In recent years, through the kindness of several donors, we’ve been grateful to be able to conserve many items from our collections. Most recently, the Gottschalk Foundation has generously supported the conservation of a number of items from the collection that could no longer be used or needed significant work for proper maintenance. The most recent work focused on bindings – here is just a sampling of some of the wonderful work by our colleagues in Conservation:
We’ve been hard at work on conservation of material for an exhibition schedule for Fall of 2027, focusing on the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa. Many of the books had binding issues, so we contracted with an outside conservator whose expertise is in binding treatments to work on some of these objects. We also worked with a second conservator for other items with complicated paper and parchment issues.
- B893.1 Al7: This book was printed in the late 16th century at the press of a woman, Reyna Nasi, at Belvedere, outside of Constantinople. The front board was completely broken off (see the picture on the left, below) and was reattached with a stronger binding.
- B893.1 Y3: A very early Constantinople imprint (Bet Midot, 1511) – again, the broken boards were reattached and hinged so the book now opens beautifully.
- B893.1BJ B77: Printed in Safed, 1577 – one of the earliest examples of printing in the Holy Land, by an Ashkenazi Jew, working with Sephardi refugees for a mostly Sephardic audience. Again, detached boards were reattached and completed.
- X893 Se3823: This medical treatise on therapy and drugs in Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic from the 18th century had a damaged spine and broken boards, as you can see on the left. They were all repaired, and the conservator filled in leather that looks (almost) like the original.
- B893 Ar12: ‘Akedat Yitshak (Salonika,1522) – this very early Salonika imprint with a terribly deteriorated binding (see left). The conservator consolidated the leather, and completely rebound the (very thick!) book, retaining the original binding materials and using them in rebinding the book (see right).
- X893 P65: Pinḳas (community record book) Adrianopole, 1757-1814 – One of very few community record books from the Ottoman Empire, this manuscript has a unique foldover (“envelope”) binding. The spine had broken, and was, like the previous books, beautifully repaired so it could be used in classes and exhibitions.
This Hebrew-Dutch-Latin-Greek Psalter won’t be used in the exhibition, but it used to come out all the time in the classroom (especially for students reading the Hebrew Bible for LitHum!). The broken binding, however, meant that it could no longer be used for classes. Once again, the boards were reattached beautifully, and it is now safe again for classroom use.
