Identifying and Recording Bookbinding Structures for Conservation and 
Cataloguing

Institut National du Patrimoine and Centre Culturel des Irlandais, Paris

3-7 September 2012

*Due to last minute cancellations there are 4 places left for week 1*

http://www.ligatus.org.uk/summerschool

Tutors: Dr. G. Boudalis and Dr. A. Velios
This five-day course is divided into two interconnected sessions. The 
sessions on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are shared by Dr Velios and Dr 
Boudalis, but this year participants of this course will be asked to 
select one of two concurrent sessions for both Thursday and Friday.
Dr. Georgios Boudalis, will focus on the major structural and decorative 
features of Byzantine and post-Byzantine bookbindings and their 
evolution in time and space. The relationship of these bindings with the 
early bindings of the Coptic and other Eastern Mediterranean cultures 
will be discussed, during lectures, slide-shows and demonstrations of 
real bookbindings from Parisian collections. This part of the course 
will concentrate on the influences of and comparisons between these 
different types of bookbinding. It will consist of six (shared) 
90-minute presentations from Monday to Wednesday, supplemented by a two 
day workshop on Thursday and Friday during which participants who chose 
to attend will bind a small book in the Byzantine technique.
The other part of the course will be taught by Dr. Athanasios Velios and 
will deal with the methodologies and techniques that can be used to 
record bookbindings. After an introduction on the capacity and scope of 
each methodology and technique, this session will focus on a) the 
semantic web and the CIDOC conceptual reference model, b) standardised 
vocabularies for book descriptions (SKOS), c) the development of 
database schemas for both the relational and the hierarchical model, d) 
the advantages of various implementation tools and e) photographic 
records and workflows for large collection surveys.
A large part of this session will be devoted to the actual development 
and use of a sample of a bookbinding glossary, a documentation system 
for recording binding structures and the actual recording of specific 
bindings. This session will consist of six (shared) 90-minute 
presentations from Monday to Wednesday and eight 90-minute hands-on 
workshops on Thursday and Friday for those students who chose to attend 
them. A basic knowledge of the use of databases is desirable for this 
course.

The courses are supported by Ligatus and the University of the Arts 
London, with generous help from the Institut National du Patrimoine and 
the Centre Culturel des Irlandais. We have therefore been able to reduce 
the cost of the course for this year to £350.00 per week, excluding 
travel, meals and accommodation.

A number of accommodation options will be provided to the participants. 
A detailed schedule of the courses can be sent upon request. 
Applications, including a short CV can be submitted online

For information about registration please e-mail Karen Di Franco 
([log in to unmask] ) and give the e-mail subject as: 'Ligatus Summer 
School'. A reading list will be sent in advance to those who will attend 
the courses. The deadline for applications is 1 July. The participants 
will be contacted by the end of July.

www.inp.fr
www.centreculturelirlandais.com
www.ligatus.org.uk