``CC11'' --- 2009/9/23 --- 15:54 --- page 105 --- #117 The repar and rebndng hstory of blockbooks prnted n the f eenth-century now n the Bodlean Lbrary by Andrew Honey Bodlean Lbrary, Oxford The ntentons of earler owners of prnted books when commssonng the repar or rebndng of ndvdual volumes has largely been lost n the msts of tme, though the resultng repars and rebound volumes survve n large numbers. Lkewse the reasonng and decson-makng process of the bookbnders who undertook ths work s now dffcult to recover. The work recently completed at the Bodlean lbrary to catalogue the lbrary s collecton of ncunabula offered an opportunty to compare the approaches taken wth one form of f eenth-century book whlst allowng comparsons to be made wth other f eenth-century volumes bound or repared at the same tme for the same owners. Ths paper wll concentrate on the repar and rebndng of four blockbooks, carred out n the late eghteenth and early nneteenth centures for three separate owners, and wll a empt to explore both the ntentons of these owners and the methods of ther bnders. Blockbooks are a form of f eenth-century book whose unusual codcologcal structures have posed partcular problems for bookbnders both ancent and modern. 1 The term blockbook descrbes a book or booklet whose text and/or llustratons were prnted from ncsed woodblocks wthout recourse to movable type; Palmer has refned ths defnton further, however, descrbng them as sets of plates, prnted by woodcut or much more rarely the metalcut or ntaglo method, and desgned to be to be made up nto a codex consstng of one or more qures or of folded double leaves. 2 The domnant codcologcal features of blockbooks could be categorsed as ncludng the followng, though all of these features are not necessarly present n each example: 105
``CC11'' --- 2009/9/23 --- 15:54 --- page 106 --- #118 1. Beng prnted on one sde of the paper only ( anopsthographc ), wth the sheet of paper beng placed on the block and then rubbed from the reverse. 2. Beng prnted usng water-based prntng nks. 3. Beng prnted from pars of plates. The resultng seres of prnted double leaves could ether exst as a seres of ndvdual bfola, or the blocks could be arranged so that the bfola were grouped nto qures. In both cases the blank versos of the sheets, necesstated by ther prntng process, appear to have been pasted together n ther fnal book form. The nterventons of the later eghteenth and nneteenth centures have destroyed nnety per cent of the evdence for the orgnal presentaton of medeval blockbooks 3 makng t now dffcult to state clearly what ther orgnal structure would have been, or how or whether blockbooks were orgnally sewn. 4 The Bodlean Lbrary n Oxford has a small but mportant collecton of f eenth-century blockbooks whch were recently catalogued as part of the larger catalogue of Bodlean Incunabula. 5 These volumes, although a small collecton by comparson wth the much more numerous holdngs n London, Munch, Pars and New York, have been descrbed as of exceptonal mportance for our early understandng of early woodcut prntng and ts functon. 6 The ndvdual volumes that comprse ths collecton entered the lbrary n the seventeenth, eghteenth and nneteenth centures from a range of prvate and nsttutonal owners. Although none of these volumes now retan ther orgnal f eenth-century bndngs, glmpses of ther orgnal structure have been preserved and these have been noted and descrbed snce around 1700. Subsequent repar and rebndng of these volumes carred out by prvate collectors pror to ther arrval at the Bodlean and later by the Bodlean tself have preserved dfferent aspects of ths codcologcal evdence. A bref overvew of the eght blockbooks now at the Bodlean s gven n Table 2; for detaled descrptons ncludng the bndngs refer to the Bod-nc. catalogue. Ths study s based on research undertaken durng the preparaton of bndng descrptons for ths catalogue and ts provenance research. Ths paper, n three case studes, wll compare the dfferng approaches taken to the rebndng and repar of four of these blockbooks carred out n the late eghteenth and early nneteenth centures wth reference to other prnted and manuscrpt volumes repared/rebound for the same 106
