| A
la cathédrale |
| |
the name given to the richly
gilded bindings with elaborate onlays of
colored leather, inspired by stained glass
windows, which were introduced in Paris
in the early nineteenth century when there
was considerable interest in Gothic art.
|
| A
la Duseuil |
| |
a French binding style characteristic
of the early seventeenth century. Red morocco
covers had as their principal decoration
an outer three-line frame near the edges,
and an inner three-line frame embellished
at the corners with fleurons, leaving a
space in the center of each cover for the
arms of the owner. The style is often erroneously
attributed to the eighteenth-century binder
Augustin Du Seuil, but it was fashionable
forty years before his birth. |
| A
la fanfare |
| |
an elaborate
style of French binding developed from about
1570-1640. The main features are complex
geometrical interlacing ribbons forming
compartments of various shapes as well as
a multitude of scrolls wreaths sprays and
flowers, filling all compartments on back
and sides except the central one. The name
fanfare derives from a copy of “Les
Fanfares et corvées abbadesques des
Roule-Bontemps” printed in 1613 and
acquired by the bibliophile Charles Nodier
in 1829. Nodier asked Thouvenin, a famous
Parisian binder, to rebind the book. Thouvenin
based his decoration on the style attributed
to Nicolas Eve and his workshop (1578-1634).
It was from this nineteenth-century invention
that the seventeenth-century bindings became
known retrospectively as à la fanfare.
|
| a.
e. g. |
| |
abbreviation for “all
edges gilt”. Refers to the outer edges
of the pages of the book, those trimmed
smooth and coated with gold leaf. |
| Abecedarium |
| |
a book containing the alphabet,
spelling, rules, tables, or an elementary
grammar. These primers were in use in Europe
before the invention of printing. Those
for learning Latin usually contained extracts
from the writings of Aelius Donatus. |
| Acanthus |
| |
a foliate motif much used in
medieval border decoration and derived from
the depiction of the plump, long leaves
of the acanthus plant. |
| Addendum |
| |
brief additional data printed
separately and added to a book in at the
beginning or end of the text and less extensive
than a supplement. |
| Ajouré |
| |
a style of
decorating book covers practiced in Venice
in the late fifteenth century by craftsmen
from the Near East. Features were patterns
of cutout leather, gilded arabesques, and
a colored background. |
| Almanac |
| |
a book containing the days,
weeks and months of the year together with
festivals, astronomical data and other items
of interest. |
| Anathema |
| |
a book curse or denunciation
added to a manuscript or printed book by
a scribe or sometimes owner (example: “Christ’s
curse upon the crook/ Who takes this book
away”). |
| Antiphonary/Antiphonal |
| |
Book containing the texts with
their music (antiphons, responses, psalms,
and hymns) for all the feasts of the church
sung by the monks at the eight canonical
hours of the Divine Office. |
| Architectural bindings |
| |
binding with
architectural designs delineated by tooled
outlines of base, columns, pediments, etc.,
done with straight and curved fillets. In
Parisian examples, made between 1565 and
1572, onlays of colored calf and morocco
gave emphasis to the architectural features. |
| Armorial binding |
| |
binding decorated
with arms or other device of royalty or
nobility as a mark of ownership. |
| Arms |
| |
the heraldic
devices of a family, country, institution,
etc.; see also shield. |
| Ars
moriendi |
| |
literally,
“the art of dying,” This was
the name of an anonymous work, probably
intended for those advising the dying how
to overcome temptation. |
| Ascenders |
| |
the vertical ascending stem
of lower-case letters such as b, d, k, etc.,
that part which extends above the body of
the letter. |
| Aux
petits fers |
| |
the decoration
on a book cover resulting when small individual
tools are impressed upon it to build up
complete patterns. |
| Aviary |
| |
a book of birds,
and particularly a manuscript volume illustrated
in the manner of a bestiary, with depictions
of real or imaginary birds. |
| Back |
| |
the part of
the cover of a book which conceals the folds
of the sections and is covered by the spine. |
| Bestiary |
| |
a book containing
myths and folklore about real or imaginary
animals and places. |
| Bible moralisée |
| |
a book of religious
instructions popular in thirteenth- and
fourteenth-century Europe. It was essentially
a picture book, arranged with eight Biblical
scenes to a page, each set in a square or
roundel and interpreted by a Latin text. |
| Biblia pauperum |
| |
an
illustrated biblical commentary, sometimes
in Latin and sometimes in the vernacular,
very popular in Continental countries before
the Reformation. Many manuscripts and printed
forms of it are preserved in different languages.
