The Montefiascone Project 2022
Early nineteenth century American and English Bookbinding: Machines, Materials, Structures, and Tools.
Taught by Jeff Peachey / Montefiascone, Italy / August 2022
On this course, we examined the evolution of common book structures in early 19th Century England and America.
We did this through the construction of four book models:
an English common-boards binding
an American extra-boards binding
an American tight-back cloth binding
and an English cloth case
We explored methods of replicating plain and textured nineteenth century bookcloth, starting with undyed muslin, which will be useful for conserving and sympathetically rebinding books from this time. We also followed contemporary bookbinding manuals, analysed bindery images, and used historic tools to enhance our understanding of bookbinding practices in this time period.
