Arbeitskreis für die Erfassung, Erschließung und Erhaltung historischer Bucheinbände (AEB) was founded in Leipzig in 1996 and is the community for bookbinding research in Germany. For thirty years now, it has been dedicated to raising the profile of bookbinding research and promoting nationwide and international collaboration and networking among individuals and institutions involved with bookbinding, its history, and its artistic and technical development. The AEB focuses on all periods and binding types and supports projects and working groups in a wide variety of areas within the field of research. The AEB also devotes considerable attention to correcting and supplementing the existing repertories for tooled and roll and plate book bindings. This work is further supported by the binding database, which can be accessed online (www.hist-einband.de). In cooperation with libraries that possess historical book collections, the working group organizes international annual conferences. AEB conferences (Tagungen) are aimed at participants from the library and archive sector, book and library science, preservation, bookbinding and restoration workshops, as well as bibliophile collectors.
The Upper Lusatian Library of Sciences (Oberlausitzische Bibliothek der Wissenschaften, OLB) in Goerlitz is one of the most important public collection and information centers between Dresden and Wrocław. Its roots extend back to the late Middle Ages, but it primarily to the library foundation established by Johann Gottlieb Milich in 1726 and the book collection of the Upper Lusatian Society of Sciences. Its holdings primarily support scholarship and research, but it is also open to all private individuals. As a regional academic library at the crossroads of German and Polish historical research, the OLB gathers the knowledge of bygone eras and the wealth of shared cultural heritage, and documents current developments. Furthermore, it serves as a hub for communication and the exchange of information and knowledge across national borders.
The Academic Department of Print and Digital Media at the Institute of Information and Communication Research, Nicolaus Copernicus University (NCU) in Toruń is a leading center in Poland for research and popularisation of knowledge about old book bindings. The origins of academic „tegumentology” in Toruń are linked to the eminent book researcher, Professor Janusz Tondel (author of numerous publications on bindings from the famous Silber Bibliothek in Königsberg, among others). Over the past decade or so, research on medieval and early modern bindings has been further developed by PhD hab. Arkadiusz Wagner, a professor at Nicolaus Copernicus University. Since 2014, on his initiative, national „tegumentology” conferences have been organized, bringing together Polish and international researchers, librarians and archivists, conservators, museum professionals, and bibliophiles. The conferences have produced volumes containing a wide range of „tegumentological” analyses approached from diverse research perspectives. An important aspect of the research initiatives at the Nicolaus Copernicus University’s IICR, in cooperation with other institutions, is the organization of exhibitions of historical bindings, including the recent monumental exhibition of Gothic bindings from the Toruń collection.
© 2026 Waldemar Cieślak / UMK Toruń