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A real find, hidden under an ugly binding…

It’s not everyday that I get a general collections book that’s older than the U.S.A. come across my desk. This one was in a tacky modern binding, both ugly and completely unsympathetic to the original binding structure it probably once had. When I opened it up, though, I quickly realized this was not in the same category as the other 19th and 20th century books I’d been evaluating on the same cart of damaged general collections books. Inside, the paper of the textblock is beautifully flexible, white, and has the delightful “rattle” of old paper. 

While evaluating it for treatment, I noticed that it had some repairs done, specifically one of the pages had been replaced by a photocopy! It clearly was done in a thoughtful way, because the paper they used was very nice handmade paper, of almost the exact same weight and texture as the original paper. However, the black and white speckles of the photocopier kind of ruin the illusion. 

Most fortunate of all, though, is the complete lack of tape! There are many paper repairs throughout, but they were all done with paper and paste, which we could easily re-do in the lab if needed.

Introducciones latinas, contrapuesto el romance al latin, para que con facilidad puedan aprender todos, y principalmente las religiosas, y otras mugeres dedicadas á Dios, que para este fin mando hacer S.A. la reyna catolica Doña Isabel al maestro Antonio de Nebrija.  
 by Antonio de Nebrija. Madrid, Publicalas a su cost B. Ulloa, 1773

This post was originally published on the ConserveThis! Tumblr, on June 27, 2018.