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Found out a 16th century binder used folded strips from old letters as spine lining, and now I can't decide if that's smart or lazy
I was reading through a conservation writeup from a workshop in York last month and it mentioned that a 1580s ledger had spine linings made from cut up personal letters, still readable through the paste. One side of me says that's just using what you had, parchment was expensive and every scrap got a second life, which is honestly the mindset this craft came from. The other side says you're hiding someone's mail inside a book where nobody will ever pull it apart, and that feels like a loss. So where do you all land, is reusing old paper in a binding good craft or just covering up a shortcut? Curious if anyone here has opened a book and found writing under the paste.
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blair_martin23h ago
Heard about a guy who pulled apart a broken 1600s binding and found a full letter from a merchant complaining about his brother in law, still crisp as day. Half of me wanted him to frame it, the other half figured the binder just grabbed whatever was in the rag pile.
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