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BOOKBINDING
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V04,
Page 221
of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BOOKBINDING . Bindings or covers to protect written or printed See also: matter have always followed the shapes of the material on which the See also:writing or See also:printing was done. Very See also:early See also:inscriptions on rocks or See also:wood needed no coverings, and the earliest instances of protective covers are to be found among the smaller See also:Assyrian tablets of about the 8th See also:century B.C. These tablets, with See also:cuneiform inscriptions recording sales of slaves, loans of See also:money and small matters generally, are often enclosed in an See also:outer See also:shell of the same shape and impressed with a See also:short See also:title. See also:Egyptian See also:papyrus rolls were generally kept in See also:roll See also:form, See also:bound See also:round with papyrus tape and often sealed with See also:seals origins. of See also:Nile mud; and the rolls in turn were often preserved in rectangular hollows cut in wood. The next earliest material to papyrus used for writing upon was See also:tree bark. Bark books, still commonly used by uncultured nations, often consisting of collections of magical formulae or medical receipts, are generally rolls, folded backwards and forwards upon themselves like the sides of a See also:concertina. At See also:Pompeii in 1875 several diptychs were found, the wooden leaves hollowed on the inner sides, filled with blackened See also:wax, and hinged together at the back with See also:leather thongs. Writings were found scratched on the wax, one of them being a See also:record of a See also:payment to Umbricia Januaria in A.D. 55. This is the earliest known Latin See also:manuscript. The diptychs are the prototypes of the See also:modern See also:book.From about the 1st to the 6th century, ornamental diptychs were made of carved See also: ivory, and presented to See also:great personages by the See also:Roman consuls. Rolls of papyrus, vellum or See also:paper were written upon in three ways. (I) In short lines, at right angles to the length of the roll. (2) In See also:long lines each the entire length of the roll. (3) In short lines parallel to the length of the roll, each See also:column or See also:page of writing having a space See also:left on each See also:side of it. Rolls written in the first of these ways were simply rolled up and kept in cylinders of like shape, sometimes several together, with a title tag at the end of each, in a See also:box called a scrinium. In the See also:case of the second form, the most obvious instances of which are to be found in the Buddhist See also:prayer-wheels, the rolls were and are kept in circular boxes with handles through the centres so that.they can revolve easily. In the third manner of arranging the manuscript the page formsshow very clearly, and it is still used in the scrolls of the See also:law in Jewish synagogues, kept on two rollers, one at each end. But this form of writing also See also:developed a new method for its own more convenient preservation. A roll of this See also:kind can be folded up, backwards and forwards, the See also:bend coming in the vacant spaces between the columns of writing. When this is done it at once becomes a book, and takes the See also:Chinese and See also:Japanese form known as orihon—all the writing on one side of the roll or See also:strip of paper and all the other side See also:blank. Some books of this kind are simply guarded by two boards, but generally they are fastened together along one of the sides, which then becomes the back of the book.The earliest fastening of such books consists of a lacing with some See also: cord or fibre run through holes stabbed right through the substance of the roll, near the edge. Now the orihon is See also:complete, and it is the See also:link between the roll and the book. This " stabbed " form of binding is the earliest method of keeping the leaves of a book together; it occurs in the case of a Coptic papyrus of about the 8th century found at See also:Thebes, but it is rarely used in the case of papyrus, as the material is too brittle to retain the threads properly. The method of folding vellum into pages seems to have been first followed about the 5th century. The sheets were folded once, and gatherings of four or more folded sheets were made, so that stitches through the See also:fold at the back would hold all the sheets together and each See also:leaf could be conveniently turned over. Very soon an obvious See also:plan of fixing several of these gatherings, or quires, together was followed by the See also:simple expedient of fastening the threads at the back round a strong strip of leather or vellum held at right angles to the See also:line of the backs. This early plan of " sewing " books is to-See also:day used in the case of valuable books; it is known as " flexible " See also:work, and has never been improved upon. As soon as the method of sewing quires together in this way became well