21 – 25 September (Rome, Italy) and 28 September – 2 October (Rome, Italy)
Deadline for applications: 3 July 2026
Successful applicants to be contacted by mid July 2026
Deadline for fee payment: 31 July 2026
The 2026 Ligatus Summer School is co-organised with the Saint Catherine Foundation and it will take place in Rome, in collaboration with the Biblioteca Universitaria Alessandrina, of La Sapienza University, where the daily lecture sessions will be held.
In Rome, material from the following libraries will be examined:
- Biblioteca Universitaria Alessandrina
- Biblioteca Angelica
- Biblioteca Casanatense
- Biblioteca Vallicelliana
- Library of the Venerable English College
- Archivio di Stato
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. All three courses offered in this Summer School look at bindings from different geographical areas and with a different approach.
20 years of the Ligatus Summer School
2026 marks 20 years since the first Ligatus Summer School, which took place in Volos in Greece. Over this period hundreds of participants have joined the Summer School courses and benefitted from and contributed to them. Many of them engaged with Ligatus at research level and many have moved on to be leading figures in the field of book history and conservation.
2026 also marks 25 years from the beginning of the St. Catherine's condition survey, the project which led to Ligatus and the Summer School as well as the Language of Bindings thesaurus.
To mark the extraordinary contribution of these three projects to the domain of book history and book conservation, we are planning a special event in the weekend between the two Summer School weeks in Rome, details of which will be published soon.
Week 1 (21 - 25 September): European Bookbinding 1450-1830
Rome
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 in the collections not only of our host institution, the Biblioteca Alessandrina, but also the Biblioteca Angelica, the Biblioteca Casanatense, the Biblioteca Vallicelliana, the library of the Venerable English College and the Archivio di Stato (the original home of the Biblioteca Alessandrina). An additional visit to the Vatican Library is currently under discussion.
Week 2A (28 – 30 September): Linked Data for bookbinding description
Rome
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.
Week 2B (30 September – 2 October): Eastern Mediterranean Bookbinding Structures
Rome
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 explain their making and evolution in time, place and cultural context. . These different but at the same time rather closely related bookbindings, wherever possible, will be considered in the wider material culture context within which they were produced. The course will consist of six 90-minute PowerPoint presentations and examinations of some real bookbindings from one or more libraries in Rome still to be decided.
Course Fees
- Week 1 (Pickwoad): £470
- Week 2 (both courses): £470
- Week 2A (Velios): £250
- Week 2B (Boudalis): £250
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.
Biblioteca Universitaria Alessandrina, La Sapienza University
The Biblioteca Alessandrina was established by Pope Alexander VII Chigi to serve Rome’s Studium Urbis in the building now occupied by the Archivio di Stato, which we will be visiting in the first week of the Summer School. The library room was designed by the architect Francesco Borromini, who drew up plans for its grand, monumental hall, adjacent to the Church of St Ivo, within the Palazzo della Sapienza, on what is now the Corso del Rinascimento. By the end of 1670, when it opened to the public, the Library held some 30,000 volumes and was equipped with an alphabetical catalogue by author and a subject catalogue. In the following centuries, it was enriched by significant acquisitions and donations, whilst the logical organisation of the collections was refined. In 1810, the Library obtained the right of publication for the entire territory of the Papal States and, in 1870, with the transfer to the Italian State, for the province of Rome. As the space allocated to the book collections became insufficient, the library was transferred in 1935 to the Rettorato building of the new university campus. In the 1980s, the original building was renovated to provide the library with more space for services. Since 1990, the Library has been part of the National Library Service and is responsible for the Rome RML State Public Libraries Network.
About Rome
Rome is a major world city with an unparalleled wealth of archaeological, architectural and artistic treasures and needs no introduction from us. As the capital city of the of the Roman empire, it is famous for the vast remains of the great classical city, but it is also the centre of the Catholic Church, and is, as a consequence, rich in magnificent libraries, a number of which will be hosting visits by students of our courses. There are many museums, of course, and other delights as well, including bars, cafés and restaurants of every sort, seemingly at every corner. The metro works well (and is the best way to get to La Sapienza) and the buses do much of the time, but not always.
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.