Tackets, Overbands, Lacings and Buckles

Tackets, Overbands, Lacings and Buckles: a lecture by Katherine Beaty on early Italian stationery bindings of Harvard’s Baker Library

When: Friday November 17th, 4-5pm
Where: 90 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge, MA 02138

This lecture is free and open to the public. Seating in limited, so please arrive early!

The Harvard Business School’s Baker Library houses the largest collection of early Italian business records outside of Italy. It includes 150 account books and day books of the Medici Family, 81 volumes from the Barberini Family, and many more. Presenter Katherine Beaty will talk about the use and structure of early Italian stationery bindings that were observed during recent conservation projects of the Medici and Barberini collections. These unique limp vellum bindings include unusual structural features, such as overbands, decorative alum-tawed lacings, spine and endband tackets, and different fastenings types, including ties, loop and toggle, and buckles. This lecture is presented in conjunction with a workshop on Italian tacketed stationery bindings hosted by the New England Chapter of the Guild of Bookworkers. For more information on the workshop and to register for one of the few spots remaining in the workshop, click here.

Presenter Katherine Beaty is a rare book conservator in the Weissman Preservation Center for the Harvard Libraries. For the past 10 years, Katherine has been treating rare books from the Harvard library collection, with a special interest in parchment, Islamic and non-western books, and investigating historical book structures. Over the last four years, she has been conserving early Italian account books from the Harvard’s Business School’s Baker Library Historical Collections. Katherine earned her M.A. from the Buffalo State College Art Conservation program with a specialization in book conservation.