1 00:00:00,430 --> 00:00:09,680 I think it's sort of like. 2 00:00:09,680 --> 00:00:16,610 Welcome everybody to the Bob Western Library for special collections where we 3 00:00:16,610 --> 00:00:23,330 have under our feet some of the great treasures of Oxford's University Library. 4 00:00:23,330 --> 00:00:33,980 And over our heads, the readers and the researchers who are scraping their chairs back and forth as it may be, but intently looking at those. 5 00:00:33,980 --> 00:00:43,130 And one of those for the past two terms has been Dr. Karen Schaefer, who's our speaker today, 6 00:00:43,130 --> 00:00:49,070 Karen Chambers, head of the conservation workshop at the University Library of Leiden in the Netherlands. 7 00:00:49,070 --> 00:00:56,030 She began her training as a student of the history of art, but switched her studies to book and paper conservation. 8 00:00:56,030 --> 00:01:01,130 Starting her conservation career in the municipal archives in Amsterdam, 9 00:01:01,130 --> 00:01:08,510 she's a regular guest lecturer on the course for book conservators in the Netherlands on such topics as historic finding structures, 10 00:01:08,510 --> 00:01:16,970 mediaeval book bindings and oriental paper. Karin founded the Conservation Workshop for Special Collections at the University Library Leyden, 11 00:01:16,970 --> 00:01:22,460 a library which has many historical connexions with the Bodleian Library. 12 00:01:22,460 --> 00:01:29,540 The unique and internationally renowned Oriental collections at Leiden offered Karen a conservation challenge, 13 00:01:29,540 --> 00:01:37,340 which she took up with characteristic enthusiasm starting in 2011 alongside her work at the library. 14 00:01:37,340 --> 00:01:42,980 She undertook a Ph.D. at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts and Society, 15 00:01:42,980 --> 00:01:51,230 and this was completed and published in 2015 by BRILLE as the technique of Islamic bookbinding. 16 00:01:51,230 --> 00:01:59,360 This work received the Delacorte prise, which is awarded by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017. 17 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:04,760 As I said, we've been very fortunate to have Dr. Schaefer here during the past two terms as a 18 00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:10,280 visiting fellow at the board in libraries under the Buhari Visiting Fellowship scheme, 19 00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:12,800 and I'm pleased to say that under that scheme, also, 20 00:02:12,800 --> 00:02:20,930 we will be making a further call for applications for next year 2020 21, and applications will be invited this month. 21 00:02:20,930 --> 00:02:25,100 So please look at the body and fellowships website to see those. 22 00:02:25,100 --> 00:02:35,000 I'm very pleased to introduce our Speaker Dr Account Shaper. 23 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:41,030 Thank you very much for such a kind introduction, and it's very nice to see so many faces. 24 00:02:41,030 --> 00:02:45,980 I would just like to ask if you are interested in that Baha'i Fellowship or one of 25 00:02:45,980 --> 00:02:52,340 the other fellowships do do take the invitation seriously because I'm myself very, 26 00:02:52,340 --> 00:02:57,800 very grateful that I have the opportunity to to compare the work with the 27 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:01,610 collections here and also compare them to the collections that we have in late. 28 00:03:01,610 --> 00:03:08,740 And it's it's certainly an enormous enrichment of all of what I can do. 29 00:03:08,740 --> 00:03:16,220 I would like to start with saying that our perception of things of people and culture is very interesting, 30 00:03:16,220 --> 00:03:20,270 and usually I think our observations are not neutral. 31 00:03:20,270 --> 00:03:32,150 We are fed views through history by others, and that makes us looking through things at things through a certain lens. 32 00:03:32,150 --> 00:03:39,410 And I'm just the other week I read a wonderful article this this article here on the screen, 33 00:03:39,410 --> 00:03:47,840 which is such a good example of that phenomenon that I would like to take you through this little little world 34 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:58,220 of Strauss's first before I start talking about kicks and the story starts with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. 35 00:03:58,220 --> 00:04:05,360 She travelled to Constantinople together with her husband, who was a British ambassador in 1769. 36 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:10,850 Now, once there, she learnt the language and as a woman. 37 00:04:10,850 --> 00:04:17,330 And also because of her class, she had access to the homes of the Turkish Ottoman women, 38 00:04:17,330 --> 00:04:28,490 which had always been closed to male travellers and other men working there before her eyewitness accounts of the daily life and the customs, 39 00:04:28,490 --> 00:04:34,100 and therefore whose observations that no men could have made. 40 00:04:34,100 --> 00:04:41,300 She also wrote letters to her sister and friends, and after her death in 1762, 41 00:04:41,300 --> 00:04:50,480 these letters were published and she wrote, amongst other things, about the dress of Turkish Ottoman women. 