Step by step Byzantine binding video tutorial

 

    Each style of binding from one historical period to another and from one civilization to another is characterized by some of the features and characteristics that are a mirror of the reflection of the environment, materials, and arts that exist in that time period.

    The ambiguity in the term “Byzantine Binding” makes it necessary to clarify that the ambiguity of this term has its historical roots from the beginning and end of the Byzantine Empire, as well as its ever-changing borders; In terms of geography, which its inhabitants and neighbors came to know as the Roman Empire (1), the bookmaking tradition of the Byzantine world was not limited to the Byzantine Empire (or Eastern Roman Empire) itself as Constantinople was its political and cultural center, but had close links with many regions bordering such as Armenia, Georgia, Syria, eastern Mediterranean islands such as Cyprus or Crete, Greece with the monasteries of Athos, some Balkan countries, and distant regions such as Russia were part of the culture of manuscripts and books themselves, the monastery of Saint Catherine was in Mount Sinai and even parts of Egypt; Late Coptic manuscripts remind us that Alexandria was one of the first Roman patriarchates of the Byzantine Church.

    Thus, geographical boundaries do not seem to constitute a suitable basis for defining the term, however, the same chronology: Byzantium culture did not undergo the immediate collapse of the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the tradition continued in some areas even for centuries later. Hence, it is proposed to consider the term “Byzantine binding” as a bibliographical term and to characterize those manuscripts on the basis of their main formative and structural characteristics (2)

Characteristics of Byzantine Binding

    Each style of binding from one historical period to another and from one civilization to another is characterized by some of the features and characteristics that are a mirror of the reflection of the environment, materials, and arts that exist in that time period.

The stitching of the links in the booklets of the Byzantine manuscript in more than two parts of the stitching is a distinctive feature of this manuscript. sewing. Cloth lining in the spine of the manuscript extends to the outside of the paper, the spine without protruding nerves, that these features may vary with the date and place of origin of the manuscript, and not necessarily all features will always be present.

This Byzantine binding video tutorial is based on a facsimile of a 17th century Byzantine Manuscript. The tutorial is divided into 6 parts

 Part 1 | Wooden Boards

Part 2 | Sewing

Appendix of Part 2 | Sewing illustrations

Part 3| Endband

Part 4 | Binding

Part 5 | Fastening

Part 6 | Finishing

Part 1: https://youtu.be/OJteHL1Fcrw

Part 2: https://youtu.be/Xed5CUh1ugQ 

Part 3: https://youtu.be/-fuPVjo03Jw 

Part 4: https://youtu.be/PXo1VNxu6pA 

Part 5: https://youtu.be/XsYsa3-c8rw 

Part 6: https://youtu.be/xL1bqTkbGfs

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References

1. Kazhdan, Aleksandr Petrovich, Epstein, Ann Wharton and Wharton, Annabel Jane. Change in Byzantine Culture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries. s.l. : University of California Press, 1985.

2. Szirmai, J. A. The archaeology of medieval bookbinding. s.l. : Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2007.

Sherif Afifi

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