Gutenberg Bible Leaf - COLLECTION CONNECTION Ep.7

[Music] My name is Eli Boyne, Rare Book Library Associate at Tulane University Special Collections, and today I’d like to share with you our leaf of the Gutenberg Bible. TUSC’s collection of Rare Books holds some of the older materials found in the library, and conservation is often essential to keep these materials safe and accessible. The first printing with movable type, often incorrectly attributed to Gutenberg, was invented in China and Korea between the 9th and 12th centuries. Gutenberg made his own foray into the process in the 15th, using quick cast metal type with an ink and press of his own design. The process created a crisp impression of words on paper that gave rise to printed book production in Europe.

00:48 - Tulane’s leaf comes from an incomplete edition of the Gutenberg Bible that was bought by bookseller Gabriel Wells, who had the bible disbound, and sold as single pages, or leaves, in the early 20th century. Showing, however, how book materials made in the 20th century were of much lower quality than those made in the 15th, the portfolio that the leaf was held in had started to turn acidic, giving the 15th century paper a brown cast that was literally eating away at it. So how do we preserve this object to make sure it survives for future generations? That’s when we bring in the experts. During the leaf’s conservation, it was necessary to remove it from its original binding. The leaf was attached to a tab with animal glue, which made the paper stiff and inflexible, and prone to further deterioration.

01:33 - It was necessary to carefully remove the leaf, clean it, and then repair its damaged areas using non-invasive conservation treatments in our lab. The leaf and its pamphlet were then resewn into a newly-constructed case. Once this was finished, a custom box was built to house both the repaired leaf and its old case, which was kept for provenance. The challenge was to create a box with two compartments: one for the cover that was removed from the leaf and the other for the newly treated leaf. After sketching out a few ideas, the solution was to create a 2-flap wrapper for the old case that could be pulled from a compartment below the newly treated leaf.

02:12 - Both are housed in a clamshell box that closes snugly and keeps this important artifact in print and book history safe and stable. To learn more about the physical properties of books, check out the online exhibit Books Through Their Pages at bit.ly/booksthroughtheirpages. [Music] .