A 15-kg Medieval Choir Book — and What It Taught Us
Restoration project of the volume Antiphonary,
held at the ARCC, Western Libraries
completed by
Diana Bychkova (documentation, restoration of leaves and binding),
Stepan Romanyshyn (restoration of wood boards)
This is the restoration project that we recently completed:
The volume is an extraordinary late-medieval Antiphonary of remarkable scale, 42x61x10 cm weighing 15 kg, handwritten on parchment and bound in leather with relief prints on both covers. Once part of a monastic collection in Spain, it is now preserved in Special Collections at Western Libraries (London, ON).
Its presence is immediate: a monumental choir book, fine ornamented initials, parchment of exceptional strength and tactile richness, wooden boards covered in aged, strain-cracked leather, decorated with embossing and metallic elements that function as both protection and adornment. The object has weight — visually and physically. Some folios still carry stitched repairs, laced almost like leather garments — quiet traces of earlier hands that tried to keep it whole.
The volume was heavily damaged. In the beginning, we were asked to reconstruct the endbands in their original style, and in order to do that, we completed a number of processes, including rebinding this volume properly and restoring damaged parts, as described below.
Part 1 presents the state before restoration.
Part 2 is about all the step-by-step works that were undertaken during the restoration.
Part 3 describes the state of this volume after restoration: all the pieces were preserved and conserved, and some new pieces were added to make the book usable again.
Part 4 is about what was not done to this volume, including the explanation of the major concepts and the purpose of restoration work in general: our hope is that this can help to avoid common confusion.
The wooden boards and leather are heavily eaten by insects and have become crumbly.
Back and front covers
Fragments
Leather is detached from boards and broken in some parts. During the previous restoration, it was fixed on boards with iron nails which damaged leather and scratched the leaves inside the volume. Leather is cracked and swollen all over the place because of age. Some of the decorative nails that fixed the metallic parts are missing.
There are two metallic pieces, parts of closures, on the back cover but the clasps and belts that closed the book are missing, and a piece of leather is torn out, opening the very crumbly wood.
The inside of the boards (when opened) are totally crumbly on the parts that kept the endbands. These parts of the boards – all the four corners, as on the pictures below – are falling apart when gently touched them, while exactly these parts are supposed to be strong in order to hold the entire weight of the volume when leafing through the book. This is one of the problems that caused the endbands and the entire volume to fall apart.
The endbands are made from pieces of leather wrapped into rolls and sewn with cords along the top and bottom edges of to the book. However, both endbands are entirely ruined and do not do what they are designed to do: i.e. to keep the leaves bound together with the cover, to provide the structural reinforcement, and to prevent the edges of the parchment from damage when the book is stacked or used. What caused the endbands to be broken is also the condition of the entire block of parchment: it fell apart and doesn’t keep the leaves and endbands together. When opening the book, all the weight of boards and parchment falls on the endbands and causes them to break.
The spine of the volume is torn out in its upper and lower parts because of incorrect behaviour when pulling the book out of a shelf/storage by hooking fingers over the edges of the spine. Evidently, the book was stored in a horizontal position because of its weight, thus the spine is broken symmetrically on both ends as it required some effort to pull it out. This is a common problem with contemporary books as well.
The bookbinding fell apart also because many leaves were cut off, which weakened the thread tension. When compared with Antiphonary volumes of the same period and produced in the same geographic location, it becomes apparent that the pages that contained illuminated miniatures or beautiful titles were cut off from this volume. 85 leaves are missing in total.
Several vertical margins are cut off from the leaves, including written fragments or numbers of the leaves. Such strips were glued to the book spine and used to rebind this volume at the time of its previous restoration.
The block of leaves once was attached to the boards with pieces of leather which are now broken in some parts. These parts are very fragile, inelastic, and separated from the boards because of age. Altogether, this prevents them from performing their role – to keep the block of leaves attached to the boards.
The cover was removed from the block of leaves. At this stage, when opening the boards, the number of problems became evident, as also described above in the state before restoration and can be summed up as following:
1) Heavily damaged wood boards, especially the corners that kept the endbands, and along the texture of the wood, making the boards cracked in a way that they did not perform anymore their role of keeping the book as an indivisible and solid object.
