Treatment Justification: During a curatorial consultation with Verónica, Nathan Dorn explained that from about 1933 through the early 1950s, the Law Library acquired most of its oldest historic titles, including multiple copies of the various Conflictvs volumes and Tomes by Perremvto. During those years, the Law Library benefited from special funding from Congress for growing its collection. Their acquisition and preservation mirror’s the Law Library’s goal to become the most complete repository of early legal imprints.

The Conservation Division has been conducting treatment on the Conflictvs volumes as early as the 1980s, with multiple conservators contributing to their preservation. In the case of this object, the boards were splayed and detached, the supports were broken, much of the sewing thread was missing, one endband was lost and the other partially detached, the transverse spine linings were broken at the joints, and the backfolds of the textblock were split, rendering the book inappropriate for research consultation.

Prior to Verónica’s involvement in the project, paper repair and stain reduction had been completed. Senior Conservators Claire Dekle and John Bertonaschi, Conservation Liaison to the Law Library, had discussed possible structures for the rebinding, including dividing the thick textblock. Construction of a model provided the opportunity to experiment with and evaluate several aspects of binding structure. The experiments confirmed the viability of dividing the textblock and creating a limp parchment structure, with alum tawed supports and alum tawed endbands, for each half (March 20, 2023).

Treatment Summary:

1. Textblock preparation: Split textblock into the two Tomes. Punched gatherings and sewed the textblock. First and last five gatherings were sewn all-along to anchor the thread; the rest of was sewn all-along to reduce risk of swelling.

2. Spine consolidation: Consolidated spine with multiple transverse layers of Kozo tissue (1 layer RK17; 4 layers RK19; 1 layer airplane linen).

3. Cases: Constructed two parchment cases. Punched and laced-in the textblocks to the parchment covers.

4. Rehousing: Rehoused in custom-fitted, alkaline-buffered corrugated cardboard, drop-spine box.