understood, it was found that the projecting bands at the back needed See also:protection, so that when all the quires were joined together and, so far, finished, strips of leather were fastened all over the back. But it was also found that vellum leaves were See also:apt to curl strongly, and to counteract this tendency strong wooden boards were put on each side. The loose ends of the bands were fastened to the boards, which hinged upon them, and the protecting strip of leather at the back was See also:drawn over the boards far enough to See also:cover the See also:hinge. So we get the See also:medieval " See also:half-binding " which shows the strip of leather over the back of the book, projecting for a short way over the boards, the See also:rest of which is left uncovered. The boards were usually kept closed by means of clasps in front.The leather strip soon developed, and covered the whole of the boards, " whole " binding as it is called, and it was quickly found that these See also: fine See also:flat pieces of leather offered a splendid See also:
2). When printing was introduced into See also: Europe about the See also:middle of the 15th century, there was very soon a reaction against the large, beautiful and valuable illuminated See also:MSS. and their equally See also:precious covers. Printing brought small books, cheap books, ugly books, generally bound in See also:calf, goatskin or sheepskin, and ornamented with large See also:panel stamps in blind. But a new art came into See also:birth very shortly, namely the art of gold tooling on leather, which in capable hands is almost a great art, and specimens of the work of the few great masters that have practised it are now much sought after and likely to increase in estimation and value. All this, as usual, brings a school of skilled faussaires into the field, and already the See also:collector of fine bindings must be wary, or he may easily give thousands of pounds for forged or made-up See also:objects that are See also:worth but little. In the matter of leather bindings with gold tooling, an art which was probably brought to See also:Venice from the See also:East, the finest examples are to be found in See also:late 15th-century See also:Italian work. The art quickly spread, and See also:
Some of these still exist, and they are charming little jewels. They were always provided with a See also: ring at the See also:top, no doubt for attaching to the See also:girdle. Aldus See also:Manutius, the great Venetian printer, had several of his books charmingly bound in dark See also:morocco with " Aldine " See also:knot leaves and small dolphins both in blind and gold tooling; and Giunta, a Florentine printer, had his books bound in a similar way but without the dolphins. Many early Venetian bindings have recessed panels, made by the use of See also:double boards, the upper of which is pierced, finished in true See also:oriental fashion. See also:Jean Grolier, See also:viscount d'Aguisy, treasurer of See also:France in 1545, was a great collector of fine books, most of which were bound for himself, and See also:bear upon them his See also:legend, Portio mea domine sit in terra viventium, and also his name, Io Grolierii et Amicorum (Plate, fig. 3). Tommaso Maioli, an Italian collector of about the same time, used the same form of legend. Books bound for him are curiously marked with atoms of gold remaining in the irregularities of the leather. Demetrio Canevari, physician to See also:Pope See also:Urban VIII., had his books bound in dark See also:green or deep red morocco, and upon them is a fine cameo See also:stamp with a design of See also:Apollo See also:driving a See also:chariot with one See also:
See also: Geoffrey Tory, printer and engraver to See also:Francis I. of France, designed some fine bindings, some for himself and quite possibly some for Jean Grolier. For Henry II. of France much highly decorative work in binding was done, richly gilded and coloured. These bindings have upon them the See also:
During the reign of See also:
6); See also: Clovis Eve, who is credited with the invention of the style known as " fanfare," a delicate See also:tracery over the boards of a book, filled out with spirals of leafy stems; and Le Gascon, who invented the dotted work which has been used more or less ever since. Le Gascon caused his small gilding tools—curves and arabesques—to be scored across, so that when impressions were made from them a dotted line showed instead of a right line. Florimond Badier worked in a style very similar to that of Le Gascon and sometimes signed his work, which Le Gascon never did. Le Gascon had many imitators, the best and closes. being Poncyn and See also:Magnus, Dutch binders who worked at See also:Amsterdam in the 17th century, and his style has been continuously followed to the present day. The bindings of Padeloup le Jeune often have small tickets with his name upon them; they usually have See also:borders of See also:lace-like gold tooling known as "dentelle " and are often inlaid. He belonged to a See also:family of binders, all of whom were excellent workmen, and lived