Join us for a talk by Julia Miller about her experience describing and documenting the bindings on 100 Greek manuscripts held in the U-M Library's Special Collections Research Center. Julia will show us what “magnificent” can mean with regard to the binding and repair of some of our oldest books; her presentation will be accompanied by a display of seven exemplars from our collection of Greek manuscripts. The event takes place on Tuesday 9 June at 5:30 pm in the Special Collections Research Center on the sixth floor of the Hatcher Library. Refreshments will be provided.
Julia is a highly regarded conservator who studies, writes, lectures, and instructs about historical binding structures. She is the author of the widely acclaimed Books Will Speak Plain: A Handbook for Identifying and Describing Historical Bindings, now in a revised and enlarged third edition, published by The Legacy Press in 2023; she served as editor of the nine-volume series Suave Mechanicals: Essays on the History of Bookbinding, also published by The Legacy Press. Julia is also the author of Tradition and Individuality: Bindings from the University of Michigan Greek Manuscript Collection, which consists of detailed descriptions and lavish illustrations of the bindings on 100 Greek manuscripts dating from the fourth to the nineteenth century. This book is intended as a companion to the extraordinary two-volume catalogue published by the University of Michigan Press.
Julia's presentation is co-sponsored by Rare Book School, an independent, non-profit institute supporting the study of the history of books and printing and related subjects. Rare Book School, which was founded in 1983 and makes its home at the University of Virgina, offers approximately 40 five-day, non-credit courses every year. One of these is “Paper as Bibliographical Evidence,” which is being taught for the second time in and with the collections of the U-M Library's Special Collections Research Center.
Date: Tuesday 9 June 2026
Time: 5:30 pm
Venue: Special Collections Research Center (Hatcher Library - 6th Floor)