The Legacy Press Series: Francisco Trujillo

The Center for Book Arts - September 9, 2022 @ 6:30 pm

We are honored to have Mr. Francisco Trujillo discuss his extensive work for his publication of Coptic Bookbindings in the Pierpont Morgan Library (The Legacy Press, 2021). This is a free event. Please register using the below link:

https://centerforbookarts.org/calendar/talk/the-legacy-press-series-frank-trujillo

The Coptic Bindings Collection at the Morgan Library & Museum consists of the original 9th and 10th century bindings of over fifty manuscripts discovered in 1910 in the Fayum Oasis in Egypt. The Legacy Press 2021 publication of Theodore C. Petersen’s Coptic Bookbindings in the Pierpont Morgan Library provides the most comprehensive description of their construction, materials, and influence. Written between 1929 and 1950, Coptic Bookbindings is the culmination of Petersen’s extensive research into the bindings. This presentation will relate the story of how the bindings were discovered, their long and extensive restoration at the Vatican Library during World War I, and Petersen’s involvement with the bindings and the Morgan Library. An additional focus will be the several unsuccessful efforts to publish Petersen’s seminal work between 1950 and its ultimate publication by The Legacy Press. The presentation will also detail the particulars of the bindings, including board formation, sewing structures, and leather decoration that make their discovery important to the understanding of early binding structures.

Francisco H. Trujillo is the Drue Heinz Book Conservator in the Thaw Conservation Center at the Morgan Library & Museum. Previously he worked at the Columbia University Libraries, the Jewish Theological Seminary Library, and the Library of Congress. He has an MLIS with an Advanced Certificate in Book and Paper Conservation from the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on the materials and techniques of medieval manuscripts, French Romanesque binding structures, and the Coptic bindings collection at the Morgan. He is the editor of Theodore C. Petersen’s "Coptic Bookbindings in the Pierpont Morgan Library".

New York City pandemic guidelines are in effect (vaccines and masks recommended). Please contact Center For Book Arts if you have any concerns.

We hope to see you there!