![\"section](\"https:\/\/exhibitions.bgc.bard.edu\/stagingthetable\/files\/2023\/01\/Double-stroke.png\" "\\"Double")
<\/span><\/div>*Folding by the Book*<\/strong><\/p><\/h1><\/div> *Folding by the Book*<\/strong><\/p><\/h1><\/div> Although illustrated instructions for napkin-folding emerged only in the early seventeenth century, folding and pleating techniques have a long history. In antiquity and the Middle Ages, folding papyrus, parchment, or paper was a means to conceal or protect information written thereon. Pleating fabric enabled clothing to take on the shape of the body that it was covering. One of the earliest texts to describe the layering and folding of linen coverings for the table, for bread, and for cutlery is John Russell\u2019s early fifteenth-century <\/span>Boke of Nurture<\/span><\/i>. In the course of\u00a0<\/span>the sixteenth century, the artful folding of table linens became de rigueur at courts across the continent, stimulating the publication of the illustrated manuals on view in this exhibition.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div> Above: <\/span>Mattia Giegher,<\/span> Li Tre Trattati<\/span><\/i> . . . <\/span><\/i>(Padua: Paolo Frambotto, Padua, 1639), plate 2. Engraving. Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library, *KB 1639.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div> *Diagrams & Demonstrations* <\/strong><\/span>Sixteenth-century carving manuals such those of Giovanni Francesco Colle and Vincenzo Cervio depict the carver\u2019s utensils: forks, knives, steels, scoops, and so on. Mattia Giegher pushes the genre of illustrated technical manual <\/span>to a new level by activating the tools in the hands of the artisan wielding them. These eerily disembodied hands are among the first to appear in the carving and folding books. <\/span>On the left below is the first of three diagrams in Giegher\u2019s treatise on folding, first published in 1629, demonstrating the first step to creating the elaborate centerpieces on display here. <\/span>The caption for this image, included on another page, reads, \u201cIl secondo disegno delle dette mani aditta il modo di cominciar lo spinapesce\u201d (the second drawing of the said hands instructs how to begin the fish scales). He claims that the book will \u201cshow with great ease the way to fold any kind of linen fabrics, that is, napkins and tablecloths\u201d and that they are \u201ca totally new invention by the author, never seen before.\u201d Georg Philipp Harsd\u00f6rffer reproduced the three basic folding diagrams from Giegher. On the right below is Harsd\u00f6rffer’s first folding diagram, labeled clearly as such. These are the basic \u201clong folds,\u201d translated as Langfalten in German.<\/p>\n<\/div> *Diagrams and Demonstrations* <\/strong><\/span>Sixteenth-century carving manuals such those of Giovanni Francesco Colle and Vincenzo Cervio depict the carver\u2019s utensils: forks, knives, steels, scoops, and so on. Mattia Giegher pushes the genre of illustrated technical manual <\/span>to a new level by activating the tools in the hands of the artisan wielding them. These eerily disembodied hands are among the first to appear in the carving and folding books. <\/span>Below is the first of three diagrams in Giegher\u2019s treatise on folding, first published in 1629, demonstrating the first step to creating the elaborate centerpieces on display here. <\/span>The caption for this image, included on another page, reads, \u201cIl secondo disegno delle dette mani aditta il modo di cominciar lo spinapesce\u201d (the second drawing of the said hands instructs how to begin the fish scales). He claims that the book will \u201cshow with great ease the way to fold any kind of linen fabrics, that is, napkins and tablecloths\u201d and that they are \u201ca totally new invention by the author, never seen before.\u201d Georg Philipp Harsd\u00f6rffer reproduced the three basic folding diagrams from Giegher. The following image is Harsd\u00f6rffer’s first folding diagram, labeled clearly as such. These are the basic \u201clong folds,\u201d translated as Langfalten in German.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div> Above: <\/span>Mattia Giegher,<\/span> \u201cPlate 1,\u201d from<\/span> Li Tre Trattati<\/span><\/i> . . . (Padua: Guaresco Guareschi al Pozzo dipinto, 1629). Engraving. Universit\u00e4tsbibliothek Basel, AP V 31a.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/span><\/div><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/exhibitions.bgc.bard.edu\/stagingthetable\/files\/2023\/01\/T.png\")
he craft of pleating and folding starched linen napkins to adorn a festive table dates back at least to the sixteenth century. Stewards, who prepared the linens and set the tables, played an important role in these live performances alongside the carvers, who were responsible for slicing and dicing before diners at the table, and the chefs, who prepared the food itself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/exhibitions.bgc.bard.edu\/stagingthetable\/files\/2023\/04\/RT-055-a-copy.jpg\")
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