2) The pieces of leather attached to the spine of the block were too fragile and inelastic to be re-used again, and did not do their function either.
3) Many narrow strips (1-2 cm wide each) of the leaves that were cut off remained hidden within the book spine. They are too narrow to be bound into the book again, and even if attached on the supporting sheets of paper, would not have any historical, scientific, or structural meaning when leafing through the book, i.e. we would not see anything on them but 1 cm of blank parchment. Still, the decision was to incorporate back into the binding everything that is preserved, except for a few 0.5-cm-wide fragments.
4) The cords with which the book was bound and the endbands attached to the block were cut in many places and also crumbled when touched by hands because of age, which made them not reusable.
Altogether, these issues made the volume fall apart and these issues had to be addressed during restoration. The cover is going to be removed from the block of parchment in order to be able to restore the folded leaves of parchment that were cut off, to re-bind the book, to re-construct the endbands, to reinforce and rebuild the damaged parts of wood and, consequently, to fix properly the rebound volume to the boards. Although attempts are typically made to restore an object with minimal intervention into the original structure, it would be technically impossible to perform such complex works without taking this volume apart, as each of these parts should be worked on individually.
The two pictures below, taken before restoration, represent the condition of the endbands, the broken cords, and the very crumbly leather, which makes it clear that these old materials cannot be reused to reconstruct and rebind the volume properly.
II.1. Restoration of the wood boards.
A few more pictures – taken when the boards were detached and before any restoration work was undertaken – show how the crumbly pieces of wood were broken and remained attached to the leather rather than to the wood board or fell aside in the place that should hold the cord of the endbands. The latter had to pass through a hole that actually does not exist anymore. The red line shows the missing pieces of the wood corners.
The boards are also cracked along the wood texture and therefore there is a potential risk that they can be broken once the binding is restored and the heavy block of parchment is re-attached to the boards.
The rabbit-skin glue was filled into the holes made by insects and into the wood structure to reinforce these crumbly boards and prevent them from continuing to fall apart. Such skin glue was traditionally used by old masters, for instance, to glue pieces of wood for icons or to seal canvas as it penetrated well into the structure of the materials, becoming its integral part, and acted as an adhesive.
However, because of the age and condition of the wood boards of this volume, the wood kept absorbing the glue like a sponge with each next brush stroke, and did not become any stronger. Therefore, the carpenter's glue appropriate for woodwork was used on these corners because this part is supposed to hold the weight of this 15-kg volume.
Thereafter, the very few mm of crumbly wood were cut off (it was impossible and did not make any sense to preserve something that had the structure of dust) and in order to add new corners on the next step.
The new additions were tinted to render them of the same tonality as old boards. This practice is commonly used for all types of restoration, such as paintings or wood sculptures, when the reconstructed parts are tinted to create conformity for the whole artwork but at the same time these new additions are always evident and differ from the original, so one can clearly see both the antique and new parts.
II.2. Restoration of the leaves.
A few more pictures – taken when the boards were detached and before any restoration work was undertaken – show the old binding, its condition, and the fragility of materials: the book spine with pieces of old leather, broken cords and endbands, leaves that are falling out from the book because the binding structure is destroyed, and the lesser thickness of the volume compared to when it was designed originally, so it does not correspond to the space within the two covers because at least half of the leaves were cut off. All that makes it necessary to rebind the volume, otherwise, it would be impossible to reconstruct the endbands and make the book usable.
Before taking the block of leaves apart, each leaf and each preserved strip of parchment were numbered to ensure that they will be inserted back in the same order at a later stage, and rebound as they were originally. Such numbering will remain included in the volume after restoration, which would allow further studies of preserved vs. lost leaves, their fragments, etc.
The block of leaves was taken apart by removing the strips of broken leather from the book spine and the horizontal cords (pieces of leather wrapped in rolls, around which the cords made an 8 to sew the leaves together). These pieces of leather are broken in some parts, contain some old glue and dirt, and the hardened structure of the material makes them inelastic, while precisely this part of the book should be soft in order to allow opening/closing the book.
