Bookbindng-BH-art - 4/25/11
"Bookbinding: a brief history" by Lady Isabell Winter.
This article was submitted to me by the author for inclusion in this set of files, called Stefan's Florilegium.
These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
Copyright to the contents of this file remains with the author or translator.
While the author will likely give permission for this work to be reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first or check for any permissions granted at the end of this file.
Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous
stefan at florilegium.org
NOTE: You can find more work by this author on her website at: http://www.isabell.paradise.gen.nz/
Bookbinding: a brief history
by Lady Isabell Winter
Please note that this is a guideline to bookbinding history, different areas were usually
well ahead or behind in what was happening in other areas. Different regions had
different fashions etc.
It is good to know that the progression of binding fashions like ornamental fashion can
generally be thought of as a wave-like process, rippling across Europe. Ideas would start
in one place and spread outwards. English decorative styles were particularly influenced
by binding practices o the other side of the English Channel, in France and the Low
countries, but they in turn were often influenced by trends set further south. Arabesque
centerpiece blocks, for example, started life as a design idea in the medieval Islamic
world, and entered the European ornamental vocabulary via the Italian trading ports
around the end of the fifteenth century. By the end of the sixteenth century, centerpieces
were being used right across Europe, from Spain to Russia, taking in England and
Denmark as well as Germany and Bohemia (Pearson, 2004).
Szirmai 1999 states: Although leaves or fragments of leaves of the earliest codices can be
traced back to the second century AD, the first surviving binding structures seem to date
only from the third/fourth century AD. The best known examples are the Gnostic
manuscripts found in 1945, buried in a jar near the Egyptian Village of Nag Hammadi,
close to the ancient monastery of Chenoboskion, and comprising 13 papyrus codices still
in their original leather binding.
Unfortunately while the codices themselves were studied the bindings were only briefly
noted and when latter looked at to get more information the bindings themselves had
3rd – 5th centuries
• Both single and multi quire Coptic codices found
• Often wrapped in a full goat or lamb leather cover, with leather cord added to
wrap around the book
• Quires often sewn with thread of 1mm
• Papyrus far more common than parchment
6th – 9th centuries
• Western bookblocks were of papyrus or vellum/parchment.
• Decorated end leaves were occasionally used.
• The thong core of headbands was laced to the boards. The headbands were a
continuation of the sewing.
• Wood or papyrus boards were chisel trimmed flush to the text. Boards and text
were attached by the sewing threads.
• Coptic bindings were closed with straps attached to the foredge and wound
around the book. A bone catch was attached to the end of the strap and slipped
through on the foredge.
9th – 14th centuries
• Double sewing supports were commonly used with a flat spine and were laced-in,
flush to the text wooden boards. For example The book of Armagh (9th century)
utilized double cord herringbone sewing with kettle stitches at the head and tail.
• Board attachment generally consisted of a raised throng through a tunnel to the
surface of the board. A hole allowed the thong to go through to the inside where
it was pegged with a wooden peg.
• By the 10th century bind tooling with individual tools was in use.
• The first European paper mills were established in Spain in the 12th century; the
first stamper for macerating pulp, allowing for shorter fiber and smoother finish
was in Valencia.
• Paper was being used for textblocks.
• The 12th century is the earliest period for which there are several hundred
bindings in existence making it possible to generalize with some confidence.
• Herringbone sewing on double alum-tawed thongs or cords was common.
• Alum-tawed raised supports were often split and laced over the board edge.
Earlier examples used fewer sewing supports than later samples.
• The spine was still flat.
• Un-colored headbands were now sewn independently of the sections and were
tied down at the centre of each section. These frequent tie-downs became
• Chisel trimming of the textblock and boards was done simultaneously. The
textblock was flush with the boards and was chamfered at head and tail to allow
recessing of the headbands.
• Wooden boards were still in use.
• Cover decorating techniques included blind tooling, inking in, painting, and
piercing. Board clasps were plaited thong with loops and bond pegs.
13th – 14th centuries
• The Fabrino paper mill was established in Italy by 1276. By the 14th century
there were many mills in France: at Troyes, Avignon, Saint-Cloud, Corbeil,
Essones; the first mill in Germany was established at Nuremberg in 1390.
• Paper was beginning to be commonly used for textblocks; for stationery binding
(blank books), school copy books, and account books although parchment was
still in use. The non-adhesive long-stitch link-stitch sewing's of the 14th and 15th
centuries had flat, stiff spines utilizing the exposed sewing as the decorative
• One or two needle chain stitch sewing was in use. In some cases sewing threads
formed the attachment to the boards.