in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Deromes were another of the great See also:French families of binders; the most celebrated was Nicholas See also:Denis, called " Le Jeune," See also:born in 1731. IIe used dentelle borders resembling those of Padeloup, but with little birds interspersed among the arabesques—" dentelles a l'oiscau." Among the many French binders of the 18th century who used delicate inlays of coloured leathers, jean Charles le See also:Monnier was perhaps the most skilled. He often signed his bindings in small capitals impressed in gold somewhere about the inlaid See also:part. See also:Eliot and See also:Chapman bound the library of See also:Robert Harley, See also:earl of Oxford, about the middle of the 18th century. The bindings are in morocco, with broad, richly gold-tooled borders, and usually a See also:diamond-shaped centre-piece. This is known as the Harleian style.Thomas Hollis had his books bound in fine red morocco, ornamented with small, well-cut stamps engraved by Thomas Pingo, the medallist. These stamps comprise a cap of See also: liberty, a figure of liberty, a figure of Britannia and several smaller ones. Towards the end of the 18th century, when binding in England was decoratively at a See also:low level, See also:Roger See also:Payne, a native of See also:Windsor, came to London and set up as a bookbinder. He was a splendid workman, and introduced richly gold-tooled corner-pieces, ornamental " doublures " or inside linings, and also invented the graining of morocco, graining it, however, in one direction only, known as the " straight See also:grain." It is said that Payne cut his own binding tools of See also:iron; they certainly are exquisitely made, and in many of his bindings he has put a written description of loving work he has done upon them. Payne was, unfortunately, a drunkard, but he has in spite of this rendered an immortal service to the art of bookbinding in England. In 1785 John See also:Edwards of See also:Halifax patented a method of making vellum transparent, and using it as a covering over delicate paintings. He also painted pictures on the fore-edges of many of his books in the same manner as that followed by Samuel Mearne in the 17th century, so that they did not show until the book was opened. John See also:Whitaker used calf for his bindings, but ornamented the calf in a curious way with strong acids and with prints from engraved metal plates. Both Edwards and Whitaker liked classical borders and ornaments, -and their bindings are in consequence often known as " See also:Etruscan." The See also:main styles used in England at the beginning of the 19thcentury were nothing more than distant imitations of Roger Payne. Kalthoeber, Staggemeier, See also:Walther and Hering were all disciples of this master, but Charles See also:Lewis worked on See also:original lines. He developed arabesques and paid particular See also:attention to richly gold-tooled doublures. He also used gold end papers, and the bands at the back of his bindings are often double and always broad, flat and gold-tooled.
His workmanship is excellent; he worked largely for Thomas See also:
Private binders have naturally no See also: reason to use machines at all. Fine and delicate examples of large metal blocks or See also:dies have been very successfully used for the decoration of covers measuring about 112 by 8 in. Besides the large trade binders working mainly by the help of machinery, and producing a great quantity of bound work which is not expected to last long, there also exists in London, See also:Paris, New See also:York and other large cities, a small class of art binders who work throughout upon the principles which have been continuously in use for first-class work ever since about the 5th century. The initial impetus to this school can be traced to See also:
One, See also: Miss Sarah Prideaux, is not only skilled and original in her own work, but she has also given us much valuable literature on her subject. Miss E. M. See also:MacColl may claim to be the inventor of the small curved gold line produced by means of a tiny See also:wheel, for though the possibility of producing such a line in blind was known for a long time, it was rarely used. The graceful curves and lines found on Miss MacColl's work have been designed for her by her See also:brother, Mr D. S. MacColl (Plate, fig. 8). Miss See also:Joanna Birkenruth recalls the highly decorative medieval binding by her use of jewels cut en cabochon, but set in morocco instead of gold or silver, and there are many others who are working well and earnestly at art binding with delicate skill and See also:taste. Outside full See also:advantage of them can only be taken where there is a large edition of one book. Book-sewing machines (fig. 9) are of two kinds: one sews the books on bands, either flat or round, and the other supplies the See also:place of bands by a kind of See also:chain stitch.The See also: band-working sewing. machines bring the return See also:thread back by pulling it through the upper and lower edges of the back of each See also:section, there-by to some extent weakening each section, but