In some cases, the method of so-called doublage is used, which consists of duplicating the preserved piece of old leather that is firmly glued over a bigger piece of new leather. This allows preserving the old piece as is, repairing it in the broken parts, and attaching it to a spot as necessary. For instance, this makes sense when restoring the external book spine that contains a preserved title or décor etc, as on the book bindings that we frequently restore: the old and broken book spine was glued over the new piece of leather that allowed to attach this old book spine to its original spot.
However, in the case of Antiphonary, it did not make any historical or scientific sense to repair, soften, and duplicate such broken pieces as they 1) did not contain any valuable information on them, 2) were attached inside the binding, so they would never be seen when the restoration work is finished and the boards are fixed back to the leaves. However, such pieces of leather with broken cords were preserved and included in an envelope, so they can be used for further chemical analysis or other studies, if necessary.
At this stage, some traces of old restoration/rebinding were noted, such as the wrong placement of a few leaves, not in order as they should be, and repairs of broken parts of a few leaves. For instance, there are 4 “mysterious” fragments that were bound into the volume but they appear to be the extra leaves.
As mentioned above, due to the great number of leaves that were cut off and lost, the condition of the block of leaves is such that it is much thinner than the space designed for it between the two covers. If the volume were rebound now with the same amount of leaves, they would anyway fall from the boards with each opening: this is the pure structural feature of any binding. Therefore, the sheets of new paper have to be incorporated into the volume in order to reach the necessary thickness of the volume and bind it with the wood boards preserved.
The paper of the same thickness and similar texture as parchment was chosen to be bound into the volume on the place of missing leaves.
Some of the fragments of parchment were rumpled and stuck within the old cords, so they were flattened before being incorporated into the binding. The pictures below exemplify before and after state.
The sheets of paper were added at the places of missing leaves with two different methods, according to the parchment condition as well as the structural and technical features of the binding.
The first method is commonly used for paper restoration and consists of adjusting the edges of new sheets of paper in a way that they repeat the wavy cuts of the parchment and therefore can be attached end-to-end without overlapping each other. This method is particularly important when the preserved fragments of parchment contain any signs or letters and therefore should to be preserved for further research. A few pictures below are to make an example: one of the preserved fragments of parchment that was flattened and then inserted into the new sheet of paper.
The second method of attaching the preserved fragments of parchment to the sheets of paper consists of overlapping these old strips over the new paper. This method was used only in those cases when the strips of parchment were too narrow to resist the tension of the binding, so if attached with the first method, they would be broken after several openings of the book. Besides, they did not contain any signs that could be used for research, so it did not make any sense to glue them end-to-end at the expense of the strength.
A few pictures represent these 1-1.5-cm strips of parchment and the way they were attached to the new paper.
II.3. Restoration of the bookbinding.
At the next step, after all the double-folded leaves were prepared, they were put back in their order. As on the original binding, the double cords were made from pieces of leather wrapped into rolls, repeating the original method. The 100% cotton brown cord was used, similar to the old one, and the leaves were sewn with an 8 method around these cords. Because of the book size (42x61x10cm) and its weight (15kg), a space was constructed for the purpose of rebinding this volume.
The rebound block of parchment was then curved on the spine, as it was originally before being damaged.
A few pictures below show the reconstruction of the endbands with the same method used at the time of this book production: from pieces of leather that were wrapped into rolls and tightly sewn between the leaves, along the top and bottom edges of to the book.
The rebound block of leaves was attached to the boards with the cords and pieces of leather that go from the book spine, as above, and repeating the method used at the time of this book creation. The leather that was detached from the boards in some parts to allow restoring the broken corners, was glued back to its place.
As requested by the owners of this volume, the leather book spine that was broken, had to remain open in these parts in order to allow seeing the structure of the binding.
Therefore, the additional pieces of antique leather were used to create a fake book spine that could be opened and closed when necessary. These pieces were designed like belts, in a way so they work as closures as well, keeping the volume closed when it is stored and protecting it from dust and further damage when pulling it out.
