In the school of wisdom -- Persian bookbinding, ca. 1575-1890

This digital exhibition reprises a physical one held in Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library between October 2018 and March 2019. Its restaging might pose an irony, given that the show's concept and title, drawn from a lyric poem, concerns ephemerality. Translating this experience to the web nevertheless offers an opportunity to underscore its very theme. While viewers might be seduced by many examples, "In the School of Wisdom" is not an exhibition of beautiful bindings. Rather, it presents a suggestive history, one wherein the art of bookbinding cannot be disentangled from a manuscript's fragility. As will become apparent from the entries, nearly every cover shown here is a replacement, not an original. This fact of remaking is fundamental to manuscript history, whether in contexts of production or reception.