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Re: VMs: Reasearching the VMs at Beinecke



Hi everyone,

At 10:43 27/08/2005 -0600, Dana Scott wrote:
Yes, the 'a, b, c' are in pencil. This was possible done by "HH" whose initials appears in the back cover of the binding of the VMs. HH may have worked for Kraus or might have been someone who did binding work on the VMs when it arrived at the Beinecke Library (ref. note inside back cover). This individual apparently added the linen thread and leather thongs to reinforce the binding of the VMs. Note, based on my observations, I suspect that the outer binding is modern. The texture of the "skin" appears no where else in the VMs. Inside the covers we can seen that a pasted page has been removed with the glued down edges still remaining. The leather thongs and "virgin" leather support strips for the bindings seems "new". I believe that the cover to the manuscript initially contained another manuscript. There are two remnants of "old" leather cord still visible at the top and bottom of the cover panels.

According to the insert at the back of Kraus' Catalogue 100, The book bindery, located in the basement, is in the charge of "Morris". He does not produce bindings like those shown on the previous page, but many volumes in our reference library were resewn by him [picture below text] and put into sturdy, durable covers. Moreover, he administers first aid to ailing volumes, such as securing loose pages [picture beside text]. He is a master of "the stitch in time that saves nine."

Having said that, there was also an "HH" (sort of) employed by Kraus - his bibliographical consultant, Dr Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt. Suggestively, there's also a picture of him in there, holding what appears to be a pencil. :-)

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....


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