42 00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:58,710 She had adapted this dress herself. She fields felt very free and comfortable in the Turkish Ottoman dress, 43 00:04:58,710 --> 00:05:06,800 and she also wrote and about the social and legal freedoms of the women that she had met. 44 00:05:06,800 --> 00:05:20,930 And they had more rights over the property, for example, than women in England at the time had this view was confirmed by others. 45 00:05:20,930 --> 00:05:24,740 The British traveller, Juliet Pardue, for example, 46 00:05:24,740 --> 00:05:35,960 she wrote in 1838 it is depression in Europe to pity the women of the East, but it is ignorance of their real position. 47 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:44,840 The early 19th century saw the rise of women's rights, women's rights movements, which included it may seem trivial, 48 00:05:44,840 --> 00:05:58,000 but it was a very important thing a call for dress reform because the stifling corsets and the long, very heavy skirts were very much disliked. 49 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:10,300 To any woman, women's rights activist, the Turkish Strauss's then seemed a very promising alternative for respectable ladies and Amelia Bloomer, 50 00:06:10,300 --> 00:06:18,400 living in Seneca Falls and founder of the first newspaper for women in the United States, started wearing such trousers. 51 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:27,910 But they appear to be a topic of very much debate. The Turkish pantaloons were renamed bloomers after Amelia, 52 00:06:27,910 --> 00:06:35,770 but rejected for their Turkishness suffragists like them for the sense of liberation and social equality. 53 00:06:35,770 --> 00:06:45,070 But from the conservative Christian point of view, wearing a Muslim dress was something very close to blasphemy. 54 00:06:45,070 --> 00:06:49,240 And gradually the bloomer disappeared from the screen from the seat. 55 00:06:49,240 --> 00:07:02,350 I should say she will disappear. And then when when women Strauss's re-emerged in the early 20th century, they often took the shape of men's trousers. 56 00:07:02,350 --> 00:07:12,400 And in our common memory, the notion that 19th century women deliberately choose the fashion of other women 57 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:20,200 who represented rights and freedoms and not of other men is quite forgotten. 58 00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:31,210 And that is probably because we are not really aware of this favourable historic position that women in Islamic societies had. 59 00:07:31,210 --> 00:07:41,290 This example illustrates how our common sense of history is shaped by perspectives and in the field of book history, 60 00:07:41,290 --> 00:07:47,740 where the point of departure often is western, we see a similar phenomenon. 61 00:07:47,740 --> 00:07:58,510 Values are related to the Western narrative and Western dominance, but this was not always so when the book emerged as an object. 62 00:07:58,510 --> 00:08:05,950 The people of the Mediterranean and Middle East, as a lot of fields seem to share ideas. 63 00:08:05,950 --> 00:08:17,380 They used what they needed given these circumstances and available materials in the diverse areas and book, people need to be very practical. 64 00:08:17,380 --> 00:08:23,080 And that is how different book traditions came about and developed. 65 00:08:23,080 --> 00:08:30,010 So in these early centuries and there was so much cultural exchange. 66 00:08:30,010 --> 00:08:39,250 But we see and particular eagerness in the people from the West to have products and luxury goods from the Middle East. 67 00:08:39,250 --> 00:08:51,550 And so the books making the difference came to have a major influence on the development of book binding and manuscript production in Europe. 68 00:08:51,550 --> 00:09:03,250 Now this is an example of an early 14th century book probably made in Egypt, and more than two centuries later, 69 00:09:03,250 --> 00:09:09,490 books were produced in France, and the techniques to make them may be slightly different. 70 00:09:09,490 --> 00:09:19,300 But you can see that the idea of that design style was really inspired on those first productions of manuscripts from the Middle East. 71 00:09:19,300 --> 00:09:23,530 You see the centre stamp at the corner of stamps, 72 00:09:23,530 --> 00:09:30,460 and this is another or two other examples from the Middle East and manuscripts from Persia and one from Bursa. 73 00:09:30,460 --> 00:09:42,400 And what I think is also interesting to see here. So except from the general layout, the sent to stamp the elements shape the intrinsic, 74 00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:49,000 very tiny but perfectly executed tooling in the in the frame lines. 75 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:53,830 The book that was made and bound in Rome was made for a cardinal, 76 00:09:53,830 --> 00:10:02,990 and apparently it was no problem at all that the language of the declaration actually came from the Islamic world. 77 00:10:02,990 --> 00:10:15,500 And then one more example of a Koran from the early 16th century, and you see that wonderful opening page with the spiral style, 78 00:10:15,500 --> 00:10:21,470 which you can also see in that ceramic plate that is currently on display in the Ashmolean Museum. 