Among our vast RIBA Collections holdings are 4,371 rare books. Published between 1478 and 1840, these include antique, richly illustrated editions of seminal works on architecture. Early editions of texts by famous architectural theorists can be found alongside manuals and pattern books, large volumes on archaeology, and detailed building studies.
Preserving this world-class collection takes expert skill, painstaking attention to detail, and no small degree of patience. Since 2016, our conservators have been embarked on a long-term project to surface clean and repair these titles. Removing dust stops particles from being transferred from the outside of a book onto its pages, and helps keep insects (which can cause considerable damage to the books) at bay. Other treatments include repairing page tears, humidifying and flattening creases, securing detaching pages, and supporting covers and spines.
When the structure of a book is particularly weakened - for example where the sewing has broken or a cover has detached - more in depth treatments are required such as re-sewing. Our conservators work to conserve the original materials of the book, supporting their structural stability and fully documenting all the treatments they undertake so that future conservators can trace the volumes' material histories. So far 3,363 volumes have been surface cleaned and 432 have received further treatments - vital to facilitate researcher access to the books, to enable their digitisation, and to protect them for the benefit of future generations.
Repairing a 16th Century architectural treatise
This volume dates from 1578 and is catchily titled 'The moste profitable and commendable science, of surveiyng of landes, tenementes, and hereditamentes'. It's an instructional manual outlining how to make survey drawings, illustrated with woodcuts made and collected by its author, who was a prominent London cloth merchant named Valentine Leigh. It was printed in London by J. Kingston, and superseded an original edition published the previous year. Further editions followed in 1588, 1592 and 1596. This one was presented to the RIBA in 1923.
The volume had been badly affected by mould damage throughout, leading to large areas of loss and soft, very vulnerable pages. In response, our conservators strengthened every page with a 5% methyl cellulose adhesive, applied through a layer of thin Japanese paper to help it consolidate. In-fills of sekishu Japanese paper were applied using wheat starch paste.
Conserving Vitruvius' 'De Architectura'
'De Architectura' is the only architectural treatise to survive from antiquity. It was originally written by the ancient Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollo (a somewhat mysterious figure about whom not much is known), probably between 30-20 BC. The text was widely reproduced after being 'rediscovered' in the second half of the fifteenth century, amid the Renaissance period's revival in interest in classical antiquity. This edition dates from 1522, one of a series of editions edited by the architect Fra Giovanni Giacondo, whose woodcuts also illustrated the text.
The volume had been re-bound, which the conservators estimated to have occurred at some point in the 18th century. The leather of the binding had started to degrade, particularly at the spine and along the cover joints. The first few leaves were also detaching and at risk of loss. Because of the extent to which the leather was degrading, the conservators decided to remove the spine so it could be cleaned and re-lined, before attaching the boards securely with cloth. A key priority was to retain the original gold tooling and label on the spine, so that it could be placed back onto the volume after the work.
The spine was cleaned and the old adhesive (which can be acidic and prevent the attachment of a new lining) was removed. Next, a fine linen cloth was adhered to it, inserted between the boards to attach to the cover. A new pared and toned calf leather was attached over the cloth, and the original spine label, with its gold tooling, was re-positioned on top.
The Rare Books project has been made possible thanks to the generous support of the British Architectural Library Trust (USA), The John R Murray Charitable Trust and the David M Schwarz Foundation. Find out more about supporting our world-class collections.
