Research Guides: History of Text Technologies: Bindings

Different Types of Binding Styles and Materials

Hand-Binding Process

Making A Medieval Book - Complete Process From Start to Finish - 60 hours in 24 minutes

This video from Four Keys Book Arts shows the entire process of making a medieval book from folding the paper to decorating the cover. Not shown is the work that would have gone into creating the text and decorations on the pages of the book. Watch at 1.5x speed!

Edition/Publishers Bindings

Broadly defined, publishers’ bindings (also known as edition bindings) are bound books issued in quantity, identical in appearance, and brought to market at the expense of a publisher or distributor. The appearance of the publishers’ binding in the 1820s in Great Britain, and subsequently elsewhere, signaled a significant and enduring change in the way books were produced and sold.

Source: Boston Athenaeum

Glossary of Terms

Boss: A protruding ornament, usually of metal. When applied to a binding it serves a protective function.

Chained Book: A book whose binding carries a staple and chain for attachment to a desk or lectern, on which the book was read. The presence of a staple and chain generally denotes institutional ownership by a college or ecclesiastical establishment.

Folio: A sheet of writing material, one half of a BIFOLIUM. The front and back of a folio are referred to as the recto and verso, respectively. The numbering of leaves, as opposed to pages, is termed foliation and is commonly found in manuscripts. 'Folio' and 'folios' (or 'folia') are often abbreviated as f. and ff., or fol. and fols., The term can also be used to denote a large volume size, in which each sheet is folded only once, and in this context can be abbreviated to f^o or 2^o.

Quarter binding is when a binding has the spine and a small part of the sides covered with one material and the rest of the boards covered with another. In fine bindings, leather or vellum and paper are the most common quarter bindings.

Quarto: The word refers to a medium-size volume, one quarter the area of a full sheet of writing material. The quires of quarto volumes were usually made by folding two sheets in half, then in half again. Quarto may be abbreviated to 4^o or 4^to.

Quire: Quires are the 'gatherings' or 'booklets' of which a book is formed. Quire numeration consists of numbers written on a quire (usually on its final verso) to facilitate arrangement during binding.

Waste paper refers to damaged, misprinted, or surplus paper or parchment reused in bookbinding, such as for reinforcement beneath the spine, or as endpapers.

Resources

Book Binding: Description and Interpretation
Created by Dr. Lindsey Eckert for ENG 3804 History of Text Technologies

External Sources for Bindings

The British Library Guide to Bookbinding by Philippa Marks
Call Number: General Collection ; Z269 .M37 1998

ISBN: 9780802081766

Publication Date: 1998-08-15

Since the development of the codex book form in the first century AD, bookbindings have played a crucial role not only in protecting and preserving the texts which they contain, but also in the history of the book as an artefact. In The British Library Guide to Bookbinding, P.J.M. Marks introduces the history of the craft bookbinding trade in the west from the introduction of the codex to the twentieth century, explains how bookbindings are structured and made, and gives an overview of the development of decorative techniques and artistic styles.