Ieva Rusteikaitė, Knyga kaip dirbinys: vilnietiškos mokyklos įrišų technikos ir dekoras iki XVII a. vidurio / The Book As an Artefact: Binding Techniques and Decoration of the Vilnius School to the mid-17th Century, Doctoral Dissertation, Art Studies – H 003 (Vilnius: Vilniaus dailės akademija, 2026).

ABSTRACT

Dissertation examines the development of bookbinding in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the second half of the sixteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century, with particular attention to the bookbinding school that emerged in Vilnius. The research is based on the analysis of written sources and surviving artefacts, namely the bindings of books that circulated within the region. Using a structured descriptive model, the study systematically investigates the structural, material, and decorative features of the bindings. The findings reveal new evidence on the technological diversity of local bindings and the presence of imported artefacts. The study shows that bindings associated with the Vilnius school belong to a broader Northern and Central European tradition, while also displaying distinctive local characteristics. The analysis of one of the largest collections of books printed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the region, formerly owned by the Vilnius Jesuit Academy Library, provides new insights into early modern practices of book circulation and use. The dissertation contributes to a deeper understanding of printing, book distribution, and craft of bookbinding in this period and proposes a methodological framework for further research.

Ieva Rusteikaitė, Beveik knygos: prekybiniai XVI–XIX a. pradžios knygų įrišai Vilniaus universiteto bibliotekoje / Almost Books: Retail Bindings of Books from the 16th to Early 19th Centuries in Vilnius University Library, in Iliustruotas vadovas po senąsias Vilniaus spaustuves / An Illustrated Handbook to the Early Vilnius Printing Houses, edited by Ina Kažuro, Mindaugas Marazas and Veronika Girininkaitė (Vilnius: Vilniaus universiteto leidykla, 2024), 72–130. Purchase a copy

SUMMARY

This article attempts to draw attention to the fact that the diversity of bindings of books was quite broad, and by no means are all binding practices solely attributable to the book owner’s needs or taste, but also to the commercial activities of printers and booksellers. The study also seeks to explore the potential of the material characteristics of surviving prints in investigation of early modern book printing and distribution. The research focuses primarily on the technological aspects of bookbinding in 16th–18th century Europe and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as well as the professional relationships between bookbinders and the activities of printers and booksellers during that period. The more notable examples of bindings presented here are drawn from what has been documented so far in the special collections of the Vilnius University Library. It appears that the need for reliable book protection arose in the early days of printing, when unbound printed sheets were vulnerable to damage during longer journeys, while the then-common heavy binding made the transportation of prints too complicated. A solution to such need emerged as more convenient and economical commercial binding formats became prevalent through the 16th–17th centuries. As these types of bindings were conceived as temporary solutions and have thus hardly survived to our day, they are now very rare and valuable sources of information about book distribution aspects in various countries. The research reveals that even laconic mentions of bound books found in sources can form the basis for material that helps to better understand the terms used in GDL book trade to describe binding techniques and formats. It also becomes clear that in the 17th–19th centuries, there was not just one specific binding technique, but rather a wide spectrum of technological complexity. As can be seen from some of the examples provided in this article, the information shown by the materiality of bindings can be relevant not only to bookbinding craft enthusiasts or its history researchers. Books that, as we can guess, circulated in the market already bound or partially bound, provide a lot of valuable information about how many other crafts – such as printing, bookselling, paper manufacturing and decorating – were organised. When analysing particular bindings, especially when describing them, there is a great need to identify the observed technological nuances with appropriate terms. It is hoped that the terminology problems highlighted here will receive more attention and discussion in the future when studying these still poorly known material sources of book history.

Ieva Rusteikaitė, Bound in Vilnius? Technological Features of the Bindings of Early Books Printed in Vilnius, in Theatrum Libri 2, Printing Centers and Peripheries in the Early Modern Period (Vilnius: Lietuvos nacionalinės Martyno Mažvydo bibliotekos Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras, 2024), 250–312, https://doi.org/10.51740/dpt.3.