at the same time this weakening can be to some extent neutralized by careful See also:head-banding. The other See also:system, where the band is replaced by a chain stitch, brings back the return thread inside each section; the objection to this is that there is a flattening out of the back of the book, which becomes a difficulty when the subsequent operation of covering the book begins. The sections are sewn continuously in a long line, and are afterwards cut apart. The threads catch into hooked needles and are drawn through holes made by piercers set to a certain distance; a See also:shuttle like that used in an See also:ordinary sewing-See also:machine the inner circle of professional bookbinders there has grown up a new profession, that of the designer for pictorial book-covers, especially those intended to be shown in colour on cloth or paper. Among notable designers may be mentioned Lewis F. Day, A. A. Turbayne, See also:Walter See also:Crane and Charles Ricketts. Machine-binding.—The See also:principal types of machine for commercial binding are described below. They are almost all due to See also:American or German ingenuity. It may be noted that, while books sewn by hand on bands have the loose ends of the bands actually drawn through the boards and strongly fastened to them through their substance, no machines for covering sewn books will do this so effectively. All they will do as a rule is to See also:paste down to the inner surfaces of the boards the loose ends of the tapes on which the sewing is done.So that, although it may last a long time if not much used, a " cased " book is likely to slip out of its cover as soon as the paste fixing it perishes. Modern bookbinding machines of all kinds are usually driven by See also: power, and in consequence of the necessary setting of most of them accurately to some particular See also:size of book, they are not suitable for binding books of different sizes; thesews the inner thread backwards and forwards. Each section is placed upon a sort of metal See also:saddle by the hand of the operator, one after the other, the machine working continuously unless the See also:action is cut off or controlled by a See also:foot-See also:lever or pedal. This machine is much quieter to work, and although the inner threads are too bulky to be quite satisfactory, this is not a serious matter like the cutting of the upper and lower edges of the back already described, and, moreover, is probably capable of being either improved away or so minimized that it will become of small importance. The See also:Martini book-sewing machine, which sews books on tape without cutting up head or tail—a most important improvement—and also forms complete See also:Kettle stitches, will sew books of any size up to 18 in. The needles are straight, and the necessary adjustments for various sizes of books are very simple. The machine for rounding and backing sewn books requires a rather elaborate and very careful setting of several parts to the exact requirement of each size to be worked. The sewn book with the back glued is caught in a clip and forced between two tight rollers, the result being that the hitherto flat back is automatically turned into a rounded shape (See also:figs. ro and II). The book is then drawn forward, by a continuance Rounding and backing. of the onward See also:movement, until it reaches the rounding plate, which is a See also:block of See also:steel with a polished groove a little larger than the size required. This rounding plate moves within a small arc by means of heavy See also:counter-weights, and on the back of the book being strongly pressed against it, it receives the permanent form of the groove cut in it, at the same time a strong grip on each side of the book causes the ledge to rise up along each outer edge of the back. This ledge it is which enables the boards to be subsequently fixed in such a way as to hinge on a line outside the actual and natural boundary of the book.Before the See also: discovery of the possibility of producing this ledge, the boards of books hinged upon a line coincident with the inner edges of the back, the result of which was that when the book was opened there was an invariable tendency to open and pull away the few outer sections of the paper or vellum itself—a destructive and disagreeable peculiarity. These machines are capable, after they are properly set, of rounding and backing about 750 volumes of the same size within an See also:hour. The machine for making cases, or "case" covers (fig. 12), for books is large and complicated, but beautifully effective. It contains altogether over fifty springs, some of which are very small, like See also:watch fittings, while others are large and powerful. The machine is fed with pieces of cardboard cut exactly to the sizes of the required boards, other pieces cut to the size of the back, and a long roll of the cloth with which the cases are to be covered, and when set working the roll of cloth is gradually unwound and glued by contact with a See also:roller, which is drawn along until it reaches a point where the two boards are ingeniously dropped upon it