Previous Restoration and Conservation Projects and Addressing Interesting Problems.
Corpus Juris Canonici
A very interesting problem appeared with this project, caused by alterations/corrections being applied to the pages apparently before binding.
The stresses on the spine of the book which resulted in the collapse of the binding appear to have been caused by the fact that some of the pages have parts of other sheets attached to the tail of them, some on both sides.
The resulting variations of weights on these sheets of paper means that when bound in a conventional manner the head of the section would open more easily and with less force than the heavier tails of the section. This action created stresses in the spine of the binding causing the stitching to break and to pull the sewing supports apart at the point where the two weights of paper met.
To correct the problem thin guards torn from hand made paper were stiched into the sections but these guards were only applied in the areas of the spine where the page was a single sheet thickness. This gave the sections a more uniform bulk all the way down the folded sheet and dispersed the stresses throughout the whole length of the sewing.
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