18/10/2025
Bookbinding, book conservation, and the history of books as cultural artifacts - all together these are the fields that Siberiana (aka Ieva Rusteikaitė) has been focusing on recently.
For the past five years, Ieva has been working on her doctoral dissertation on the history of bookbinding in Vilnius and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 16th and 17th centuries. Perhaps it is quite logical that during this period she wrote more texts about handmade books than bound books as such.
However, daily reflection on the structures of historical books and analysis of historical sources is, on the one hand, the basis for understanding the logic of the work of craftsmen of the past, the structures, materials and tools they used. On the other hand, this has a direct impact on making the right decisions in conservation of such books.
After all, before repairing something, you need to understand very well how it was made. Therefore, the importance of all types of research in the cultural heritage conservation based on scientific principles is unquestionable.
Such emphasis seems particularly relevant this week, which is dedicated to the European Days of Conservation-Restoration and celebration of the profession of conservators of all kinds of cultural heritage.
We hope that creative handmade books will soon return to the Siberiana's workshop, maybe with new twists inspired by the research already done. In the meantime, we share a bundle of Ieva's articles
on the shape and structure of historical books that were made or found their way in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
For the full list of publications see link in bio.