one by one, then on again to where a long See also:arm swings backwards and forwards, at each movement picking up a piece of cardboard for the back and placing it gently exactly upon the glued See also:bed left for it between the two boards already fixed. Next, as the cloth passes along, it comes under the See also:sharp See also:influence of two rectangular gouges which cut out the corners, the remaining side pieces being gradually but irresistibly turned up by hollow raisers and flattened down by small rollers, a very delicate piece of machinery See also:finishing the corners in a masterly way. Then, lastly, an arrangement of raisers and rollers acting at right angles to the last mentioned turn over and See also:press out the remaining pieces of cloth. Of course each piece of cloth is cut across at the proper point before the turning up begins. This machine is capable. of producing 1200 cases in an hour of any size that the machine will take. The See also:Smyth casing-in machine (fig. 13) pastes the sides of a book as required and then attaches the cover over all.Cleverly arranged rollers catch the book, and by a carefully regulated pressure See also: fix the cover in the proper position. There is a " jointing-in " device which A. Cases. I. 1st position. B. Side of Case Hopper. 2. 2nd position. C. Paste box. 3.3rd position and finished book. D. Head Clamp See also: Rod. When in 2nd position the book E. Head Clamp. drops to level of paste box. at a See also:critical moment forces the See also:joints in the cover into the joints in the book. It will work books from 4 to 22 in. in length and from to 3 in. in thickness, and can cover from Io to 15 books per See also:minute. Here may also be mentioned the See also:Sheridan wrappering machine, which covers magazines and See also:pamphlets ranging from 5 to 12 in. in length at the See also:rate of 40 a minute. Wiring is a cheap method of keeping together thin parts of See also:periodicals or tracts. The machine that executes it is simple in construction u u.onFni i nin ~i i ni~np~mnui u nnnnnn, n mnuwu Id11mP I' 111 ~ 11 and use. It drives a short See also:wire See also:pin, See also:bent at right angles at each end, through the folds of the sections of a book or through the entire Wlring. thickness, sideways, after the manner of stabbing. The projecting ends, when through the substance of the paper, are bent over and flattened so as to grip firmly.The metal used for these pins was at first very liable to See also: rust, and consequently did much damage to the paper near it, but this defect has now been largely remedied. At the same time the principle of using hard metal wire instead of flexible hempen thread is essentially vicious, and should only be used as a temporary expedient for publications of little value. The machines (fig. 14) now used for blocking designs upon book- covers are practically the same as have been employed for many Blocking years. Several small improvements have been introduced as to better inking of the rollers for colour work, and better See also:heating of the blocks used for gold work. A blocking press is now, in consequence of the size of many of the blocks, a large and cumbersome machine. The block itself is fixed firmly in a strong metal bed, and a movable table in front of it is fitted with gauges which keep the cover exactly in its right place. For gold work the block is kept at the proper temperature by means of See also:gas jets, and the cover being properly overlaid with gold leaf is passed, on its table, directly under the block and then pressed steadily upwards against it, lowered, drawn out, and the superfluous gold rubbed off. The same process is followed in the case of colour blocks, only now the block need not be heated, but is inked by means of a roller for each impression. A See also:separate printing is necessary for each colour. These printings always require great care on the part of the operator, who has to watch the working of each pull very carefully, and if any readjustment is wanted, to make it at once, so that it is difficult to estimate at what rate they can be made. In the matter of gold blocking there must be great care exercised in the matter of the See also:heat of the block, for if it is too hot the gold will adhere where it is not wanted, and if too cool it will not adhere where it is required.Great nicety is also necessary as to the exact pressure required as well as the precise number of moments during which the block should be in contact with the gold, which is fastened to the cloth or leather by means of the solidification by heat of See also:
Additional information and CommentsRoger Payne was the most artistic binder in London in the last quarter of the 18th century and could not have executed such fine detail in his work or hand cut such intricate tools if he was a drunk. A keen eye and a very steady hand is called for when creating styles using small tools. (see http://periodfinebindings.typepad.com/royal_bindings/). Also it was the father Nicholas Eve NOT the son Clovis Eve who first developed the "fanfare" style.
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