79 00:10:21,470 --> 00:10:27,650 And that a spiral style is very much associated with the Ottoman world. 80 00:10:27,650 --> 00:10:33,710 And again, when books were made in France for very wealthy collectors, 81 00:10:33,710 --> 00:10:41,370 that very different cultures and the source of an inspiration was no problem at all. 82 00:10:41,370 --> 00:10:54,630 And you can see perhaps. So when I enlarge that field and even take out the colour, you can see how to design really is very, very much alike. 83 00:10:54,630 --> 00:11:03,570 But it was just not just only this stylistic elements, it's really about materials and techniques. 84 00:11:03,570 --> 00:11:10,230 So the sort of things that were brought from the Middle East into the Western bookmaking tradition is, 85 00:11:10,230 --> 00:11:17,790 for example, the use of leather W's gold tooling, leather only leather filigree. 86 00:11:17,790 --> 00:11:21,480 So that very fine cutting out of leather, 87 00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:33,210 working with different colours that was widely embraced in Venice to start with and then brought further materials to in the Middle East. 88 00:11:33,210 --> 00:11:41,040 Paper was used for many centuries before it came into Europe and because there was a lot of paper there, 89 00:11:41,040 --> 00:11:48,690 of course, was waste paper and with waste papers and book binders could make paste paper boards. 90 00:11:48,690 --> 00:11:57,030 And in Europe at the time, they were still using wood for boards and that make made books heavier and lumpia and 91 00:11:57,030 --> 00:12:06,670 the use of paste paper course gave them actually a chance to make more delicate books. 92 00:12:06,670 --> 00:12:16,690 And apart from piece paper boats, we also see the introduction of mobile paper, for example, here the sheets, but of course, 93 00:12:16,690 --> 00:12:26,940 they were used on the books and the books travelled, and that is how the West got acquainted with the techniques of marbling. 94 00:12:26,940 --> 00:12:37,200 And then finally, a very late example, but also striking so very early 20th century, a leather w with leather inlay. 95 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:44,010 And I think it's it's quite clear to see that the stylistic influence of Persian leopard bindings, 96 00:12:44,010 --> 00:12:54,510 which very often have these painted insides of their covers, still had and was an inspiration for bookbinding elsewhere. 97 00:12:54,510 --> 00:13:04,590 But then it's very much about decoration and how things look. 98 00:13:04,590 --> 00:13:11,640 The the importance of the technique and all the materials that were brought through 99 00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:19,740 the Middle East were actually quite forgotten in the common memory of the West. 100 00:13:19,740 --> 00:13:27,660 And the loss of judgements about the quality of the bindings from that region is probably first from post mediaeval 101 00:13:27,660 --> 00:13:40,950 times when the economic and political power shifted and Europe emerged as a more confident entity on the world stage. 102 00:13:40,950 --> 00:13:49,140 By then, the printing presses were running full speed and had changed Western society very much. 103 00:13:49,140 --> 00:13:59,030 And book history became Eurocentric. Even though many of our history books say that the printing of books was invented by Gutenberg, 104 00:13:59,030 --> 00:14:06,880 about 40 and 50 more nuanced sources will mention that printing is barely older than that. 105 00:14:06,880 --> 00:14:16,870 That was block printing before, and Gutenberg only developed printing with loose type, even more nuanced sources. 106 00:14:16,870 --> 00:14:22,810 We'll start the history of printing in the forest because apart from the block printing, 107 00:14:22,810 --> 00:14:30,760 they also used ceramic and loose metal types to make books as early as the 11th century. 108 00:14:30,760 --> 00:14:37,810 And the importance of China as the source of paper making is also widely known. 109 00:14:37,810 --> 00:14:47,560 So these two areas are really in our common memory. 110 00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:54,910 And this, for example, is probably known by many of you. 111 00:14:54,910 --> 00:15:00,160 It's in the British Museum and it's considered the oldest, oldest printed book, 112 00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:09,750 even though it's not a book in the sense of a codex as we know it, it's a scroll, but it's certainly a group. 113 00:15:09,750 --> 00:15:18,510 And then this is the earliest extant book, which is a codex, a printed with loose type, 114 00:15:18,510 --> 00:15:27,910 and it's from Korea from the 14th century, so well before Gutenberg printed his book. 115 00:15:27,910 --> 00:15:34,380 But examples from Central Asia and the Middle East are very, very hard to find. 116 00:15:34,380 --> 00:15:38,410 So a book like this, it's also a scroll. 117 00:15:38,410 --> 00:15:45,250 It's a tiny one because it was worn as an amulet, so it was rolled up and held in a container, 118 00:15:45,250 --> 00:15:53,980 but it's printed and it's even printed in multiple colours and dates to the 12th century. 119 00:15:53,980 --> 00:15:59,640 And here is another example which is kept in the David Collection in Copenhagen. 