``CC11'' --- 2009/9/23 --- 15:54 --- page 107 --- #119 Table 2. Overvew of f eenth-century blockbooks now n the Bodlean Lbrary, Oxford. Items n bold are dscussed n ths paper, blockbook fragments are marked wth an asterx. Date of mpresson Date of Bodlean accesson Gven to the Bodlean by Date of bndng Bound for BB-1 Apocalypse [Edton I/II state II] BB-2 Apocalypse [Edton IV state E] BB-3 Apocalypse c. 1466 70 1834 Francs Douce (1757 1834) c. 1470 1639 Wllam Laud (1573 1645) Before 1826 Before 1639 John Bellngham Ingls (1780 1870) Wllam Laud (1573 1645) c. 1472 1853 Bought 1847 53? [Edton V] BB-4 Bbla Pauperum [Edton III] BB-5* Bbla Pauperum [Edton VIII] BB-6 Bbla Pauperum [Edton XI] BB-7 Cantcum Cantcorum [Edton II] BB-8* Donatus: Ars mnor c. 1465 70 1834 Francs Douce Before c. 1462 68 1755 Rchard Rawlnson (1690 1755) c. 1470 1677 Francs Junus (1589 1677) 1823 Sr Mark Masterman Sykes (1771 1823) 1714 Thomas Hearne (1678 1735) c. 1790 Bodlean c. 1469 70 1677 Francs Junus c. 1790 Bodlean c. 1476/80 1841 Bought A er 1841 Bodlean 7 107
``CC11'' --- 2009/9/23 --- 15:54 --- page 108 --- #120 owners. By examnng the approaches, prortes and ams of the bndng and repar campagns, t s possble to dscern the value gven to dfferent aspects of the blockbooks by dfferent owners, o en at a smlar tme. 1) Bound for the Bodlean Lbrary by Henrch Walther c. 1790 [Bod-nc. BB-6 & 7] Two blockbooks entered the Bodlean wth Francs Junus s collectons n 1677 as a sammelband and were descrbed around 1700 wth BB-2 as small thn books n folo. In 1789 a new room at the Bodlean, the Auctarum, was set asde and furnshed wth wre fronted bookcases by James Wya to be consder d as an Archve room to the Lbrary for the recepton chefly of MSS. and books of an early date relatng to Greek and Latn learnng, 8 and these two blockbooks entered the room together wth other examples of early prntng. Ths gatherng together of volumes from the Bodlean s collectons concded wth a campagn to purchase ncunabula at a number of sales, and many of these new purchases as well as those volumes moved nto the Auctarum were rebound at ths tme as bef ed ther new surroundngs. The so-called Junus sammelbände were sumptuously rebound, unfortunately resultng n the loss of all evdence of early structure or appearance, on ther move to the Auctarum (Fg. 60). The sammelbände, orgnally bound together n one volume, were separated nto ther two consttuent parts and rebound as two albums. For these bndngs the leaves, wth ther blank versos pasted together, were separated and each par of bfola was dvded nto ndvdual leaves. Each leaf was then radcally trmmed to the sze of the prnted area, and the leaves were reordered. 9 Each trmmed woodcut was nlad nto a support sheet wthout any overlap, and held n place by a second sheet pasted across the entre verso, a black ruled nk lne dsgusng the jon (Fg. 61). These mounted leaves were made up nto sectons and bound together to present the leaves of each blockbook as an album wth the woodcuts appearng on the rectos. Ths method of mountng, whch s both laborous and expensve, created large false margns, 10 and these two bound volumes are now consderably larger than the other blockbooks wthn the collecton. The completed text-block was ploughed and the edges were glded. They were then bound as matchng volumes n blue straght-graned tanned 108
``CC11'' --- 2009/9/23 --- 15:54 --- page 109 --- #121 Fg. 60. Bblam Pauperum, c. 1470 [Bod-nc. BB-6], spne and le board of bndng. 109
``CC11'' --- 2009/9/23 --- 15:54 --- page 110 --- #122 Fg. 61. BB-6, detal of nlay and mountng method. 110
``CC11'' --- 2009/9/23 --- 15:54 --- page 111 --- #123 morocco wth elaborate blnd- and gold-toolng, and wth the centrepece of the Bodlean Lbrary. The Auctarum contans many other volumes bound by Henrch Walther for the Bodlean n the 1790s. The two blockbook bndngs, though now somewhat worn, stand out from the other Walther bndngs on account of ther wealth of ntrcate toolng, whch taken together wth the mountng method seems to ndcate that they were especally valued. Although other Walther 11 volumes do not dsplay the same wealth of toolng they are all bound to the same hgh standard n a unform style of gold-tooled morocco wth glded edges, slk double-core endbands, and are provded wth slk