What information goes missing when we undo the binding of codices?

Until recently original bindings did not receive much attention by conservators.

There have been two extremes, either that the binding should be completely redone to make the codex look neat and nice in appearance, which totally ignores the value of the cultural heritage contained in the original bindings, or the other extreme of not daring to touch the original material, which is more the case with works of art and not so common when dealing with books.

This paper will first give some examples of serious losses caused in the last 50 years compare with the situation of today. Then the paper will try to demonstrate step by step what information might be lost in each part of the binding when it is opened.

Losses are also to be expected if you believe that all the information can kept by using written and photo documentation. There is always the photo you wish for afterwards, which may or may not have preserved the information you are looking for after all else is gone.

In the end we can only make notes of things we already have understood as being meaningful or even being there. We cannot describe what we so far do not understand or see. However the original silently keeps all the information until one of us understands it and thus sees it; this procedure of seeing and understanding and vice versa understanding and seeing is well-known and also holds true for book conservation.

This contribution was provoked by a dispute over the topic in which the head of a collection containing utmost valuable manuscripts stated that they would be allowed to open the bindings in their studios and rebind the codices, as they then would know all there is to know about the bindings.