EMILY H. COHEN

On January 13th, 1752, the trustees of King's College, later to become Columbia University, began recording minutes of their meetings in this blankbook. The iron gall ink was still in good condition, but the binding was becoming structurally unstable. This important document in the history of Columbia University can now be handled and read more safely. 

This 1514 copy of Bey’ur ‘al ha-Torah (commentaries on the Torah) has been heavily used and was re-bound centuries after its original publication. The text block had split into two pieces and the spine leather was lost. The text block has many alterations and repairs, some of which were left to preserve evidence of its history. 

This copy of the Decameron from 1620 was rebound in the 19th century in full leather with extensive gold tooling. The detached front board was reattached with the use of a Peachey Board Slotting Machine and a cast composite faux leather was created to aesthetically reintegrate the abrading joint leather.