Problems and Possibilities: Binding and Conserving Books

A discussion of the different skills and approaches taken by binders and conservators of books when approaching repairs, concluding with the decision-making behind rebinding of Fitzwilliam Museum MS 251

The extraordinary universe of Peter Apian: technical investigation of five copies of a 16th-century astronomical book

Funder: Cambridge Humanities Research GrantsIn 1540, in Ingolstadt, Germany, the influential astronomer and printer Peter Apian produced the Astronomicum Caesareum: a printed and hand-coloured astronomical book visualising the Ptolemaic universe through the use of diagrams and wheelcharts, worthy of his imperial patron, Charles V. About 130 copies have survived to this day, with varying degrees of paper quality and level of decoration, and only eleven volumes are considered deluxe copies. We thoroughly analysed one deluxe volume held at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and compared the results with four (one deluxe and three standard) other copies from institutions in the UK. A non-invasive analytical protocol was applied, including extensive microscopy, fibre-optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS), X-ray spectroscopy (XRF), macroscale XRF (MA-XRF) and Raman spectroscopy. The most interesting pages were chosen based on art-historical evidence and the variety of the colour palette, including on volvelles (wheelcharts) and coats of arms. Following a systematic approach, we analysed the same pages in each volume, gathering information on the colour palette in all the volumes. The type of paper and the presence of watermarks were also documented. A wide range of materials was identified in the five copies, including red, purple and yellow organic dyes, lead white, verdigris, vermilion, azurite, indigo, smalt, and lead-tin yellow. Mosaic gold was used to embellish certain paint passages in the deluxe volumes and metals (gold and silver) were applied on some pages. The comprehensive findings were essential to identify specific traits related to Apian’s workshop, to differentiate deluxe from standard copies, to suggest an order of production of the copies, and to provide new information on this landmark book and more generally in an under-researched field of study

The extraordinary universe of Peter Apian: technical investigation of five copies of a 16th-century astronomical book

AbstractIn 1540, in Ingolstadt, Germany, the influential astronomer and printer Peter Apian produced the Astronomicum Caesareum: a printed and hand-coloured astronomical book visualising the Ptolemaic universe through the use of diagrams and wheelcharts, worthy of his imperial patron, Charles V. About 130 copies have survived to this day, with varying degrees of paper quality and level of decoration, and only eleven volumes are considered deluxe copies. We thoroughly analysed one deluxe volume held at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and compared the results with four (one deluxe and three standard) other copies from institutions in the UK. A non-invasive analytical protocol was applied, including extensive microscopy, fibre-optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS), X-ray spectroscopy (XRF), macroscale XRF (MA-XRF) and Raman spectroscopy. The most interesting pages were chosen based on art-historical evidence and the variety of the colour palette, including on volvelles (wheelcharts) and coats of arms. Following a systematic approach, we analysed the same pages in each volume, gathering information on the colour palette in all the volumes. The type of paper and the presence of watermarks were also documented. A wide range of materials was identified in the five copies, including red, purple and yellow organic dyes, lead white, verdigris, vermilion, azurite, indigo, smalt, and lead–tin yellow. Mosaic gold was used to embellish certain paint passages in the deluxe volumes and metals (gold and silver) were applied on some pages. The comprehensive findings were essential to identify specific traits related to Apian’s workshop, to differentiate deluxe from standard copies, to suggest an order of production of the copies, and to provide new information on this landmark book and more generally in an under-researched field of study.</jats:p

Animal origin of 13th-century uterine vellum revealed using noninvasive peptide fingerprinting

The authors acknowledge Science Foundation Ireland European Research Council (ERC) Support Award 12/ERC/B2227, Valeria Mattiangeli, and the Trinity Genome Sequencing Laboratory (TrinSeq) for MiSeq support. This work was supported by the Marie Curie International Fellowship PALIMPSEST FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF 299101, a University of Manchester Research Institute seedcorn grant, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship funding, and ERC Investigator Grant 295729-CodeX.Tissue-thin parchment made it possible to produce the first pocket Bibles: Thousands were made in the 13th century. The source of this parchment, often called “uterine vellum,” has been a long-standing controversy in codicology. Use of the Latin term abortivum in many sources has led some scholars to suggest that the skin of fetal calves or sheep was used. Others have argued that it would not be possible to sustain herds if so many pocket Bibles were produced from fetal skins, arguing instead for unexpected alternatives, such as rabbit. Here, we report a simple and objective technique using standard conservation treatments to identify the animal origin of parchment. The noninvasive method is a variant on zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) peptide mass fingerprinting but extracts protein from the parchment surface by using an electrostatic charge generated by gentle rubbing of a PVC eraser on the membrane surface. Using this method, we analyzed 72 pocket Bibles originating in France, England, and Italy and 293 additional parchment samples that bracket this period. We found no evidence for the use of unexpected animals; however, we did identify the use of more than one mammal species in a single manuscript, consistent with the local availability of hides. These results suggest that ultrafine vellum does not necessarily derive from the use of abortive or newborn animals with ultrathin hides, but could equally well reflect a production process that allowed the skins of maturing animals of several species to be rendered into vellum of equal quality and fineness.PostprintPeer reviewe