{"id":2801,"date":"2020-04-28T11:56:05","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T11:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/thepreservationlab\/?p=2801"},"modified":"2021-04-15T14:28:46","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T14:28:46","slug":"a-long-journey-of-model-making-the-nag-hammadi-codices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/thepreservationlab\/2020\/04\/a-long-journey-of-model-making-the-nag-hammadi-codices","title":{"rendered":"A Long Journey of Model Making – The Nag Hammadi Codices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/a>
Preservation Lab Open House 2019 flyer<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Each year, the Preservation Lab hosts an annual open house during ALA’s Preservation Week, inviting the entire community to visit the Lab and tour our facilities. Each Preservation Week we choose a theme and dedicate our annual open house to that theme. For instance, last year was dedicated to the history of the codex, where the community was able to discover and explore hands-on the evolution and history of the codex, through various book models created by the Preservation Lab staff. This was a great opportunity to share, with the public, the importance of the materiality of the book and how we can use primary resources as teaching tools.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The history of the codex is a subject that I am deeply interested and has led me to meet and learn from great scholars such as Julia Miller, an expert in early book forms. As a result, I have been developing my own research skills, learning more about the history of the codex, creating historical book models, and sharing this knowledge with my colleagues and with different communities through opportunities such as Preservation Week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
One of the most famous pictures of the Nag Hammadi Codices. Image retrieved from https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/daily\/biblical-artifacts\/the-nag-hammadi-codices\/<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

My interest in the history of the codex has led to a fascination for the Nag Hammadi Codices (NHC), also known as Gnostic Gospels. The Nag Hammadi Codices were discovered in 1945 in Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi. The Nag Hammadi Codices appear to have been written during the fourth century. These codices are among some of the oldest codices to have survived with their bindings still intact. There were thirteen codices found, but only eleven bindings have survived. At the time of the discovery eleven covers were found with their texts, text fragments of a twelfth codex, and one text unbound (Codex XIII \u2013 tractate (<\/em>treatise))1<\/sup>.The codices were leather bound with Coptic text written on papyrus sheets. The writings in these codices include fifty-two mostly Gnostic treatises, but they also include other works, such as the Corpus Hermeticum<\/em>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This discovery was extremely important, since there were many texts within the Nag Hammadi Codices that were not known elsewhere at the time. For instance, one of the most famous writings is the Gospel of Thomas which is only complete in the Nag Hammadi Codices2<\/sup>. This was an incredible discovery not only in the world of paleography, religion but also codicology.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of my fascination with the Nag Hammadi Codices, I decided to dedicate some time to creating my own Nag Hammadi models over the years; creating to-scale the eleven bindings found in 1945.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many reasons one chooses to make a model of a book structure, to learn its unique features, how the different materials work together, among others. In my case, I wanted to understand the differences between each of the covers, what features made each cover unique and not exactly the same as the others, and the differences between cover and quire attachment, as well as why some of the codices were more elaborate than others, with cover decoration and blind tooling. This has not been an easy task and has become much longer journey than expected. The tremendous research conducted by scholars and researchers over the years on the study of these texts within the Nag Hammadi Codices, as well as the bindings itself, has helped a great deal in my task of model making. I still have so much more to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The<\/strong> long journey of model making<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I should start by saying that over the years, Julia Miller has been a great mentor to me; providing resources, guidance and advice throughout my endeavors to complete my full set of the NHC models.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
My first NHC model with its many mistakes, such as parchment tackets (not found in any NHC).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

My first attempt to create a Nag Hammadi Codex (NHC) model was back in 2013. I started by reading The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding<\/em> by J.A. Szirmai, where the NHC are explored in the first chapters related to single-quire codices. I also based my initial model from one created by the Lab\u2019s conservator, Ashleigh Schieszer. At that time, I knew little about the unique features of each Nag Hammadi Codex and their bindings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, I was able to attend a week-long course at the American Academy of Bookbinding (AAB) on early book forms with the conservator and researcher, Julia Miller. It was at the AAB that my interest for these historical structures solidified and where I learned a lot more about early codex forms. It was also in this workshop that I learn about the mistakes I had made with my first NHC model. This only deepened my interest and conviction that I had to make my own set of NHC to understand how these early codices were made.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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