Sindbad the Sailor; Bysh’s edition, London, 1831 – H.IIIB.33
The fictional figure of Sinbad (or Sindbad, as printed here) is a familiar one in children’s literature and entertainment. This edition was published in London in 1831 and features hand-coloured illustrations of his “seven wonderful voyages”. Its eight engravings are all fully coloured, setting it apart from other chapbooks, which are small paper-covered booklets. It includes images of:
- ‘Sindbad following the Sea-monster’
- ‘Sindbad carrying the Old Man of the Sea’
- ‘The one-eyed Monster hurling pieces of Rock after Sindbad’
This volume had never been bound, and so required conservation work in order to prevent any further damage to the endpapers.
How Sinbad was restored
Thanks to its Adopter:
- its leaves were surface cleaned
- it was repaired with Japanese paper and wheat starch paste with sewn-on linen thread
- aged compatible endpapers were added
- it was bound in cloth
- the title appears on the spine in gold
Athanasius Kircher; Musurgia universalis; Rome, 1650 – Mus B14
A Jesuit scholar and polymath, Athanasius Kircher published somewhere around forty major works on a series of subjects, including Orientalism, medicine, geology and disease. Compared to Leonardo da Vinci in respect of his enormous range of interests, he has been credited with:
- founding the study of Egyptology
- establishing the links between disease and microorganisms after studying bacteria under a microscope
- inventing the megaphone
This book combines two of Kircher’s great passions: music and science.
How it was transformed
- leaves were surface cleaned
- the original spine was lifted to allow attachment of new leather spine
- board corners were repaired with matching calf leather
- the original spine was remounted onto new leather