It was one of the earliest books printed
in the Netherlands and Germany, first from
blocks and then from type. (see
illustration) |
| Binder’s waste |
| |
surplus sheets, usually printed,
sometimes manuscript, employed by binders
for lining or paste downs, sometimes found
in the spine as stuffing. |
| Binding |
| |
(see
illustration) |
| Binding - full binding |
| |
a binding in
which the covering material uniformly covers
the boards and the spine. Usually applied
to a leather bound book |
| Binding - half binding |
| |
a binding in
which the spine (as well as up to about
half the upper and lower covers) and the
corners are covered with a stronger material
than the rest of the sides. |
| Binding - quarter binding |
| |
a binding in
which the spine and only a very small part
of the upper and lower covers are covered
with a stronger material. |
| Binding - three-quarters binding |
| |
In “three-quarters binding”
the material used on the spine extends up
to half the width of the boards. |
| Blank |
| |
unprinted or
unwritten leaf which is part of a quire
or signature. It can be found at the beginning
and the end of a book or a section to make
an even count. |
| Blind tooling |
| |
embossed lettering
or designs by means of heated tools such
as rolls into a leather or cloth binding
without the use of gold, ink or foil. |
| Blind-stamped panels |
| |
designs impressed
on the leather cover of a book by means
of a single engraved wood or metal panel
stamp bearing a complete design. |
| Block books |
| |
a book either
of text or text and pictures printed entirely
from woodcuts. Typically, they were printed
only on one side of the leaf in thin brownish
ink. Extant examples belong to the era 1455-1510
primarily from The Netherlands and Germany.
Once thought to precede printing, block
books are now known to have developed simultaneous
to printing with movable type. |
| Blooming letters |
| |
large display
capitals deeply engraved in boxwood. The
strokes of the letters were formed by splayed
stalk, leaf and flower motifs. |
| Boards |
| |
the stiff paper
or wood boards used for the sides of a hard
bound book or manuscript and usually covered
with thick paper, cloth or leather. |
| Book
of Common Prayer |
| |
the first complete
service book in English which, with modifications,
has been the official order of the Church
of England services since the Elizabethan
Act of Uniformity of 1559. The Book of Common
Prayer was inspired by Archbishop Cranmer,
who wrote most of, and was mainly an English
translation of the medieval Latin Sarum
use with additions from several English
and Latin devotional books, and with the
Psalms and other biblical passages from
the Great Bible of 1540. |
| Book
of Hours |
| |
also called
a primer, or horae, and derived originally
from the Psalter, the Book of Hours takes
its name from the prayers recited at home
during the eight different times or hours
of the day; it was a medieval best-seller
bought by scores of people, ordinary and
wealthy. |
| Border |
| |
pictorial decoration
surrounding the area of text and image on
the page and often composed of floral, foliate,
or figurative ornament. |
| Boss |
| |
small raised
metallic ornament of brass or silver fixed
upon the covers of a book, usually at the
corners and the center, for embellishment
and protection against rubbing. Associated
with medieval bookbinding, they were rarely
used after the sixteenth century. |
| Breviary |
| |
book containing
the Divine Office to be recited by those
in monastic orders; includes psalms, prayers,
and lections. |
| Broadside |
| |
a large sheet
of paper printed on one side only. Broadsides
were used soon after the beginning of printing
for royal proclamations and official notices.
In the sixteenth century century poems and
ballads were printed in this form in England. |
| Calendar |
| |
the calendar
section of illuminated manuscripts and printed
books most often precede liturgical and
devotional texts. They identify feast days
pertinent to the patron and the region,
using different colors, often in red ink
or sometimes in gold leaf to highlight important
feasts, such as Christmas or the Annunciation
(so-called red-letter days). Calendars vary
in accordance with local use. |
| Calf |
| |
a high-grade
leather, prepared in natural color or dyed,
from calf skin and in rough or smooth finish,
used for bookbinding. It is known to be
used as early as 1450 and became later the
usual material in England for trade bindings. |
| Camaïeu |
| |
a French term
for chiaroscuro prints from two wood block.
It is also, in the nineteenth century, a
term used for tinted lithographs. Two-block
printing was said to be en camaïeu. Camaïeu-gris
was a name for the gray-black ink drawings
enlivened with a few touches of color produced
by some French miniaturists in the from
the fourteenth century onward. |
| Cameo bindings |
| |
book covers
decorated with an inset or stamped cameo,
especially important are those made in Italy
from 1500-60. |
| Canceled leaf, cancellans |
| |
in manuscript
books, a leaf removed from a gathering or
quire with no loss of text; in printed books
a new leaf or signature reprinted and inserted
because of errors or defects in the leaf
or signature that it replaces. |
| Canon Tables |
| |
concordances
to the Gospels, compiled by Bishop Eusebius
of Caesarea (c.265 – c.340), setting out
in columns references to corresponding passages
in each. In medieval Greek and Latin Gospel
books the tables were usually enclosed within
architectural shapes and formed one of the
principal display pages. |
| Catchword |
| |
a word written
at the end of a quire or gathering usually
in the lower margin that repeats the first
word of the next page, thus facilitating
the final arrangement of quires by the binder. |
| Chained books |
| |
books secured
by chains to a horizontal bar which extended
above the reading desk on which they rested,
or to a shelf over it. This method of securing
books was used in monastic and other libraries
from the early fifteenth century until,
in English church libraries, the early eighteenth
century. |
| Character books |
| |
a work offering
the reader moral edification by describing
aspects of human nature to avoid. Such books
were popular in England and France during
the first half of the seventeenth century
and were inspired by the “Moral characters”
of Aristotle’s pupil Theophrastus (c. 370-287
BC). |
| Chemise |
| |
a loose cover
of chevrotain, other leather, or sometimes
of silk, which was fitted over the boards.