120 00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:01,670 And it's thought to be even older. 121 00:16:01,670 --> 00:16:14,420 So again, in the Militech menu of three modern manuscripts a printed item printed in colour from the 11th and possibly even the 10th century. 122 00:16:14,420 --> 00:16:23,990 And this little gap in the history of printing is also visible in our history of paper making. 123 00:16:23,990 --> 00:16:35,660 When I was trained as a paper conservative paper and conservator in the early 90s, we had to read the very thick volume, 124 00:16:35,660 --> 00:16:46,280 the history of paper making, and it was thought that when we had read that we would know everything that we need to know. 125 00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:54,410 But that was not necessarily the case because in in what we then learnt was that for some reason, 126 00:16:54,410 --> 00:17:00,500 the technique of paper making sort of miraculously appeared in Spain and Italy. 127 00:17:00,500 --> 00:17:05,180 A thousand years after that, it was invented in China. 128 00:17:05,180 --> 00:17:17,500 And of course, there is the whole area in the middle that was very, very important. 129 00:17:17,500 --> 00:17:24,490 So the work of the people in that area really needs to be acknowledged in that story, and fortunately, 130 00:17:24,490 --> 00:17:32,050 people like Don Baker and Jonathan Bloom and Alexander Soter, you have filled that gap for us. 131 00:17:32,050 --> 00:17:43,750 So we know now that after it was invented in China, the technique of papermaking went eastwards to Japan and Korea and to Vietnam in the South, 132 00:17:43,750 --> 00:17:48,880 but certainly also via the different Silk Roads to the West, 133 00:17:48,880 --> 00:18:01,230 where it arrived already in seven fifty in summer accounts and then spread through the Arab world, the north of Africa, and then came to Spain. 134 00:18:01,230 --> 00:18:14,190 And this is an example from the Leiden collections. It's one of the earliest dated manuscripts 1866, and the quality of the paper is wonderful. 135 00:18:14,190 --> 00:18:19,860 It's very thick, it's quite brown. But you can also see that it is not discoloured. 136 00:18:19,860 --> 00:18:24,510 It's it's of a very, very good quality. 137 00:18:24,510 --> 00:18:32,250 And it's very different from the paper that was first produced in the Far East because their sources were different. 138 00:18:32,250 --> 00:18:39,390 Paper was made from the mulberry tree. And so here you can see a few stages of that making. 139 00:18:39,390 --> 00:18:46,890 The bark was used, but needed to be cleaned, needed to be washed, needed to be beaten into a pulp, 140 00:18:46,890 --> 00:18:56,910 and then the pulp could be spreading it to with more water and then the paper maker could do his work. 141 00:18:56,910 --> 00:19:08,130 But the paper mulberry tree did not grow in Central Asia and other sources needed to be used hemp and flax fibres, but also rags were used. 142 00:19:08,130 --> 00:19:12,780 And one of the important things that the people from the Islamic world added to the 143 00:19:12,780 --> 00:19:18,150 technique of paper and the knowledge of paper making is a sort of industrialisation, 144 00:19:18,150 --> 00:19:19,590 if you will. 145 00:19:19,590 --> 00:19:31,110 So they developed these betas that speeded up the beating process of the fibres because it was a very learnt society and they needed lots of books. 146 00:19:31,110 --> 00:19:36,210 So this allowed them to make the paper that they really needed. 147 00:19:36,210 --> 00:19:39,660 And this then is an image of what the paper maker looked like. 148 00:19:39,660 --> 00:20:01,380 He has two elements the tool there is that rigid wooden screen that keeps the flexible paper making moulds in place when he deposits into the VAT. 149 00:20:01,380 --> 00:20:07,160 So you would think now that we know that. 150 00:20:07,160 --> 00:20:10,940 It's the understanding of the paper transmission becomes easier, 151 00:20:10,940 --> 00:20:23,600 but there still are misunderstandings in a book focussing on global trade and use of paper in the Islamic world, which was published in 2018. 152 00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:30,620 As recent as that and the foreword for what was written by a Western paper historian. 153 00:20:30,620 --> 00:20:36,740 And it was stated that Western paper was stronger and more durable than Islamic paper, 154 00:20:36,740 --> 00:20:41,180 and that after the Islamic world brought paper knowledge to Europe, 155 00:20:41,180 --> 00:20:48,200 the superior European paper circled back because being gelatine sized, 156 00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:57,080 it would be better suited to the climate, and I would say that is a misinformed opinion. 157 00:20:57,080 --> 00:21:03,950 Here you see some examples of early manuscripts made of paper in the Islamic world 158 00:21:03,950 --> 00:21:11,360 and these lovely silk things that are not out to the front margins of the pages. 159 00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:21,950 And we use this page markers. So they allowed the reader of the books to get quick access to a certain chapter or another text, or, for example, 160 00:21:21,950 --> 00:21:28,280 in one of the books that is about dream explanation that the different dreams all have a silk page, 161 00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:35,900 marker and page so that you could get to these different dreams and explanations rather quickly. 