons 1911 Binding and Sewing

• Cover: full, heavily grained used green goatskin (Cape Levant)
• Bands: 6 large raised bands on the spine, each 9mm wide
• Bifolia: three
• Book boards: laced on, and coinceded with the bands--for flexible sowing
• Endleaves: heavy clafskin parchment, two flyleaves and a pastedown.
• Gusset: the endleaves had to be oversewn onto the text block
• Flyleaves: two modern single-sheet, calf parchment flyleaves were left attached, held by the original tipping of animal glue applied by Riviere.
• Slips: sewing cupport, gap between text block and cover
• Spine Folds: good condition, perforations of an earlier sewing
• Pastedowns: parchment pastedowns and flyleaves must have been attached to the text block after gilding. Original pastedowns are gilded.
• Sewing: Riviere sewing through three holes, instead of one or two holes.
• Text: sewn by Riviere on six thin double cords. Sewn through three needle perforations at each station with a thick seaming twine.

Flexible sowing

A strong structure in which each folded book section, or quire, is sewn around single, or double-cord supports that rest on the spine. The ends of these supports lace the book boards onto the text block. When covered, the supports appear on the spine as raised bands (Cains, 130).

Gusset

Examining the inside of the binding included a gusset and the endleaves has been oversewn onto the text block after the text block has been sewn. The rebinding of an old manuscript, showed Cains that the condition of the parchment was good. By separating the manuscript, we learned about the development of all the original perforations, and the changes in sewing and binding.

Separating the Gatherings

The binding was gathered using animal glue and thred. Continuing with Cains' disbinging of the Ellesmere manuscript, first the animal glue and leather fiber was removed from the spinefolds. This was a dangerous process, because the glue could rip the entire manuscript when pulled apart.

Three interior bifolia were removed one at a time without difficulty. However, the researchers left one outer biolium attached to the adjacent quire. If the researchers hydrated the glue making it soft then they could damage the parchment. So, they decided to swab the spine fold with damp cotton wool and water on the glue line. The animal glue became softened and the researchers used a bone folder to separate the parchment.