Cover research

Chain book , 15th century binding, wooden book cover covered with embossed leather ; incorporated several incunabula

The cover Research (or cover customer ) is an auxiliary science and part art of the book and library history . It pursues the primary goal of tracing the history of book covers , their shapes, functions, their decoration and their production , to be able to draw conclusions about the places of origin and the dating of both the covers themselves and the book contents.

Other areas of work in binding research are research into the development of the bookbinding trade , including its sociological and economic implications, the unmasking of forged bindings, and the cultural and political task of providing an interested public with access to the subject of binding through exhibitions and publications.

history

Binding research is a relatively young branch of science. After initial approaches in the 18th century, it did not become more interested until the 19th century. The beginnings can be found in bibliophile circles. Until the 18th century it was still customary to replace old bindings with new ones in order to standardize the style of a library , but in the historicizing period of the 19th century it became fashionable to have your treasures bound in the style of the time . The collectors slowly developed into connoisseurs who built up collections of covers and began to research the history of artistic decoration. Out of this interest came the first table work of historical bindings, edited by Thomas Gibson Craig (1799–1886), who is therefore regarded as an early binding researcher.

Most of the collections were sold after their owners died and so often ended up in museums and libraries. Inspired by this, librarians and antiquarians began to show developments in cover forms, techniques and artistic design for the first time. Historians and bookbinders supplemented this knowledge with knowledge of the history of the profession and its manufacture. In the first few years, the librarians Walther Dolch and Friedrich Adolf Ebert stood out by cataloging bindings, Richard Steche as the author of the first history of the binding and Paul Schwenke by creating the first German collection of rubbings and his impetus for historical-critical and comparative research from bindings. He recognized that the cover in particular can provide valuable information about the history and origin of a book.

Schwenke thus became the forerunner of a movement that established the temporal and local binding determination and the associated workshop determination by stamp comparison as the most important branch of research and thus promoted binding research to a recognized science. As early as 1926, description guidelines became binding for all German libraries, which provided for all essential aspects for determining the binding. In addition to the artistically valuable bindings, utility bindings have also become interesting as comparison materials. In 1935 the technique of analyzing the style of binding jewelry was developed. It is this detailed examination and comparison of individual bindings allowed a history of cover art, which now cover the entire spectrum of creation, from the hand cover to industrially produced Verlag cover includes.

Working materials and methods

Rubbing through stamps on a book cover as part of cover research

The most common method of determining hand bindings is the comparison of individual forms of jewelry, from which conclusions can be drawn about the tools (stamps, rollers and plates) with which they were made. Against the background of detailed knowledge about the development of style, bindings can, in the best case, be assigned to individual workshops or bookbinders , or at least to an epoch or region. Since each binding researcher usually only has a limited number of originals available, reproductions play a crucial role. As before, panel works (which mostly depict an excerpt from library or other collections) and cover catalogs offer a broad basis of comparison options. There are also antiquarian or auction catalogs , as well as library and museum guides. In addition, there are self-made photographs and, above all, cover rubbings, which are highly valued due to their distortion-free and size-identical representation.

The determination can be carried out for bindings from the 15th and 16th centuries using the binding database .

Understandably, the comparison of the decorations is limited to those bindings that allow a comparison at all due to a certain degree of decoration. Since historically only a small percentage of the bindings received elaborate decorations, while the majority of the practical bindings remained unadorned or poorly decorated, additional knowledge must be drawn on in order to be able to determine such a binding. Detailed knowledge about the historical development of the binding method, about changes in the production and use of materials are also part of the tools of a binding researcher.

In order to systematically process the source material for comparison, it is therefore necessary to examine the documented objects from all of these points of view and then to catalog them according to the rules of the cover description:

• A title recording of the enclosed work according to bibliographical criteria
• The binding dimensions
• The material of the book cover and the cover fabrics
• Shape and division of the spine as well as number and type of frets
• Information on the capital approach and capital expenditure
• Nature of the cuts and the type and design of the cut decoration
• Appearance and material of the fittings and clasps
• Information on the stapling technique , the connection of the layers , connection with the spine and cover as well as the nature and appearance of the endpaper
• Description of the cover decoration with a focus on the tools (stamps, rolls and plates), the decoration forms and representations including their size and arrangement
• References to handwritten entries and a precise description of any possible waste
• Based on the information given above, an estimate of the origin and time of creation
• Mention of the binding artists, such as bookbinders, stamp cutters , goldsmiths or exam makers
• Findings about the provenance of the book, for example through ownership notes
• The literature used

Incorrect dating is not uncommon in the cover literature. Preparatory work must therefore always be viewed with a critical eye.

Connection to related sciences

Binding research is in very close contact with disciplines such as manuscript studies , the history of printing and art , philology and the history of technology . For example, the waste used in bindings can produce decisive findings for the linguistics concerned as well as for the history of manuscripts and printing, the history of book cover design can be related to art-historical knowledge or details from the bookbinding trade can lead to advances in economic and social research to lead.

literature

• Hellmuth Helwig: Introduction to Binding . Anton Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1970, ISBN 3-7772-7008-3 .
• Otto Mazal : Binding customer . Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-88226-888-3 .
• Friedrich-Adolf Schmidt-Kunsemüller: Binding research . In: Severin Corsten (Ed.): Lexicon of the entire book system . tape 2 . Anton Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-7772-8527-7 .
• Friedrich-Adolf Schmidt-Kunsemüller: Hundred years of binding research . In: Werner Arnold (Ed.): Research into book and library history in Germany . Paul Raabe on his 60th birthday. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1987, ISBN 3-447-02716-9 , pp. 156-166 .
• Heinrich Schreiber: Introduction to binding knowledge . Anton Hiersemann, Leipzig 1932 ( digitized version )
• Ilse Schunke : Introduction to binding determination . Master of binding art, Munich 1974 (study sheets for binding technology and design, 5).

Web links

• Homepage of the working group for the collection, indexing and preservation of historical book covers , with an office at the Berlin State Library
• Belgisch-Nederlands Boekbandengenootschap. Retrieved June 7, 2017 (Dutch). 
• The youngest branch of book studies Angelika Pabel
• Cover database including motifs thesaurus; DFG- funded joint project of several libraries
• Further databases and collections for publisher and manuscript covers

Document information

1. ^ Mazal: Binding customer . P. 345 f.
2. ↑ Mazal. Binding customer . 1997. pp. 344-348.
3. ↑ Mazal. Binding customer . 1997. p. 348 f.
4. ↑ Helwig: Introduction to binding knowledge . Pp. 178-183.
5. ^ Schmidt-Kunsemüller: Einbandforschung . In: Corsten (Hrsg.): Lexicon of the entire book system . Vol. 2., p. 429.
6. ↑ Mazal. Binding customer . 1997. pp. 351 f.
7. ↑ Mazal. Binding customer . 1997. p. 345 f.