162 00:21:35,900 --> 00:21:43,310 And here you see a few other examples and these notes how beautiful that paper is. 163 00:21:43,310 --> 00:21:47,630 It's not this colour around the edges. It's creamy white. 164 00:21:47,630 --> 00:21:57,920 It's very strong, even though it is 600 years old. And because of the good quality of this paper, people could not be silk. 165 00:21:57,920 --> 00:22:10,020 Little clings to the to the edges. But mistakes reflect several mistaken views and that we see already in the 17th 166 00:22:10,020 --> 00:22:18,000 and 18th century and in several traveller accounts such as that of John Sheridan. 167 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:25,500 He travelled in Persia and he was very interested in in in different trades and professions. 168 00:22:25,500 --> 00:22:34,350 So he he visited and he expresses his disappointment about the poor quality of papermaking as well. 169 00:22:34,350 --> 00:22:40,980 But after visiting a book, Find it, and I've always felt it's such a funny thing. 170 00:22:40,980 --> 00:22:53,070 And he states it will be difficult to believe, but these binders do not even know how to bind a book properly in one piece of leather instead, 171 00:22:53,070 --> 00:22:58,170 and says they take two pieces that are glued together on the spine. 172 00:22:58,170 --> 00:23:04,380 But he actually refers to a technique that is so common in the Islamic world. 173 00:23:04,380 --> 00:23:05,850 So you can see it here. 174 00:23:05,850 --> 00:23:16,950 The yellow at Arrow points to that scene, where the two pieces overlap, so both boards are covered in a separate piece of leather. 175 00:23:16,950 --> 00:23:24,480 I hope the drawings make it a bit more clear if you need that bit of technical explanation. 176 00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:31,200 So this is where the seam of the two pieces is, and this is where they actually overlap. 177 00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:39,930 And it is a technique that was introduced because it allowed the book binders to work on the boards separately to to to create these beautiful, 178 00:23:39,930 --> 00:23:43,320 elaborate decorations on them. 179 00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:51,060 It was one of the techniques that allowed them to make lecturer bindings, for example, because these boards were made by different artists. 180 00:23:51,060 --> 00:23:59,130 So it is rather characteristic of books in the Islamic world. 181 00:23:59,130 --> 00:24:09,240 Misconceptions, of course, are usually caused by a lack of misunderstanding and also a preset idea of what something should look like. 182 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:19,800 And that is what explains this means misinterpretation as well. 183 00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:22,470 So what is then a typical Islamic manuscript? 184 00:24:22,470 --> 00:24:28,620 Well, more or less, it looks like this an important thing is that the boards are flush with the text block, 185 00:24:28,620 --> 00:24:39,720 so you have a compact manuscript and the gatherings are sewn in a relatively easy manner, using an unsupported links to sowing. 186 00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:46,500 And once the structure is finished, the covering letter is based directly onto the spine. 187 00:24:46,500 --> 00:25:01,720 So we have a tight flat spine and an envelope flap is very often attached to the left board, which is used to protect the forge of the textbook. 188 00:25:01,720 --> 00:25:05,410 But precisely because of that simplicity, 189 00:25:05,410 --> 00:25:15,640 the structure can be misunderstood so that that simple stitch in the middle was actually used in Western books as well. 190 00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:19,570 But Western Book binders used it when they made ephemeral materials. 191 00:25:19,570 --> 00:25:26,830 So a school book or perhaps a theatre play, something that was functional for a while and then could be thrown out. 192 00:25:26,830 --> 00:25:34,900 And then these books were simply covered with a paper wrapper, something limit and not too expensive. 193 00:25:34,900 --> 00:25:46,310 So this technique of sewing was actually associated with something that was not really up to the standards of other Western books. 194 00:25:46,310 --> 00:25:54,680 And if you like that overlooks the importance of several other features that you can see when you look at the books well. 195 00:25:54,680 --> 00:26:06,020 So for example, the tie down to head and tail of the manuscript. These little pieces of thread connects all the gatherings to the spine lining, 196 00:26:06,020 --> 00:26:15,080 and they were applied to every gathering and it's a very essential part of the Islamic bookmaking. 197 00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:20,210 You can see it here on the spine. And of course, that's also one of the advantages of a conservator. 198 00:26:20,210 --> 00:26:24,770 You have access to the interior of books when books are damaged. 