fltr: Sascha de Jong, Dieuwertje van Drooge, Eline den Dunnen, Irene van Dijk, Naomi Buijs, Silke Geven, Lotte Paulides, Michael Goodman, Henriët Graafland, Oana Stan, Eva van Kemenade

In the last week of november 2019, ten students with a passion for old and rare books participated in the Mining Library Treasures course at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR). The collection of the KNIR holds more than 500 rare books, mainly from the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Their research was focused on the relation between the format and the book. In this case, every student chose one book from the collection with the 'octavo' format, a relatively small book size. The research that was done on each book is presented in this digital exhibition. 

The course was combined with hands-on workshops and excursions. The students learned how to make paper in Subiaco, where the first Italian book was printed, and spent an afternoon learning how to make marbled paper at the KNIR. They visited the famous Biblioteca Angelica and Bibliotheca Casanatense, where the special items from the collections of old and rare books were shown to the students. On a day trip to the Monastery of St. Scholastica in Subiaco they were guided through the first Benedictine Monastery and the birthplace of the printed book in Italy. The last excursion was to L’Istituto centrale di patologia del libro, where they were shown multiple restoring and conservation projects. 

This digital exhibition was a group effort, but at the beginning of the week every student was assigned a specific task:​
Curator: Silke Geven
Text editors: Irene van Dijk, Michael Goodman, Oana Stan
Web editor: Henriët Graafland, Sascha de Jong
Photo and video editors: Eline den Dunnen, Dieuwertje van Drooge
Collation editors: Naomi Buijs,  Lotte Paulides

We would also like to give a special thanks to Janet Mente of the KNIR who prepared all of our books for us and showed us our creative side by making marbled paper, and also Eva van Kemenade for guiding us through this course and answering all of our questions.