ABSTRACT

As the printing technology spread in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, at the end of the sixteenth century Vilnius became an important regional printing centre. This period also corresponds with some of the earliest records of the significant growth of bookbinders’ activities in Vilnius and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in general. Nevertheless, very little is still known about the characteristics of the local craftsmen’s works. As an effort to cover this knowledge gap, the following paper presents a study on the technological features of the bindings of the earliest books printed in Vilnius during 1575–1610. The bindings of these books have hardly been documented and may be considered to be one of the potential sources on the anonymous works of the local craftsmen in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century.The research has been based on the detailed analysis and documentation of the binding techniques. Particular attention has been paid to their structural features in order to draw some similarities and differences, prevailing trends and isolated cases that might represent some regional bookbinding practices. The collected data showed that less than half of all the bindings examined can be considered as original bindings. It allowed to identify some of the features characteristic of the north and central European tradition in leather and parchment bindings. The study includes undecorated books previously hardly noted by Lithuanian researchers, while the limp laced-case parchment bindings were recorded for the first time in local prints. This gives a broader picture of the variety of binding methods used in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Despite the fact that the surviving material is too fragmentary to draw unambiguous conclusions, the results of the study significantly expand the knowledge about the shape of the books printed in Vilnius and provide a stronger basis for future comparative studies of historical bindings in Lithuania and the neighbouring countries.

Ieva Rusteikaitė, Kaip medžiaga medžiagą mėgdžiojo: istorinio dekoratyvinio popieriaus tyrinėjimai / On Materials Imitating Materials: Exploring Historical Decorated Papers, Semiotika 18 (2023), 82–117, https://doi.org/10.15388/Semiotika.2023.3.

ABSTRACT

Crossing the boundaries of any one discipline, the article provides an overview of research into historical decorated paper conducted by the author over the last several years. Examples of this seemingly very specific, ephemeral material, considered as an imitation of other materials, applied in bindings of printed books and manuscripts during the 18th and 19th centuries, are presented as anonymous artifacts of the past, strikingly characterised by their own materiality and thus involving also the researcher’s senses. Besides a historical overview of the main techniques of paper decoration in Europe, the place of this applied decorative element in the three-dimensional structure of the handmade book is also explored. The second part of the paper addresses the relevant problem of ornament as a plastic discourse, which has so far received less attention in semiotic research. Through a closer analysis of a several samples of decorated paper, questions about the semantic structure of the ornament and its effects are raised. Finally, when placed in the context of certain habits, needs and interests of eighteenth-century European society, decorated paper and its ornamental language emerge as a multilayered object with a culturally defined meaning.

Ieva Rusteikaitė, The Body and the Outfit of the Book: The Enigmatic Case of the Binding of Stanisław Sabinka’s Book in the Context of European Bookbinding of the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century, Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, 110–111 (2023), 333–362, https://doi.org/10.37522/aaav.110-111.2023.179

ABSTRACT

The owners of the Latin translation of Francesco Guicciardini’s work Storia d’Italia published in Basel in 1566 were Stanisław Sabinka (?–1588?) and Nicolai Decius (1586–1629), important figures of the Vilnius political and religious elite of the second half of the sixteenth century. Until today, the elaborate binding of this book, quite untypical of the collections of rare books in Lithuanian libraries, has been attributed to the printer and bookbinder Jokūbas Morkūnas (c. 1550–1611) from Vilnius. However, other books related to his activity in Vilnius do not have enough similarities with the binding technique of Sabinka’s book and, thus, this attribution raises a number of questions. Instead of trying to establish the bookbinder’s identity, this article above all aims to define more precisely the technical features of binding through a detailed observation and focus on the material aspects of the artifact itself. A significant increase of research into the technical art history, material culture and so-called “book archaeology” in the recent decades provides a methodology that enables us not only to discuss the binding in the terms of decoration, but also to pay more attention to the structure itself. The collected technical data about Sabinka’s book and placing it into the wider context of European bookbinding of the second half of the sixteenth century allows us to reveal several historical layers of this binding and to raise a new hypothesis about the circumstances of its production. On the one hand, the binding represents an intention to follow the style of famous sixteenth-century noble bibliophilic libraries. On the other, the technical execution of the binding has features characteristic of the search for cost-effective binding solutions in Europe in the period after the invention of printing. Judging from the structural features, the binding seems to have similarities with Northern and Central European bookbinding traditions with a stronger influence of German crafts.

Ieva Rusteikaitė, Puošnu ir praktiška: XVI a. viduryje – XVII a. pirmojoje pusėje Italijoje ir Abiejų Tautų Respublikoje spausdintų knygų įrišai Vilniaus jėzuitų akademijos bibliotekoje / Elegant and Practical: Bindings of Books Printed in the Middle of 16th and the First Half of the 17th Centuries in Italy and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Library of Vilnius Jesuit Academy, Knygotyra, 80 (2023), 228–262, https://doi.org/10.15388/Knygotyra.2023.80.130.