199 00:26:24,770 --> 00:26:33,080 So these are things that I get to see on my workbench and are not necessarily also accessible to readers in a reading room, of course. 200 00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:35,210 So this book has lost its leather spine, 201 00:26:35,210 --> 00:26:43,850 but you can see the cloth spine lining and you can see all these districts connecting the lining to all the gatherings. 202 00:26:43,850 --> 00:26:48,620 And this is a very tiny manuscript. 203 00:26:48,620 --> 00:26:54,230 It's an octagonal manuscript, and therefore the spine is very small. 204 00:26:54,230 --> 00:26:58,550 But as you can see, even though the spirits are damaged by now, 205 00:26:58,550 --> 00:27:07,400 but even the small gatherings were sewn individually and they all have tie downs at head and tail. 206 00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:14,500 So it was considered an essential thing of the book making. 207 00:27:14,500 --> 00:27:22,660 One of the other things that probably has confused Western people looking at Islamic books is the use of leather for the spine lining. 208 00:27:22,660 --> 00:27:31,150 So we in the previous example, we looked at a cloth lining, but very often leather was used to line the textbook spine. 209 00:27:31,150 --> 00:27:43,690 And then the extending sides of that piece of lining was pasted onto the inside of the board to to strengthen the board attachments. 210 00:27:43,690 --> 00:27:51,610 But you can see how that really sits integrally in in the structure and on a real life manuscript. 211 00:27:51,610 --> 00:28:01,150 You can recognise it like this. So here you see two pieces of leather, and it's that part that is part of the construction. 212 00:28:01,150 --> 00:28:09,990 It's the leather spine lining and the threats of the bent pass through it. 213 00:28:09,990 --> 00:28:21,480 But this was a very unknown manner of working for people in the West, and therefore especially when leather duplass are used, 214 00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:32,580 which were chosen to resemble the leather of the of that leather spine linings of the structure and the colour is very much the same. 215 00:28:32,580 --> 00:28:39,060 It is very difficult to see that we're actually looking at two different components in the binding. 216 00:28:39,060 --> 00:28:46,170 And that's probably has partly caused to the idea led to the idea that the bookbinding of an Islamic 217 00:28:46,170 --> 00:28:52,740 manuscripts were simply made as a cassette used as a separate entity and then moved on to this fine. 218 00:28:52,740 --> 00:28:57,210 But that there would not be a structural structural connexion. 219 00:28:57,210 --> 00:29:14,020 But of course there is. So when manuscripts came into Western collections, we very often see that Western book binders, 220 00:29:14,020 --> 00:29:20,480 we banned the items partly because of misunderstandings. 221 00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:26,430 Of course, also because these books could have been damaged and then they could not repair the damage. 222 00:29:26,430 --> 00:29:29,810 The oriental ways so they use their own techniques. 223 00:29:29,810 --> 00:29:42,080 And this is a nice example of a beautiful early lack of binding, and it has been reversed by the western bookbinder. 224 00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:51,440 So the lack of painting used to be on the exterior of the binding and the slap should be on the left sides of the book on the back. 225 00:29:51,440 --> 00:30:01,310 But as this is figural, you couldn't turn it around because down all the people would be upside down, so it was transferred to the France. 226 00:30:01,310 --> 00:30:09,440 And perhaps it's also intentional. And Bookbinder may have thought this is a better protection for that beautiful painting, which in a way is true. 227 00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:18,200 But then the original leather interior of the boards has that filigree work, 228 00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:22,460 which is also very fragile because these pieces of leather are really very thin. 229 00:30:22,460 --> 00:30:30,010 And this now sits on the outside of this binding. 230 00:30:30,010 --> 00:30:39,430 In this case, something different happens. It's a staff of each manuscript and binding, 231 00:30:39,430 --> 00:30:52,570 and that the bookbinder who worked on this decided that this manuscript should have larger boards because probably the idea that 232 00:30:52,570 --> 00:31:01,840 the boards would be flush with a manuscript that would leave the edges of the manuscript rather vulnerable to damage and dirt, 233 00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:12,190 perhaps. So there need to be larger boards that was square and extended, and therefore he lifted the letter from the original board on the outside. 234 00:31:12,190 --> 00:31:17,890 And he also lifted that the leather filigree on the inside of the former boards, 235 00:31:17,890 --> 00:31:24,880 then cut to speaker boards pasted everything back, of course, needed a lot more leather to cover these larger edges. 236 00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:37,870 And on the inside, he finished the the the open edges of that new board with strips of marble paper, and it is a colourful composition anyway. 