The Balkan Heritage Foundation is happy to announce a new seminar on the preservation of historic bookbinding collections in partnership with the National Library of Greece and the Centre for Slavo-Byzantine Studies “Prof. Ivan Dujcev”. The project is funded by Erasmus +. The training will take place in February 12 – 17, 2024 at the Centre for Slavo-Byzantine Studies “Prof. Ivan Dujčev” in Sofia, Bulgaria and is oriented towards professionals in book and archival material conservation and library curation from Southeast Europe.

Historic bookbindings are a particular part of library collections. Our understanding of the significance of bindings as a carrier of historic context and value for books as artefacts has been established, shaping our approach to documenting book structures and the way that conservation treatments and preservation activities are performed. Through this 6-day seminar the participant aims to present the approaches and methodologies formulated at the National Library of Greece, to address a series of dilemmas and requirements when caring for large collections of manuscripts and printed books that preserve valuable and rare historic bindings.

The seminar will include visits to historic collections, with an opportunity to examine and discuss real-life challenges from local Library Collections. Through this the participants will be encouraged to produce case studies for their own collections which will be discussed to attempt to identify preservation needs.

The seminar will be led by Dr. Nikolas Sarris, a book and paper conservator at the National Library of Greece with a PhD from the University of the Arts London (UAL) on the study of tool-decorated bookbindings from the Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai, Egypt. Dr. Sarris has taught undergraduate courses on book and paper conservation in Greece. He has also worked as a conservator at the British Library and the monastery of St. John Theologian in Patmos, Greece, where he organized the international Patmos Workshops on Conservation and Historic Bookbinding. He has participated in the “St. Catherine’s Library Conservation Project” since 2001 and has collaborated as a freelance conservator and researcher in international manuscript conservation, training and research projects in Egypt, Iraq, Ethiopia, Greece, UK and Turkey.

To apply for the seminar, please send a CV to bhfs.admissions@gmail.com. Application deadline is February 1, 2024 or until the places are filled (12 available places).