The Vespiary Book Binding & Book Conservation

Lately, I’ve been reading the Archimedes Codex - How a Medieval Prayer Book is Revealing the True Genius of Antiquity’s Greatest Scientist. I can’t remember how I originally came across it, but if there was ever a Holy Grail of conservation work, this was it. This may be old news to some of you, but back in 1998, a prayer book was auctioned by Christie’s to an anonymous bidder (my guess is Bill Gates) for 2 million dollars. Underneath the medieval writing, an original manuscript of the famous mathematician and scientist, Archimedes could be faintly seen. Back in the day when burlap was fashionable and books were for prayin’, someone had scraped the smarts off this goatskin and written some nice chants on the top.

Now, I’m in it for the gripping tales of conservation. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good calculus or geometry problem as much as the next gal, but after 150 pages of it, I skipped ahead to the juicy bits.

Our hero: Abigail Quandt. The setting: the temporary cover had just been removed in order to expose the spine for the codex’s inevitable disbinding. The problem: “The spine of the book was covered in glue. While the Pailmpsest was the unique source for the diagrams that Archimedes drew in the sand, to Abigail Quandt, it was a conservation disaster zone.”

[insert dramatic music here]

PVA, my friends. Someone after WWII decided to take their favorite bottle of Elmer’s and squirt it all over the spine of this homely treasure. Now granted, it was most likely to stabilize the deteriorating spine, BUT STILL! Let this be a lesson to you. PVA and its ilk are irreversible, and I swear a blue streak every time I peel back a cover to find its shiny face.

If you’re a mathematician, run run run out and get this book because I’m sure sentences like this will get your blood pumping as fast as when I read the shocker above.

Archimedes was explicitly calculating with infinitely great numbers.

I know. Wow, right? Anyway, after some poking around, I visited the project’s website, that sums up the content of the book with some nice pictures. Also available are some extra resources regarding the work. I’ll be going through them in the next few days and let you know what I find.