237 00:31:37,870 --> 00:31:46,840 So. And here you could also see that, of course, the manuscript was also sewn. 238 00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:51,400 So we have now sewing support introduced in the structure. 239 00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:59,540 So we have these reports on the spine and and in the whole process, everything was precise as well. 240 00:31:59,540 --> 00:32:06,490 So the the nice relief that the original boards have had is now gone. 241 00:32:06,490 --> 00:32:10,110 And this is another. 242 00:32:10,110 --> 00:32:19,140 Arabic manuscript that simply was bound to and I think what you can call the library binding, so nothing fancy something to protect the manuscript. 243 00:32:19,140 --> 00:32:28,290 And just in the opening page, you can see that faint trace of the flap that used to be there of the former binding. 244 00:32:28,290 --> 00:32:32,400 And it's it's an understandable work. 245 00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:39,780 The only thing that you can say is that these Western structures often lead to a manuscript that doesn't open so well anymore. 246 00:32:39,780 --> 00:32:54,420 And in the case of manuscripts with a map like this, it doesn't really open so fluently, so the map itself is less accessible than it used to be. 247 00:32:54,420 --> 00:33:00,990 One of the collections that I work with here in the book is that the Persian manuscript collections 248 00:33:00,990 --> 00:33:12,840 that were collected by Gore and William Sleep and they worked and lived and travelled in in Persia, 249 00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:18,120 in the eighteen tents and collected many, many manuscripts. 250 00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:27,270 And they also had many of their manuscripts to be bound for a different reason, I think, which we will look at in a moment. 251 00:33:27,270 --> 00:33:33,780 And many of the manuscripts are protected by these wonderful bats, and there are quite a few of them. 252 00:33:33,780 --> 00:33:40,320 I haven't seen all their manuscripts, so this is just a selection of what I think. 253 00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:48,800 Well, what is there? But it could be more. But you see different pieces of types of textile, but also two different shapes. 254 00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:54,330 So there is there's the bag with the three buttons that has a square format. 255 00:33:54,330 --> 00:34:01,650 And then there is the bag with an envelope appointee closing closing flap that only had one 256 00:34:01,650 --> 00:34:10,620 button and that one is inspired on banks that were actually originally used in the region. 257 00:34:10,620 --> 00:34:16,770 So with the bags that we find on the manuscripts from in The O.C. and Elliot's collection, 258 00:34:16,770 --> 00:34:24,120 it's very difficult to say at the moment whether where they had been made was that in the region or was that perhaps when the books were brought back? 259 00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:28,200 But this is the type of bag that you would find in the region. 260 00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:32,760 So an example in Glasgow, one in a private collection, 261 00:34:32,760 --> 00:34:39,270 but also this one was posted on social media just a few weeks ago because it's a new acquisition of the university in Birmingham. 262 00:34:39,270 --> 00:34:44,430 And they liked the bank very much. Of course. 263 00:34:44,430 --> 00:34:54,690 But what the what William and grossly did was, I think, because we have these records of that. 264 00:34:54,690 --> 00:35:07,920 They were in Esfahan in 1811 and they bought a bunch of loose lacquered copies, and many of these copies looked like this. 265 00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:15,210 They have lots of similarities. So probably they were from a sort of commercial source. 266 00:35:15,210 --> 00:35:21,360 And because they held the position of culture in such high regard, 267 00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:32,550 these books make the impression that they actually let them be bound in letter thoughts because that would heighten their authenticity. 268 00:35:32,550 --> 00:35:36,530 It would make them even more important. 269 00:35:36,530 --> 00:35:46,640 So I think the paint is worked from certain templates, and they just use different colours to to get the variety. 270 00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:58,220 Just one more thing about the Western book binders when they interfere with the books and you see a Western bookbinding and a book, 271 00:35:58,220 --> 00:36:02,480 probably with its original words, but rebuilt by a western binder. 272 00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:12,200 So what a western binder would do is after sewing, he cut the edges also because they then could be easily gilded or dyed red. 273 00:36:12,200 --> 00:36:13,850 And in this case? 274 00:36:13,850 --> 00:36:23,300 But that makes the boards larger than the textbook is, and you can see that, for one thing, that causes damage to the corners of these bindings. 