ABSTRACT

In the early modern period, the relentless growth in the copies of printed books and the increasing competition between craftsmen meant that, since the invention of Gutenberg until the 19^th century, European bookbinders were forced to look for cheaper and quicker binding techniques. Based on this assumption, the article focuses on some of the bindings of books printed from the middle of the 16^th until the middle of the 17^th century which belonged to the library of Vilnius Jesuit Academy. This study is part of a broader research on the bindings of the Vilnius Jesuit Academy Library, and the article is limited to two groups of sources: books printed in Italy and books printed in the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth). The historical bindings are discussed by following the approach targeting the field of decorative arts and material culture studies, which is also well known as the ‘archaeology’ of the book or the bookbinding. It focuses not only on the decorative features of the cover of the book, but also on the structural features of the bindings which reveal comprehensively the work of the craftsmen of the past. This method of analysis is particularly useful for discussing not only decorated but also undecorated bindings which have so far received very limited attention in the research of the old Lithuanian book. As a result, the research revealed that the modest parchment bindings form nearly a half of all the examined bindings of the collection, and confirm the practical rather than the representational aspect of the Jesuit Library. According to the complexity of the technical execution and the number of operations involved in the process of binding, five binding techniques have been distinguished, ranging from the most complex to the simplest bindings, closely related with a retail bindings. What is more, a consistent number of parchment bindings are denoted by structural features, which is close to the Italian bookbinding tradition. The predominance of the latter in the group of Italian prints makes it possible to consider the possibility of already bound books entering the library of Vilnius Jesuit Academy. Moreover, the research has revealed certain binding features linked to the bookbinding traditions in Italy and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The article was based on presentation in the international research conference Francysk Skaryna and the Renaissance Book Culture, that took place in Vilnius, 22-23 September, 2022.

Ieva Rusteikaitė, Marija Šaboršinaitė and Gediminas Bernotas, Tales of Decorated Paper. Five-part digital exhibition by Vilnius University library via Google Arts & Culture, 2021:

The digital exhibition tells a visual story about history of handmade decorated paper until 19th century. The most popular five techniques are presented through the selected samples preserved in Vilnius University Libraries archives. Richly illustrated tales shows the most common decoration features, but also highlights unexpected and imaginary solutions made by craftsmen of the past.

Ieva Rusteikaitė, Understanding the Craft: an Overview of Conservation of Bindings of Books in the Vilnius University Library, in Reseach. Dilemmas. Solutions. The 12th Baltic states Triennial Restorers’ Meeting. Preprints, edited by Jūratė Senvaitienė (Vilnius: The Lithuanian National Museum of Art, 2020), 256–268, http://conservation2020vilnius.ldm.lt/book/.

ABSTRACT

Paper pretends to look closer to the development of conservation of bindings at the Vilnius University Library as part of the history and professional self-reflexion on conservation of books in Lithuania, scarcely discussed until now. The overview allows to distinguish several different periods in the history of the Department of Restoration: the early years of training new professionals in bookbindery and conservation; a „craftsmen period“ characterized by improvement of skills in bookbindery and collection of tools and teaching of junior conservators; a shift from craft to conservation determined by national conservator‘s certification process, a clearer definition of criteria and methods of intervention and appearance of more systemized professional vocabulary. Finally, a present period which is characterized by re-discovery of the craft, seen from the perspective of a conservator.

The paper is based on the the presentation made in The 12th Baltic States Triennial Conservators’ Meeting Research. Dilemmas. Solutions, held on 29 September–02 October 2021.

See also:

Ieva Rusteikaitė, and Sigitas Tamulis, 17th Century Vellum Binding Structures and Their Preservation, p. 560–562, http://conservation2020vilnius.ldm.lt/book/.

Ieva Rusteikaitė, Una galería virtual para redescubrir el universo del papel decorado in Blog de Fons Antic, CRAI Biblioteca de Fons Antic, Universidad de Barcelona, 17 de noviembre de 2016, https://blocbibreserva.ub.edu/2016/11/17/una-galeria-virtual-para-redescubrir-el-universo-del-papel-decorado/.

A review that invites to explore digital gallery of decorated paper created by Library of University of Barcelona.