Until recently the interest of scholars, historians and paleographers was mainly focused on the books’ text, while the case studies dealing with the structural elements of old books were a rarity.
However, the scientific knowledge of the materials and techniques required for and applied to book binding is not only necessary for a book restorer but it seems to be an indispensable
tooI for the historian and the old books specialist, in general. A new scientific discipline, “the Archaeology of Books” has as its object the thorough study of materials and special techniques of book making, mainly of the manuscript. The major pursuit of this new science is
the collection and utilization of ail information relevant to the history of the book. At the same time it has set the ambitious objective to reconstruct bit by
bit the overall appearance as well as the production of a Mediaeval scriptorium.
