Canadian library takes a leaf out of French craft book

A pair of bookbinders from south-west France have been headhunted by a top university library in Canada to help restore some of the country’s most precious books, including a 1562 edition of the Bible.

Husband-and-wife team Nathalie and Christophe Legrand will travel from their workshop in Périgueux (Dordogne) to the Université de Montréal later this year, and will also take part in conferences to share their savoir-faire.

The couple will even feature on Découverte, a science TV show from ICI Radio-Canada Télé. The crew have already shot scenes in Périgueux and will follow the Legrands again when they arrive in Montreal.

Their journey to Canada began in March 2025, when one of their friends met a dispirited librarian from the Université de Montréal at a conference.

He lamented that he could not find anyone to restore certain valuable books in the university’s bibliothèque des livres rares et collections spéciales (rare books and special collections library).

The friend immediately recommended the Legrands, and the librarian personally flew to Périgueux to meet them.

A month later, he sent them a 1624 edition of Plutarch’s texts in Ancient Greek and Latin, originally from the library of Louis XIV’s finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert.

They returned the restored volumes to Montreal in September.

“The collaboration was supposed to end there. We were meant to give the books back and then spend the rest of our time in Canada on holiday,” said Christophe.

In the end, however, they spent four days meeting university staff, who eventually showed them all the other books awaiting restoration.

One in particular required the utmost care: a 1562 Bible from Christophe Plantin, a French book printer and publisher, which features a unique binding. Its painstaking restoration is expected to take between 120 and 135 hours – roughly three full weeks of work.

Staff at the university offered to send the Bible to the Legrands’ workshop. The Legrands suggested it would be wiser to restore it on-site and recommended several skilled American professionals to do the job.

However, the university was so impressed by the Legrands’ expertise, it ultimately decided to fly them to Montreal instead.

Rare skills in growing demand

Book conservation is generally divided into two distinct specialities: bookbinding and restoration.

Canada is facing an acute shortage of skilled craftspeople, with only between 10 and 15 book restorers, according to figures from the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild.

The Legrands are both bookbinders and restorers. Nathalie specialises in paper restoration – everything beneath the book’s cover – while Christophe restores ancient leathers and parchments. He also happens to be the last gilder to use a 16th-Century technique.

Their journey into the craft started with a master's degree in art history from the University of Rennes. They later undertook two years of on-the-job training with the owners of the bookbinding workshop they ultimately took over in Périgueux as part of the purchase deal.

When asked about their inspiration for such an unusual career path, Christophe said: “The materials resonated with us. There was an affinity. There's no clearer way to say it.”

Recently, they have worked on Albinus On Anatomy, rare anatomy books from the 18th and 19th Centuries; the Académie française’s dictionaries from 1773, which are part of the University of Montreal library collection; and three 19th-Century caricatures by French artist Georges Goursat, better known by the pseudonym ‘Sem’.

A workshop preserved through the centuries

Their Périgueux workshop, originally founded in 1862 and added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2010, has barely changed since they took it over in 1999, preserving its original floorboards and 18th-Century machines.

Looking in from the street, passers-by – who are invited to come inside and watch the Legrands at work – often mistake it for a museum.

Those who do enter are usually thrilled to get a chance to explore the tools of the trade.

“They want to touch everything, from the machines to the books,” said Nathalie. “But this is part of the reason we do this job: to share it with others.”

Bookbinding was on the verge of disappearance in the 1990s, with only a handful of professionals keeping it going. The craft has since stabilised, with between 100 and 150 skilled artisans across France.

Recently, Christophe took on two interns to preserve the chain of knowledge.

Their Canadian trip will ensure their skills are disseminated even further over the course of conferences and workshops in October, November, January and February. The couple will also share their address book of French suppliers for future international collaboration.

Both are hugely enthusiastic about the project, which offers certain attractions – not just financial – compared to their experience of the craft in France.

“This residency in Montreal looks a lot like our Holy Grail,” said Christophe, “from the working environment to the resources given to the books we will be working on and the hospitality shown. We’ve never had that level of recognition in France.”