275 00:36:23,300 --> 00:36:30,080 But also it is for reasons of construction, not the best thing to do. 276 00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:37,910 I think and there are many examples in Western collections that will show you what happens to books when they have large squares, 277 00:36:37,910 --> 00:36:43,460 when they have these boards that extends over the text block, where the printed manuscript. 278 00:36:43,460 --> 00:36:46,640 But when these books stand on the shelves and the textbooks are very heavy, 279 00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:53,640 they start sagging and that then first causes damage at the head and later on at the table. 280 00:36:53,640 --> 00:37:03,650 And in thinking about constructions and perhaps judging the making of books in a different culture, 281 00:37:03,650 --> 00:37:10,250 I think it would have been a nice if they at least would have seen that perhaps keeping debauched flush 282 00:37:10,250 --> 00:37:18,820 with the manuscripts was actually a very good idea because then you would prevent this sort of damage. 283 00:37:18,820 --> 00:37:29,760 Now, this is a little deceptive scene. 284 00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:35,040 Because I'm looking at these these books from the forest, 285 00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:43,800 because I think that when when we look at how our the Western Book history developed and evolved, 286 00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:55,710 you can see that the the heritage, the objects from the forest where we got it differently, from the heritage, from the Islamic world. 287 00:37:55,710 --> 00:38:01,380 And even though in the 19th and early 20th century, 288 00:38:01,380 --> 00:38:08,050 books may have been rebound when they came into Western collections or in the possession of Western owners. 289 00:38:08,050 --> 00:38:14,340 And there still is that sense of some something being different. 290 00:38:14,340 --> 00:38:26,910 So the idea of a flaw in the structure of Islamic manuscripts has percolated through into our common knowledge, if you will. 291 00:38:26,910 --> 00:38:34,350 And I really think that conservatives book conservatives nowadays would never 292 00:38:34,350 --> 00:38:41,370 interfere with a structure like this in the Japanese and Chinese free inflexions, 293 00:38:41,370 --> 00:38:50,280 because these books are so clearly different from our Western books, and therefore they are respected for what they are. 294 00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:54,710 And you wouldn't change them, whereas. 295 00:38:54,710 --> 00:39:06,230 With books from the Islamic world, which are much closer to our own heritage, and therefore perhaps we think we understand them better. 296 00:39:06,230 --> 00:39:11,000 But we've seen many, many suggestions to improve the structures. 297 00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:16,490 They should become more like ours in a way. So the interventions treatments, for example, 298 00:39:16,490 --> 00:39:27,080 have been at aligning and do your sewing through that longing or add a few sewing stations because that will make the book stronger. 299 00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:31,610 And one of the other suggestions has been add a hollow. 300 00:39:31,610 --> 00:39:40,280 So instead of a tight spine and this hollow will support a text block and perhaps the binding as well. 301 00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:49,340 And I've tried that once. And for those of you who were in the Khalili Research Centre when I gave a lecture a few weeks ago, 302 00:39:49,340 --> 00:39:53,660 you will know that I do not think this was a very good idea. 303 00:39:53,660 --> 00:40:04,360 I really think that we should keep these objects as representatives of the heritage where they come from. 304 00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:14,890 So. And that's. A group like this. 305 00:40:14,890 --> 00:40:19,660 So concluding, I think we have inherited that biased view. 306 00:40:19,660 --> 00:40:28,390 But I would really like to to keep the physical qualities and the material properties of these items as they are. 307 00:40:28,390 --> 00:40:33,670 And let's then we turn to Lady Mary Kay Montague. 308 00:40:33,670 --> 00:40:40,990 She pointed out misperceptions of previous male travellers about Turkish women and her gender 309 00:40:40,990 --> 00:40:48,550 provided her with access to the ladies in the Ottoman world that was so close to male visitors, 310 00:40:48,550 --> 00:40:55,180 and therefore she was much better informed and she could correct that view. 311 00:40:55,180 --> 00:41:06,820 And this too, holds relevance to the bigger picture. To prevent misconceptions, insight, knowledge and a thorough understanding is key. 312 00:41:06,820 --> 00:41:13,060 And this means that conservatives with that practical experience may be better informed than art 313 00:41:13,060 --> 00:41:20,590 historians or text scholars when it comes to structural details and questions about materiality. 314 00:41:20,590 --> 00:41:29,590 It certainly also means that we need a joint effort to write a more complete and inclusive history. 315 00:41:29,590 --> 00:41:36,910 And we certainly need to be aware of our western lens when we look at these manuscripts. 316 00:41:36,910 --> 00:41:55,208 And on that note, I would like to say thank you for listening.