Ligatus Summer School 2024

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26 – 30 August and 2 – 6 September
Leuven, Belgium

Deadline for applications: 21 June 2024
Successful applicants to be contacted by end of June 2024
Deadline for fee payment: 31 July 2024

The 2024 Ligatus Summer School is co-organised with the Saint Catherine Foundation and it will take place in Leuven, Belgium, in collaboration with the University of Leuven with visits to the Royal Library of Belgium.

The courses will be taught in the Maurits Sabbe Library in the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, one of the largest and richest libraries of its sort in the world. The heart of the rare books collection is formed by two historic libraries: the Library of the Northern Belgian Province of the Society of Jesus and the Library of the Major Seminary of the Archdiocese of Mechelen. Over the years, the collection has grown substantially with the addition of over eighty collections mainly from religious orders and congregations as well as valuable private libraries. Students in Week 1 will be shown books from this collection, but there will also be a visit to the Royal Library in Brussels for students of each of the courses in Week 1 and Week 2A .

Background
The contribution that bindings can make to our understanding of the history and culture of the book is often neglected, but they can offer insights into the study of readership, the book trade, and the provenance of books that are often not available elsewhere. In order to realise this potential, it is important to learn not only the history of the craft but also how to record what is seen in a consistent and organised way. Librarians, cataloguers, conservators, book historians, book collectors and all scholars who work with early books can benefit from understanding the structure and materials of the bindings they encounter and knowing how to record and describe them.
Clear descriptions of bindings are invaluable for the management of library collections, pursuing academic research and making informed decisions about conservation. They are also important for digitisation projects, as they can radically enrich the potential of image and text metadata. It is our belief that bindings should be seen as an integral part of the book, without which our understanding of the history and use of books is often greatly circumscribed.
The main purpose of the Summer School is to uncover the possibilities latent in the detailed study of bookbinding. Both courses offered in this Summer School look at bindings from different geographical areas and with a different approach.

Week 1 (26 – 30 August): European Bookbinding 1450-1830

Tutor: Professor N. Pickwoad

This course will follow European bookbinding from the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, using the bindings themselves to illustrate the aims and intentions of the binding trade. A large part of the course will be devoted to the identification of both broad and detailed distinctions within the larger groups of plain commercial bindings and the possibilities of identifying the work of different countries, cities, even workshops without reference to finishing tools. The identification and significance of the different materials used in bookbinding will be examined, as well as the classification of bookbindings by structural type, and how these types developed through the three centuries covered by the course. The development of binding decoration will be touched on, but will not form a major part of the discussion.
The course consists of ten 90-minute sessions with Powerpoint presentations (over 800 images will be shown), with the examination of a large variety of bookbindings in the afternoon sessions.

Week 2A (2 – 4 September): Eastern Mediterranean Bookbinding Structures

Tutor: Dr Georgios Boudalis

This course will focus on the major structural and decorative features of the different bookbinding traditions that have evolved in the eastern Mediterranean – including the Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian and Islamic – with special focus on the Byzantine and post-Byzantine bookbindings. The aim is to look closely at the different components - sewing of the bookblocks, board attachments, endbands, decoration, fastenings etc - and follow the evolution of these closely related bookbindings, in order to establish their similarities and differences. The course will consist of six 90-minute presentations and examinations of real bookbindings from the Royal Library's collection.

Week 2B (4 – 6 September): Linked Data for bookbinding description

Tutor: Dr Athanasios Velios

This course will be taught by Dr Athanasios Velios and will deal with the methodologies and techniques that can be used to record bookbindings. Sessions will focus on: a) Linked Data, the semantic web and the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM); b) standardised vocabularies for book descriptions (Language of Bindings and SKOS); c) the development of database schemas for book descriptions; d) mapping bookbinding description databases to CIDOC-CRM and publishing Linked Data. This course will consist of a combination of presentations and hands-on workshops. Participants will require to bring their own laptops in order to follow the hands-on workshops. Instructions on the necessary software will be circulated in advance of the course. Participants will work in pairs during the hands-on workshops.

Course Fees

Week 1 (Pickwoad): €450
Week 2A (Velios): €250
Week 2B (Boudalis): €250
Week 2 (both courses): €450

Please note that course fees cover tuition only. Participants are responsible for arranging their own travel, visas, insurance, accommodation, meals etc. during the School. Due to the short period from the payment deadline to the beginning of the course, the fees are not refundable.

Book History at the KU Leuven

In the Maurits Sabbe Library of KU Leuven, the Book Heritage Lab is located, an interdisciplinary research centre founded in 2016. The lab focuses on diagnosis, research and conservation of medieval manuscripts, early printed books, bookbindings and documentary heritage. The researchers concentrate on material history, book archaeology, preservation and scientific imaging. Prof. Lieve Watteeuw and guest professor Alberto Campagnolo are coordinators of the Book Heritage lab.

Several other research Centers at KU Leuven are focusing on manuscript and rare book studies:

About Leuven

Leuven is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is a captivating city, blending history, culture, and gastronomy. Home to one of Europe's oldest universities and the city where Sir Thomas More’s Utopia was first printed, it preserves much of its medieval and early modern architecture, with architectural marvels like St. Peter's Church and the extravagantly decorated University Library, rebuilt after the destruction of the old library at the beginning of the First World War. The vibrant student population means lively cafes and a variety of cultural events.

About the Saint Catherine Foundation

The Saint Catherine Foundation and its related organizations in the USA and Switzerland support conservation work at Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai, Egypt. The foundations in London, New York, and Geneva collaborate with leading universities, museums, libraries and other institutions on cultural, educational and fundraising events and initiatives in Europe, the US and beyond. Partners include the Metropolitan Museum (New York), the British Library (London), State Hermitage Museum (St Petersburg), and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Alexandria). The Foundation has been collaborating with Ligatus researchers over the past 20 years.

About Ligatus

Ligatus undertakes work in the history of bookbinding, book conservation, archiving and the application of digital technology to the exploration of these fields. Ligatus is host to the Language of Bindings (LoB) thesaurus of bookbinding terms and the Linked Conservation Data project.