Re: [GBW] GBW Digest - 19 Aug 2003 to 22 Aug 2003 (#2003-120)

[Frank Mowery <FMowery@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Gessoed Parchment

The books mentioned are Writing tables not, which were very common
during the Renaissance, produced in mass but only a relatively few still
exist. At the Folger Shakespeare Library they were first "discovered" by
Peter Stallybrass, professor at University of Penn. When he was studying
Hamlet, trying to understand what was meant by " Yea, from the table of
my memory, Ile wipe away all trivial fond records".  It turns out that
we have a number of examples of these Table books "similar in many ways
to almanacs" small volumes with printed material but these have in the
center blank leaves upon which there was writing or visible evidence of
someone writing on them.  Some of the books have vellum leaves that have
a gesso coating on them interleaved with paper, in some of the books,
the leaves coated are of paper coated with gesso.  They could have been
written on with ink (which could be wiped away, as in Hamlet), but
imagine, with only two hands, how did one hold the book, a pot of ink
and write with a pen?  It turns out that the gesso coated leaves could
also be written on with a metal stylus, like a silver point drawing,
that would leave a dark line when marked across the page. These too can
be wiped away. Some of our books still have the metal sylus built into
the binding.  There is a description of sorts in Cennini of a 15th
century Bavarian recipe " white parchment tablets are made this way,
take calf parchment and put it on a stretcher....dry it in the
sun...take thouroughly powdered white-lead and mix it with linseed oil
until it comes out thin, while still preserving the white
color.....paint the parchment...dry it in the sun, do this nine times...
you can writ on them with lead, tin , copper or silver style or even
ink.... and erase the letters with saliva and write again....

I have made a couple of examples of these books and experimented with
surface coatings, I added calcined bone and gelatin to this mixture to
get a good coating.  A detailed article will appear in the not too
distant future in the Shakespeare Quarterly, entitled "Hamlet's Tables
and the Technologies of Writing in Renaissance England" by Roger
Chartier, Frank Mowery, Peter Stallybrass and Heather Wolf. 

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Subject: GBW Digest - 19 Aug 2003 to 22 Aug 2003 (#2003-120)

There is one message totalling 38 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. gessoed parchment

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Date:    Fri, 22 Aug 2003 13:03:24 -0400
From:    Praxis Bindery <pgeraty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: gessoed parchment

We are about to produce a facsimile of a sketch book to be used in an
exhibition on Rembrandt.  These books, called tafelet, were usually made
with vellum pages prepared with gesso.  The books were pocket-sized,
bound
into leather and had clasps or foredge flaps fastened with a metal
stylus
which was used for scribing the prepared surface of the vellum.

We are looking for information on these books.  How was the vellum
itself
prepared, e.g. - scraped on both sides?  Has anyone any information on
how
the gesso was applied?  What formula for gesso might have been used?
Did
the gesso go all the way into the gutter margin?  Did that seem to pose
any
problems with the sewing?  How many pages was common?  What sizes were
in
use?  How ornate or plain were the bindings?  Are there any collections
in
New England which contain some of these books or any collections,
anywhere,
which might have photographs showing the pages and the bindings?

Information on these books would be greatly appreciated.  We would also
be
glad to forward any information we get to anyone else interested.

Thank you,
--
Peter Geraty
Praxis Bindery
1 Cottage St. Unit #18
Easthampton, MA 01027-1667
ph - 413-527-7275
fx - 413-527-7273
pgeraty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.praxisbindery.com

------------------------------

End of GBW Digest - 19 Aug 2003 to 22 Aug 2003 (#2003-120)
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