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30 - Bookbinding

from THE BUSINESS OF PRINT AND THE SPACE OF READING

By
Mirjam Foot
Edited by
John Barnard  and
D. F. McKenzie
With
Maureen Bell
Mirjam Foot
Affiliation:
University College, London
John Barnard
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
D. F. McKenzie
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Maureen Bell
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
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Summary

On Christmas day 1534 an Act came into effect which finally brought to an end the privileged position that the alien members of the book trade had occupied since 1484. Immigrant binders who had made an invaluable contribution to English binding and tool design and who had even left their mark on the way books were constructed were gradually prevented by ever more repressive regulations from carrying out their business freely and the importation for the purpose of re-sale of books bound abroad, hitherto such an enriching feature of the English book trade, was forbidden.

The incorporation of the Stationers’ Company in 1557 virtually closed the book trade to foreign competition and made the position of a foreign craftsman who was not a denizen practically untenable. Nevertheless, as we shall see, foreign influences on binding and book design continued and a number of French Huguenot immigrants worked in London as bookbinders, and indeed so successfully that in 1578 the native binders demanded that no work should be given to ‘forens or strangers’ and that ‘ffrenchmen and straungers beinge Denizens maie not haue excessiue nomber of app[re]ntic[es]’. It is striking that, notwithstanding all attempts by the Stationers’ Company and by the native members of the trade to keep foreign competition firmly under control, the most successful and most beautifully decorated bookbindings produced during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I were either made by French Huguenot immigrants or much influenced by French taste in design, while even the period after the Restoration, the golden age of English decorated bookbinding, owes a certain amount to those decorative techniques and styles that were the prevailing fashion in France several decades earlier.

Keywords

medieval bindingsschool bookstextile bindingsedge decorationgold tooling
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain
, pp. 620 - 631
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

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References

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  • Bookbinding
  • Edited by John Barnard, University of Leeds, D. F. McKenzie, University of Oxford
  • With Maureen Bell, University of Birmingham
  • Book: The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521661829.032
Available formats
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Save book to Dropbox

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  • Bookbinding
  • Edited by John Barnard, University of Leeds, D. F. McKenzie, University of Oxford
  • With Maureen Bell, University of Birmingham
  • Book: The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521661829.032
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Bookbinding
  • Edited by John Barnard, University of Leeds, D. F. McKenzie, University of Oxford
  • With Maureen Bell, University of Birmingham
  • Book: The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521661829.032
Available formats
×