AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

Over a series of years, treatment was performed at the Preservation Lab on one of the earliest printed Haggadot in history, a historical text central to the Jewish Passover. The book, printed in 1526, is owned by Hebrew Union College (HUC) located in Cincinnati, OH. A unique treatment was created to restore the functionality of failing reformatted book pages that varied in differing dimensions – some previously trimmed to a fraction of their prior size while other pages were left uncut. The goal of treatment was to reunite pages of differing dimensions within historical leather covers while keeping to the original sewn book structure.

This talk introduces the evolution of printed Haggadot and how this fully illustrated edition influenced future printed text. A brief historical background is supplemented with discussion of prior treatments performed at the Preservation Lab that represent other historical advancements of Haggadah imagery through time. Showcasing these additional Haggadah treatment examples paves the way for the merging of history, as well as conservation solutions that lead to the unique treatment.

This multifaceted book treatment utilizes both a wide set of paper and book conservation techniques. For example, pages contained both printed and handwritten leaves that required disparate wet treatments. Early printed leaves were treated to remove prior poorly-aged taped and cockled repairs in a traditional wet bath, while handwritten songs added in the back of the binding required a specialized calcium phytate treatment to preserve handwritten iron gall ink. After wet work, we were then faced with the atypical book need to inpaint lost dirt found beneath prior repairs to preserve the evidence of use.

To conquer the challenge of rebinding different page dimensions, both encapsulated pages and paper leaves were united and sewn together onto raised supports to preserve the historical covers and binding structure. First, a model was created to experiment with rebinding prior to performing treatment and to propose the unique treatment solution to stakeholders. Once selected, the new reformatting solution involved welding encapsulated pages to paper hinges to create folios that could be sewn through onto supports. Techniques used to rebind two sets of texts of different sizes included considerations traditionally made for rebinding vellum textblocks that need to be protected from moisture to prevent cockling and damage to the text.

The final solution was non-traditional and unexpected. The textblock spine consisted of paper folds, many of which were attached to plastic encapsulated leaves. Introducing moisture during rebacking was a known risk that could cause cockling condition issues, similar to what brought the book to the lab in the first place; however, with the use of an ultrasonic welder and introduction of little moisture, this solution proved surprisingly successful to facilitate reuse of the historic leather cover and recombine pages.

Following treatment, HUC has since presented the binding during Passover celebration. Its historical technological advancements have been highlighted from tours to online virtual presentations within the Jewish Federation Community, broadening exposure of the history of the religious text to a wider audience.