bookmarks. Some of these volumes also show evdence of the same a empts to erase marks of early use and to present them as prstne examples. Stanng to the leaves of Bod-nc. J-290 12 shows an early and ultmately unsuccessful a empt to remove margnala and present the volume as a clean copy (Fg. 62). The volume was washed and bleached to remove manuscrpt margnala before bndng. Ths resulted n bleedng and offse ng from the rubrcaton, whch was then excsed wth the leaves beng repared n the worst cases. The bleachng process also resulted n the now promnent dark stans to the margns of many leaves, probably caused by the ncomplete rnsng of the bleachng agent. 13 Although the mountng method and amount of toolng present on the blockbook bndngs marks them out as unusual, the general approach when rebndng these volumes seems to be n keepng wth the approach taken when bndng other examples of early prntng for the Bodlean. 2) Bound for Sr Mark Masterman Sykes before 1823 [Bod-nc. BB-4] Francs Douce bequeathed two blockbooks whch he had purchased at sales n 1824 (BB-4) and 1829 (BB-1) to the Bodlean n 1834. Both of these volumes had been rebound n the 1820s for two dfferent owners and are descrbed here and below. BB-4, a Bbla Pauperum, has unusual evdence of ts early use and came to the Bodlean n a gold-tooled bndng made for Sr Mark Masterman Sykes before 1823 wth hs monogrammed armoral centrepece (Fg. 63). The blockbook leaves of ths copy seem to have been used for dsplay and adhesve remans to the versos and holes to the corners show that they were once adhered to a support and fxed wth copper alloy nals 111
``CC11'' --- 2009/9/23 --- 15:54 --- page 112 --- #124 Fg. 62. Vence, 1470 [J-290], evdence of washng and bleachng by Walther. 112
``CC11'' --- 2009/9/23 --- 15:54 --- page 113 --- #125 Fg. 63. Bbla Pauperum, c. 1465 70 [BB-4], spne and le board of bndng. 113
``CC11'' --- 2009/9/23 --- 15:54 --- page 114 --- #126 or tacks. The double leaves have no sewng holes to ther nner margn and though there s evdence of offset from parchment strps, t s not possble to state conclusvely whether t was prevously bound. For the Sykes bndng each double leaf (now folded) was tpped to a paper guard, these guards were then folded to provde a spne fold for bndng (Fg. 64). The completed text-block was ploughed and the edges were glded. It was bound n blue-black straght-graned tanned morocco wth a restraned gold-tooled border and armoral centrepece. The Bod-nc. catalogue has dentfed 74 separate ncunabula edtons, now n 41 bound volumes, that had belonged to Sykes. These volumes are n a range of bndngs, many bound before Sykes s ownershp and wth a number bound a er. Of those bound for Sykes a range of dfferent bookbnders were used bndng n a range of styles, and only one other volume now at the Bodlean, Bod-nc. F-077, 14 s clearly by the same bnder. Although F-077 does not have hs centrepece and the toolng to the outer faces of the boards s dfferent, the endleaves, marbled paper and decoratve roll used on the turn-ns are the same. Both volumes were provded wth sx full blank-leaves of good qualty paper before and a er ther text-blocks, and nether of the text-blocks was washed or heavly pressed. Although both text-blocks were ploughed and had ther edges glded, one leaf of F-077 preserves ts deckle edge at the tal edge, demonstratng that only a mnmal amount was removed (Fg. 65). Although these two volumes were bound n the hghest prevalng fashon, care seems to have been taken to preserve certan codcologcal features. 3) Bound for John Bellngham Ingls before 1826 [Bod-nc. BB-1] BB-1, an Apocalypse, was once part of a sammelband 15 but came to the Bodlean n a blnd-tooled sprng-back bndng made for John Bellngham Ingls before 1826 (Fg. 66). The pasted together double folded leaves were separated for ths bndng, 16 and all but three of the spne folds, whch have a very narrow nner margn, were repared. Some leaves have addtonal paper repars pre-datng ths bndng. The folded double leaves were sewn ndvdually on three wde parchment tapes and the text-block was not trmmed for ths bndng. The untrmmed edge retans evdence of an early yellow edge-colourng and preserves ts deckle edge n places. The volume s covered over a lamnated-paper sprng-back hollow whch allows for a very wde openng (Fg. 67). The volume s 114
