Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Literacy, books and readers
- TECHNIQUE AND TRADE
- 2 Foreign illuminators and illuminated manuscripts
- 3 Printing
- 4 Bookbinding 1400–1557
- 5 The rise of London’s book-trade
- 6 The customs rolls as documents for the printed-book trade in England
- 7 The book-trade under Edward VI and Mary I
- 8 Importation of printed books into England and Scotland
- COLLECTIONS AND OWNERSHIP
- READING AND USE OF BOOKS
- Appendix
- List of abbreviations
- Bibliography
- Photo credits
- General index
- Index of manuscripts
- Bibliographic index of printed books
- Plate Section"
- References
4 - Bookbinding 1400–1557
from TECHNIQUE AND TRADE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Literacy, books and readers
- TECHNIQUE AND TRADE
- 2 Foreign illuminators and illuminated manuscripts
- 3 Printing
- 4 Bookbinding 1400–1557
- 5 The rise of London’s book-trade
- 6 The customs rolls as documents for the printed-book trade in England
- 7 The book-trade under Edward VI and Mary I
- 8 Importation of printed books into England and Scotland
- COLLECTIONS AND OWNERSHIP
- READING AND USE OF BOOKS
- Appendix
- List of abbreviations
- Bibliography
- Photo credits
- General index
- Index of manuscripts
- Bibliographic index of printed books
- Plate Section"
- References
Summary
Since the eighth century, when the codex was first sewn on supports, western European techniques of binding books by hand have not changed much. The folded sheets or gatherings are sewn, one after another, to the supports running perpendicular to the pile of gatherings. The needle or bodkin pierces the fold of the gathering, taking the sewing thread through its centre; it then emerges on the outside of the folded sheets, circles the first support, re-enters the fold and comes out at the next support which is again circled until the whole gathering is firmly anchored. The next gathering is linked to the previous one by a link-stitch or kettle stitch near the head and tail. The boards are attached to the supports and the whole is then covered, usually in leather. Within this very basic and general scheme, there are wide variations, temporal and geographical, in materials and methods.
Hardly any decorated leather bindings that may have been produced in England during the first fifty years of the fifteenth century survive and the plain leather bindings from this period that have survived are difficult to date and to locate. Their structural differences may point to different localities or even reflect personal or work-place habits. Binders, however, like other craftsmen, moved around, they continued past traditions, as well as adopting new practices. Without firm supporting archival evidence, structural or technical features by themselves cannot be used to attribute bindings to a specific place or to date them, except very roughly.
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- Information
- The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain , pp. 109 - 127Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999
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