• Sewing support thongs commonly ran over the top of the board (rather than
through a tunnel) laced by means of holes in a straight line from the thong. In
some cases, grooves were carved in the boards to accommodate the thongs.
• Leather braid headbands appear.
• Wooden boards were still trimmed flush to the textblock.
• Clasps were often two straps with the clasp attached to the foredge.
• Panel stamps were introduced in the Netherlands and were in use in England by
• 13th century Islamic binding incorporated gold.
• The earliest known English textile binding is an embroidered canvas cover
showing the Annunciation and crucifixion, on the fourteenth-century Felbrigge
Psalter now in the British Library.
• The many changes in the 15th and 16th centuries were largely related to the onset
of the commercial pressures which continued through to the present day. Most
changes have involved speeding up of techniques and introduction of cheaper
• Binders were still usually working on one book at a time, completing the whole
thing in one sequence.
• Paper had largely supplanted parchment for text leaves.
• Pagination was in use; numbering pages began in about 1470.
• All-along sewing sometimes incorporated vellum stays on the insides of the folds
of the sections.
• Recessed cord sewing was beginning to be used.
• Rounded spines with the consequent seating of the shaped boards into the
shoulder became the norm.
• Headband tie downs had become less frequent, not necessarily in every section.
• Pasteboard boards (paper sheets pasted together) largely replaced wooden boards.
Lacing- in holes were usually on the diagonal, adjusting tensioning to the use of
• Board squares were introduced replacing boards cut flush to the textblock.
Chamfering of the textblock became uncommon. Boards were trimmed
separately from the textblock using the plough.
• High quality full-thickness leather and vellum were in use, with consideration
given to the matching of materials to the weight and size of the textblock and to
the use to which the book would be put.
• The adhered spine covering was often of Morocco leather.
• By the 15th century the position of claps frequently indicated the country of
origin: English and French claps were on the upper board and catch on the lower,
in Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany clasps were generally on the lower board
and catch on the upper.
• Gold tooling was imported from the east and was in use in Italy about 1470. Hot
tools were used for gilding. The roll (fillet) was introduced to replace individual
tools for straight lines or lines of ornament.
• Edge gilding was introduced.
• There was logic to the progressions seen at this time; the use of paste-boards led
to diagonal hole placement for tight lacing, paper textblocks led to the recessing
of sewing cords, to rounding, and smooth spines. All of this allowed for attached
• The use of clasps declined. They didn't attach firmly to paste boards and were
less necessary than they were for vellum textblocks, which required confinement.
Early 16th century
• By the beginning of the 16th century the heavy, wooden-boarded folios were being
supplanted by leather bound octavos with gold tooled decoration. The earlier
books were intended to be stored flat or chained to lecterns whereas the smaller,
more compact 'humanist' 16th century bindings were intended to be portable and
• From the 16th century on, commercial pressure required speeding up of technique,
smaller sizes of books in larger editions, pre-made or precut components,
introduction of inexpensive covering materials.
• Pagination was generally used.
• Single sewing supports largely replaced double supports.
• Headbands which were frequently colored silk were no longer laced into the
boards and were tied down less frequently.
• By the end of the 16th century glued on headbands were introduced.
• Gold tooling was predominant.
• Deerskin and other leathers fall out of normal use after the fifteenth century.
• Goatskin first used in English bookbinding in the 1540's
• Embroidered bindings can be found throughout the sixteenth century, often
depicting religious imagery or plants, landscapes or other possibilities.
• Bindings made before 1530 in England are likely to have wooden boards;
between 1530 and 1570 boards or pasteboards (2-4mm) may be found, but more
often wood. After 1570 wood is unusual and after 1600 is rarely found. This
practice was imported from the Middle east where pasteboard had been used for
bindings for several centuries.
Bookbinding 1: A home study course in basic hand bookbinding, 2001. S Smith. The
Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild as part of its Home Study Programme.
A guide to the Census of Western Medieval Bookbinding Structures to 1500 in British
Libraries. 1998. British Census Project.
English Bookbinding Styles 1450-1800. 2004. D Pearson. Oak Knoll Press. ISBN 0-
Bookbindings. 1950. J P Harthan. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding. 1999. J A Szirmai. Ashgate, England.
Copyright 2009 by Vanessa Robb, 78 Connaught Street, Blockhouse Bay, Auckland 0600, New Zealand. <kaosv2 at yahoo.com>. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited. Addresses change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the author is notified of the publication and if possible receives a copy.
If this article is reprinted in a publication, I would appreciate a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.