``CC11'' --- 2009/9/23 --- 15:54 --- page 115 --- #127 Fg. 64. BB-4, detal of paper guards. Fg. 65. Cologne, c. 1471 [F-077], detal of preserved deckle edge. 115
``CC11'' --- 2009/9/23 --- 15:54 --- page 116 --- #128 Fg. 66. Apocalypse, c. 1466 70 [BB-1], spne and le board of bndng. 116
``CC11'' --- 2009/9/23 --- 15:54 --- page 117 --- #129 Fg. 67. BB-1, detal of openng and sprng back. covered n brown tanned morocco and has archastc blnd-toolng gvng the appearance of an early roll bndng. The spne s tooled n black-le er type wth the ttle. The Bod-nc. catalogue dentfes eleven ncunabula that belonged to Ingls, of whch fve were bound by the same bnder. One further ncunable bound for Ingls by ths bnder has snce been dentfed. 17 These bndngs all share the same archasng approach to toolng based on f eenth-century bndngs and have ther ttles tooled wth black-le er type. 18 Although ther outward appearance appears to be smlar to BB-1 there are major dfferences n the forwardng of the bndngs. The sx le erpress ncunabula are all sewn on sngle recessed cord sewngsupports, as was more usual for prnted books n the 1820s, and all have had ther edges ploughed and glded for these bndngs. In addton, P-032, the most elaborate of these bndngs, has a gauffered edge. A very dfferent approach was taken wth the blockbook and a method of bndng was found whch would allow the volume to open flat. 19 Ths enables the woodcuts, wth ther narrow spne margns, to be clearly seen. It 117
``CC11'' --- 2009/9/23 --- 15:54 --- page 118 --- #130 appears that Ingls was keen to retan the three ntact, though narrow, spne folds and hs bnder chose a bndng method that would allow the leaves to open safely. Lkewse, of all these ncunabula only the blockbook edges were spared the bnders plough and Ingls must have requested that they were not trmmed. Table 3. Overvew of treatment of codcologcal features. Items n bold are dscussed n ths paper. Leaves trmmed by bnder Spnefolds preserved by bnder Indvdual leaves mounted Evdence of a prevous sammelbände Unusual treatment by bnder Leaves separated BB-1 No Partal Yes Yes Yes Yes BB-2 No Yes No No No Yes BB-3 Yes No No No Yes Yes BB-4 Yes Yes No No Yes Yes BB-5* No Yes BB-6 Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes BB-7 Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes BB-8* No No Yes These three case studes allow a slghtly clearer vew to emerge of the decsons that were taken n the late eghteenth and early nneteenth century when the repar and rebndng of these blockbooks was commssoned. An overvew of the treatment of certan codcologcal features s gven n Table 3, and t would seem that n each case extra care or an unusual approach was taken when an owner, or bnder, was faced wth ths type of f eenth-century book. These approaches amed to preserve or hghlght certan codcologcal features and the fact that the same approach was not taken n each case would seem to show that dfferent codcologcal features, or dfferng ranges of these features, were valued by each of these owners. The only two unfyng approaches, seen wth all of these blockbooks, appear to have been the desre to present them 118
``CC11'' --- 2009/9/23 --- 15:54 --- page 119 --- #131 as ndvdual volumes and to separate leaves whch were once pasted together. Although t s easy to decry the wholesale repar and rebndng of blockbooks carred out n the past whch has resulted n the destructon of ther codcologcal structures, t would seem that early owners and bnders were not necessarly unthnkng when called upon to undertake ths work. Notes 1. For an overvew of blockbooks wth a bblography of the earler lterature and a census of survvng copes see Blockbücher des M elalters. Blderfolgen als Lektüre, exhbton catalogue of the Gu enberg-museum (Manz: von Zabern, 1991). The followng summary of the codcology of blockbooks s taken from Palmer, Ngel F., Blockbooks: Text and llustratons prnted from wood blocks, Prntng Hstorcal Socety NS 11 (2008), 5 23 and Palmer, Ngel F., Woodcuts for readng. The codcology of f eenth-century blockbooks and woodcut cycles, n Parshall, Peter (ed.), The Woodcut n F eenth-century Europe, forthcomng. 