Paper Conservation: Decisions & Compromises

Figure 2 partial sewing: the blue dental floss in the
injection needle
Figure 3 “half” paper tube glued to the spine of the
textblock and the reverse side of the leather
board over the length of some centimetres. In
the event that the manuscript is often used, the
damage is likely to become more extensive and
the leather could break further.
Considerations for a conservation concept
The aim of the conservation treatment was to
strengthen the connection between textblock
and upper board in order to relieve the two weak
double cords of their great burden and prevent
them from breaking.
Conventionally, the broken cords could have
been reconnected and the torn leather would
have been glued with a new strip of leather. However,
it would have necessitated the removal of
the metal fittings so that the leather on the upper
board could have been lifted up. Solid leather
conservation at the spine would also have required
undoing the plaited headbands, because
of which the leather of the spine could not be
lifted up. Thus the opening between leather and
textblock only extended to a width from about 1
to 4 cm. This implicates that there was not much
space left to work and it would not have been
possible to provide steady counter-pressure for
glueing the leather together, because the spine
is hollow as it was not rubbed in between the
raised double cords.
Each of those considerations would have
meant a great intervention into the original
structure.
Leather conservation alone would not have
affected the stability needed to support the
cords. Nevertheless it was necessary to do something
about the broken leather, as it stuck out
and therefore was in danger of being damaged
through handling.
As the abovementioned possibilities were excluded,
we decided to apply an additional backing
as well as a fold around the first section. Both
the backing and the fold should extend onto the
upper board thus stabilizing the connection to
the board to some extent.
The second question was what to do about the
broken leather, as we decided it was necessary to
at least do something about it. Due to the technical
details described earlier, it would not have
been possible to close the tear with one piece of
new leather as there was not enough space nor
the possibility to press it.
Conservation report
First, all illuminations were consolidated with
the ultrasonic nebulizer with a 0.5 % gelatine
solution.
The pastedown of the upper board was lifted
up with a metal spatula. A fold made of linen
was put around the first section. It was cut
around the cords, so that it could be put around
the section without cutting the sewing thread.
The linen was glued to the verso of the first section
with starch paste.
The next step was an additional spine lining.
New strips of linen were glued onto the original
lining. The spine was brushed with glue while
the linen was brushed with wheat starch paste.
As the gap between the spine of the textblock
and the leather only had a maximum of 4 cm,
it was not possible to glue it across the whole
ICOM-CC Graphic Documents Working Group Interim Meeting | Vienna 17 – 19 April 2013
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