Yasmeen Khan, Head of the Paper Conservation Section in the Conservation Division of the Library of Congress
4 PM CST/5 PM EST
In-Person Viewing Party will be at: Lippincott 242: Seminar Room, Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
The viewing party will be followed by a small reception in ARCH 109 starting at 6:45 PM. We will walk over from the viewing venue together following the keynote.
Having the tools to deconstruct the history of a manuscript prior to treatment is vital for a conservator. An assessment of the condition of a binding starts from the cover inwards to the pages, text, and thread, and yet, simultaneously, the conservator reverses those steps to understand the creative process that resulted in the bound volume. “How and where was the paper manufactured, prepared for writing, inscribed or printed, sewn, bound, used, repaired, resewn and rebound?” are questions that should be answered in order to provide a rationale for a treatment approach. I will delve into the structure and material characteristics of four bound copies of Mīr Ḥasan’s Siḥr al-Bayān at the Library of Congress as evidence of changes in bookbinding, taste, readership, markets and use in 19th century Northern India.
Time
Oct 21, 2021 05:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