2. Palmer, 2008, 8. 3. Palmer, Woodcuts for readng. 4. See Palmer, Woodcuts for readng for a dscusson of possble early structures. 5. Palmer, Ngel F., Blockbooks, Woodcut and Metalcut Sngle Sheets, bndng descrptons by Andrew Honey, n Alan Coates, Krstan Jensen, Crstna Dond, Be na Wagner and Helen Dxon, A catalogue of books prnted n the f eenth century now n the Bodlean Lbrary (Oxford: Oxford Unversty Press, 2005), 1 50. Throughout ths paper Bodlean ncunabula are referred by ther catalogue reference,. e. Bod-nc. BB-1. Images of these volumes and ther catalogue entres can be found at: www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/csb/blockbooks.html (last accessed 6th March 2009). 6. Palmer, 2005, 2. 7. (fragment mounted by Georg Franz Burkhard Kloss before 1835) 8. Phlp, Ian, The Bodlean Lbrary n the Seventeenth and Eghteenth Centures (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), 111. 9. Remans of two earler sets of manuscrpt numberng survve. 10. Sze of album leaf 340 274 mm, trmmed blockbook leaf 258 190 mm. For a dscusson of ths mountng method see Grffths, Anthony, The Archaeology of the prnt, n C. Baker et al (eds.), Collectng prnts and drawngs n Europe, c. 1500 1750 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), 9 28, at 15. 11. For other bndng work by Walther for the Bodlean Lbrary see Jensen, Krstan, Henrch Walther, Chrstan Samuel Kalthoeber and other London bnders: Books n the Bodlean Lbrary bound by Germans se led n London n the eghteenth century, Bblothek und Wssenscha, 29 (1996), 292 311. 12. Justnus, Marcus Junanus, Iustn hstorc n Pompe Trog hstoras (Vence: Jenson, 1470). 13. The dangers and unsuccessful results of chemcal treatments was realsed by the early nneteenth century when the followng comment was ncluded n an 119
``CC11'' --- 2009/9/23 --- 15:54 --- page 120 --- #132 aucton catalogue descrpton for an ncunable, n spte of the unsuccessful a empts at ge ng out the wrtng n the margns, t s yet a very desrable volume. A catalogue of rare and valuable duplcates from the lbrary f the Rt.Hon. Earl Spencer, K. G., (London: Evans, 2 March, 1821), Lot 56. 14. Florus, Lucus Annaeus, Lucij ane flor eptoma dest abbreuato de cursu ac statu romano[rum], Cologne: A. ther Hoernen, c. 1471. Another blockbook owned by Sykes and now n Cambrdge may also have been bound by the same bnder (Cambrdge UL, Inc. 2(1)). I have not seen the Cambrdge volume. 15. Palmer, 2005, 11. Ingls s 1826 sale (Catalogue of a sngularly curous and valuable selecton from the lbrary of a gentleman ncludng three extraordnary specmens of Block Prntng whch wll be sold by aucton by Mr. Sotheby, (London: Sotheby, 9 June 1826)) contaned three blockbooks BB-1 (lot 1664), another blockbook from ths sammelband (lot 1663) whch has an dentcal bndng (Washngton LC, Rosenwald Collecton Incun. X. B 562) and a thrd blockbook (lot 1665) whch s now at the New York Publc Lbrary (Blockbücher, 1991, 383). I have not seen the NYPL volume. 16. The Ingls sale catalogue descrbes all three blockbooks as havng ther leaves not pasted together as they generally are. (Ingls, 1826, 106) 17. Parker, Henry, Dves and Pauper (London: Rchard Pynson, 1493). P-032(3). 18. For other Ingls archastc bndngs on seventeenth-century Englsh quartos see Bartle, H.C. & Pollard, A.W., A Census of Shakespeare s plays n quarto (New Haven, Yale Unversty Press, 2 Ed., 1939), 153 and de Rcc, Seymour, Englsh collectors of books & manuscrpts (1530 1930): and ther mark of ownershp (Cambrdge: Cambrdge Unversty Press, 1930), 97. 19. Ths method of sprng-back bndng for prnted books was adopted by the Brtsh and Foregn Bble Socety and ther 1812 bookbndng specfcaton descrbes the process, all Bbles to be bound ether on Bands or wth Hollow backs [ ] That those wth Hollow backs be Rebacked and lned wth strong Canvass, and the leather back stffened wth Mllboard (Howsam, Lesle, Cheap Bbles: Nneteenth-century publshng and the Brtsh and Foregn Bble Socety (Cambrdge: Cambrdge Unversty Press, 1991), 126). The author owns a New Testament bound by George Coller for the Brtsh and Foregn Bble Socety n 1824 whch uses ths method, The New Testament (Oxford: Prnted by Samuel Collngwood for the Brtsh and Foregn Bble Socety, mnon 24s edton, 1824). 120