It is not uncommon to find waste material as part of a binding (parchment manuscripts, for instance, the typical case known as disjecta membra or “fragmentology”), but quite much rare when the previous and original binding is part of the boards layers of the current recycled binding!
The outer and visible binding belonged first to a former book, and the hidden binding, to the current, one… crazy!

• Owner: Regional Archive of Vallès Occidental (Terrassa, Catalonia), Government of Catalonia
• Artefact: The “Book of antiquities and arrangements of the community” is the oldest document relating the history of the Terrassa (city nearby Barcelona, Spain).
  It has a re-used binding, that is the covers belonged to an other book. Recycling supports or whole bindings was common on those days, since prime materials (leather, parchment) were very much valued. The adaptation of this parchment-covered laced-case binding, formerly quite much bigger than the manuscript they bind today, caused remarcable structural damages: The opening is abnormal and the spine has the front joint displaced (among many others).
  Besides from the recycling of the binding there are plenty of paper repairs in the folios, all of them made with extreme care not to cover the text inscriptions, and sometimes even reproducing parts of it and imitating the calligraphy (in fact these later inscriptions on top of the repairs seem properly done by the same hand).
• Author: Written by Joan Arnella (1570-1639), perpetual vicars of Sant Pere (Saint Peter, main curch of Terrassa), notary and archivist of the presbyters’ community of Terrassa.
• Date: 1594-1639.
• Damages: Important damages in the covers: wrinkles and abrasion of the parchment, rodent losses, grim, breakage and loss of the ties. Severe disfunction in the sewing structure. Tears, wrinkles and distrortion of the folios (some of the damages due to the old repairs).
• Conservation treatment: Cleaning, flattening of the parchment covers. Infilling losses, replacement of broken ties, consolidation of structural damages in the sewing. During the treatment another binding was found, as part of the layers of the laced-case boards. This other binding is very much likely the original previous binding of the manuscript. The newly found covers have this title “Llibre de visitas de S. Pera de Tarrassa, 1611” (Book of visits of S. Peter of Tarrassa, 1611).
  The “visits” to which it refers, would be the episcopal visits, held periodically in order to clean the patens and check if there were missing books; nontheless there were also extraordinary visits for archaeological purposes.
• Project lead by: Rita Udina.
• Conservators: Paula Bueso, Ana Tourais, Rita Udina.
• PRESS RELEASE: Download it here.
• Other links:
  This odd finding is released on the following media:
  – Terrassa Digital (4/12/2020).
  – Diari de Terrassa (4/12/2020).
  We have not yet overcome the happy finding, and that’s why we mention it at any time, either in India, when speaking about reversibility in book and paper conservation, or when the topic is the recycling of supports in bookbinding in Croatia, or either discussing conservation of re-used bindings, in Chile.
  We cannot help from sharing it at the Christmas Special from i-bookbinding.
  And find the occasion to show off the freshly restored book when the Arts and Humanities Entrepreneurship Hub enquires about the profession of book and paper conservator.
  All these videos below, frozen at the moment when the book is displayed.

The following images show the laced-cased parchment binding, an example of recicled binding in which the boards contained in turn another parchment bidning, most likely a limp-vellum binding. The latter is a paradigmatic case of membra disjecta or fragmentology, that is, the recycling of written supports for a new purpose, in this case the layers of the paperboard that formed the cover of a binding.
UV photography helps reading better the title in this former binding inside the boards.
The paper repairs on the folios as well as the sewing, and other aspects, made it necessary to make some structural changes in the binding.

Here the very moment of discovery of the hidden original binding within the paperboard layers of the reused binding which contained it:

In Chile discussing the study case, at the International Conference of Paper Conservation, in the lecture about conservation of reused bindings (parts 1 & 2, in Spanish):

• 00:00 – Introduction
  • 00:28 – A) What is re-use with diverse purpose (disjecta membra)
  • 01:23 – B) What is reuse with diverse purpose
• 01:44 – A) Recycling with diverse purpose (disjecta membra)
  • 02:04 – a1) 1️⃣ Parchment manuscript used as a binding for an incunabula (Girona).
  • 06:12 – a2) 2️⃣ Parchment manuscript used as limp binding with rolled sewing (Lleida).
  • 10:17 – 1️⃣ vs 2️⃣. Are old repairs and re-used materials compatible with conservation requirements and to what extent their removal involves loss of readability?
  • 11:20 Decision making for disjecta membra materials (A).
• 12:11 – B) Reuse with same purpose (recycled binding)
  • 12:49 – b1) 3️⃣ Manuscript with recycled binding (Terrassa).
  • 18:03 – b2) 4️⃣Manuscript with vellum binding (Girona).
  • 26:07 – b3) 5️⃣Manuscript with wallet binding (Guimerà).
  • 39:25 – Decision making for recycled bindings (B).
• 41:38 – Conclusion.
• 43:58 – Acknowledgement.

In INTACH India, we speak about the headaches when it came to treat the tear repais in the context of reversibility in book and paper conservation (in English, with subtitles). From 17:08″ to 22:14″ (just click and that’s it):

At Zagreb (Croatia) speaking about structural issues of the binding and the sewing in the lecture ‘Conservation of re-used bindings’ (part one, in English with subtitles). Watch it from minute 16:25″ (just click):

When being interviewed at the Christmas Special from i-bookbinding we cannot help sharing this amazing finding (minute 1:47″, in English):

When AHEH (Arts and Humanities Entrepreneurship Hub) asks what does a book and paper conservator do, the book is also shown freshly restored! (minutes 0:16″ and 2:56″):