The wood boards are strengthened and reconstructed in their damaged corners, which allows them to hold the bookbinding together with the block of parchment. The pictures below show the before and after state, as well as the structural feature of the wood parts that now hold the cords and endbands.
The incorporation of the new sheets of paper at the place of lost ones allowed re-binding the book properly, preventing the remaining leaves from falling apart, and restoring the endbands. The pictures below show the state before and after restoration.
The closures are now added to this volume as separate pieces, so they can both protect the binding and make its structure visible.
Some of our suggestions in restoring this volume were declined at present but such works could potentially be completed at a later time, if necessary. Below is a brief description of our proposal.
1. Both front and back covers contain relief prints on leather. These patterns are now barely visible because of dirt accumulated on them over a long period of time.
Our recommendation was to clean this dirt with appropriate methods that allow to preserve the patina of time and at the same time to make the patterns clear, so they can be further studied when doing historical research. We were told not to touch the covers, but let me explain the difference between patina and dirt. Patina is something that is present on the surface of an object due to its frequent use (e.g. natural oils from hands on a leather cover or parchment) or influence of the environment (e.g. green film formed naturally on copper). Such aging creates a beautiful appearance and is not cleaned during restoration. However, one of the basic and most important steps in conservation and restoration works is to clean dust and dirt on an object, as they accumulate bacteria that damage the materials to which they are attached. Furthermore, if restorers never cleaned the objects of art and architecture, we would find in the museums black squares at the place of paintings and the cathedrals covered with birds’ feces and environmental pollution. This is why cleaning is a routine and important part of almost every restoration work.
2. As described above, the leather is broken on both sides of the book spine.
Our recommendation was to add new pieces of leather to these broken spots by using the method of doublage, i.e. by attaching end-to-end a new piece and gluing both to an additional piece of leather that would not be seen but placed under the old book spine in order to strengthen it and prevent from being broken again. This is a very common method in book restoration. The broken parts were left as is to allow doing research on that however, when being more pragmatic, there is no story behind such broken parts but inappropriate behaviour when pulling the book out of the shelf, as was described above. Besides, the book would benefit from such structural and functional additions.
3. One of the decorative metallic pieces is missing on the back cover, and metallic closures with leather belts are lost as well.
Our recommendation was to reconstruct these missing parts. While that piece on the back cover is purely decorative, so the book functions well without it, the closures do make the functional importance as they help to keep the book closed to prevent its damage. Besides, when doing previous research and reconstructing these pieces, the users would be able to see the integral book object as it was at the time of its creation.
4. When compared with Antiphonary volumes of the same period which are held in other libraries, it becomes apparent that the pages that contained illuminated miniatures or beautiful titles were cut off from this book.
Our suggestion was to do research, to create facsimiles of missing leaves, and to incorporate them into the volume instead of blank sheets that are bound into the book now. One may or may not to go with this option, this is a choice to make. Some may think that such additions do not make any scientific sense, but in our opinion they do, because the books in the Middle Ages were copied by hand, which means that a similar copy of this book can still exist and even be digitized in some place and could now become a reference point to reconstruct this volume. In any case, the new additions always differ from the old materials. Such a method is widely used in restoring paintings, sculptures, and objects of decorative art as well, when destroyed parts are going to be reconstructed in a given style. "Reconstructing missing parts" is not a synonym for "making the object look nice", as some may interpret. That work would allow scholars, students, and the general audience to see the book in its integrity as it was before. Besides, the book would become usable again, i.e. could be used for singing practices and not merely stored and researched. It is worth mentioning that a restorer of artworks is also a scientist, researcher, historian, and professionally-trained artist, which allows them to know the historical styles and create copies or reconstruct objects in a given style and using appropriate methods.
To avoid further confusion about the concepts "conservation" and "restoration", we explained them in a separate post, and our Conservation Lab includes examples of restoration works of different types of objects.
If your department, institution, or affiliated collectors are considering preservation, appraisal, or historically grounded restoration of rare materials, I would be glad to advise or discuss specific cases. Reach out at: info@dsartistrylabs.com