New exhibit: "Reflections on Bindings"
Rare book bindings are fascinating objects, which are often beautifully decorated with intricate images. Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) offers exciting new possibilities for safely capturing a book’s surface decorations, revealing details that cannot be seen using traditional methods or the naked eye. A new exhibit of books treated to these innovative techniques is now on display at the Lillian Goldman Law Library.
“Reflections on Bindings: Using New Imaging Technology to Study Historical Bindings,” features books from the Rare Book Collection of the Law Library, which have been analyzed using RTI to show exquisite details from early modern blind-stamped bindings. These details can help us to identify the book’s early owners and understand attitudes about the books within the bindings.
The analysis was expertly undertaken by members of Yale University Library’s Conservation & Exhibition Services team, who curated the exhibit. The curators are Chief Conservator Christine McCarthy and Conservation Assistants Fionnuala Gerrity, Ansley Joe, and Karen Jutzi.
The exhibit is open to the public, 9am-10pm daily, February 3 - May 24, 2014, on Level L2 in the Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.
For more information, contact Mike Widener, Rare Book Librarian, at (203) 432-4494 or <mike.widener@yale.edu>.
Shown at left is one of the books on display, Institutionum: seu elementorum d. Iustiniani (Nuremberg, 1529).