THE REVIVAL OF BOOKS

Ana Jessen, an expert in restoration, has been collaborating with the Monastery of Yuso, in San Millán de la Cogolla, for 14 years now. Thanks to our dedication and experience, as well as to our capacity and commitment to raise funds from different companies, our library, the cradle of the Castilian language, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, has managed to preserve and improve documents of great historical value.

In this effort to preserve and restore our library, we continue to fully rely on Ana Jessen’s professionalism and rigour. She has shown great care and sensitivity, avoiding aggressive actions and always giving priority to preserving and respecting the original work. She deals with books and documents as if they were living organisms.

The Board of the San Isidoro de León Museum would like to highlight the work carried out by Ana Jessen, to whom we have entrusted the restoration of the bookbindings of 8 of our most precious codices. We rely on her professionalism, and we would like to outline how she always tries to preserve and maintain the works rather than using other techniques which are more aggressive. Therefore, she deserves our full endorsement.

The historical collection of the University of Cádiz features approximately 15,000 volumes, published from 1550 to 1900. The University Library developed a plan to restore, preserve, digitalise and promote these volumes. Ana Jessen’s support and professionalism should be noted in this regard. She has restored various books that belong to the University’s historical collection, and has also provided her advice on the preservation of these volumes which, due to their characteristics and age, are part of the Spanish documentary and book heritage. Accordingly, they must undergo a special treatment.

From the beginning of its second stage, in 1986, the Residencia de Estudiantes has been expanding and increasing its documentary collection by adding numerous archives, libraries and documentary collections, both personal and institutional, that represent a precious historical collection on the Silver Age of Spanish culture, linked to the Institución Libre de Enseñanza, the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios and the centres it created.

Ana Jessen has collaborated with the Residencia de Estudiantes from the very beginning of this documentary recovery and preservation project, by developing restoration and bookbinding processes. Her work, always satisfactory, stands out for her rigour and good judgement, and for the thoroughness and care she puts in every process, as well as for the use of natural materials and her respect for the original works.

Ana Jessen is, beyond any doubt, one of the best Spanish bookbinders. As a private client, I believe that she has the necessary technical and cultural knowledge to design the most appropriate binding taking into account the era to which the requested book belongs and carry out the process impeccably. Her prices may not be cheap, but they are reasonable.