Dating from the twelfth to the fifteenth
centuries, they were sometimes used in place
of binding. |
| Chiaroscuro |
| |
properly chiaro-oscuro,
meaning light and dark, and the name for
single-color wood engravings printed from
successive blocks of wood for solid masses
of lighter or darker shades. A key block
for the darkest tone is printed first followed
by from one to three tint blocks to add
either light shades of the same color or
tones of a different color. |
| Chiroxylography |
| |
a woodblock
illustration (xylograph) containing writing
added by hand (Greek: cheiro meaning 'hand') |
| Choir Book |
| |
service book
containing the parts of the Mass or the
Divine Office sung by the choir (see Antiphonary
and Gradual). |
| Chromolithography |
| |
process of
printing in color from a series of stones
prepared as for lithography; said to be
invented in the nineteenth century by Godefroy
Engelmann (1788-1839), who with his son,
Godefroy II, founded the Société Englemann,
Père et Fils, in 1837. |
| Chronicles |
| |
originally,
a detailed contemporary record of events
arranged in order of time but without any
attempts at literary style. The monastic
chronicles of medieval days recorded national
as well as local events and are in many
cases the only accounts of them to survive.
|
| Clamshell case |
| |
a protective
book box, constructed of a hinged case that
houses the book, while providing for easy
opening and viewing. |
| Clasps |
| |
ornamental
clasps of brass, or of a precious metal,
were a feature of bookbindings from the
late fourteenth to the early seventeenth
centuries. They were fitted to the boards
of books at the fore-edge, over which they
fastened, their purpose being to prevent
warping of the boards. This was a practical
feature of bookbinding when books were stored
flat on shelves or chained to a stand. The
metal was often elaborately chased. |
| Collation |
| |
term that gives
the number and composition of sections in
gatherings, quires, or signatures, used
to indicate whether they are in the right
order as well as their completeness. |
| Colophon |
| |
from the Greek
"kolophon," meaning finishing touch. The
original meaning is the inscription the
copyist placed at the end of a manuscript,
indicating some or all of the following:
the title of the work, the name of the copyist,
the date and place of copying, and a blessing
for the patron or client who commissioned
it. Shorter colophons named only the copyist
and date. Early printed colophons followed
the manuscript tradition including particulars
of authorship and printer, where printed,
date of completion, and publisher's or printer's
device, with possibly the number of copies
printed, apologies for errors and other
details. Those were often arranged as a
tailpiece and ornamented. By the early sixteenth
century, the practice of identifying a book
and its printer on the title-page was accepted,
and the colophon was abandoned. A modern
form of colophon is the production note
at the end of private press books. |
| Color plate book |
| |
A volume containing
hand-painted illustrations, woodcuts, engravings,
lithographs, or the like, usually of large
format. |
| Concordance |
| |
an alphabetical
index of selected words showing the places
in the text of a book or an author’s complete
works where each may be found. |
| Conjugate leaves |
| |
a bifolium,
or two leaves that can be traced into and
out of the back of a book within a single
gathering or signature and form one piece. |
| Cornerpiece |
| |
an ornament,
usually arabesque, designed to be used at
the corners of a binding of a book, usually
to match a center-piece or other decoration;
it can also refer to the metal corners attached
to the binding; in an illuminated manuscript,
it designates the interlacing bars, "cusping,"
or other separate ornament at the corner
of a border around the lettering. |
| Corners |
| |
in binding,
the triangular pieces of leather or cloth
which cover the corners of half- or three-quarter
bound books. |
| Cottage bindings |
| |
a seventeenth-century
style of book decoration popular in England,
in which the framework of the design tooled
on the cover may be said to resemble a gable. |
| Covers |
| |
the paper,
board, cloth or leather (used singly or
combined) to which the body of a book is
placed securely on a sewn or stapled publication
to protect it. The cover of a "hard cover"
book is known as a "case" or "publisher's
case." Upper cover is the front of the book;
lower cover is the bottom or underside. |
| Covers bound in |
| |
the original
covers of a publication included within
a later binding when a book is rebound.
Often the covers are preserved when the
volume is rebound by mounting them as flyleaves
or using them as endpapers. |
| Criblé |
| |
minute punctures
or depressions made in surfaces of wood
or metal. Criblé backgrounds can be used
to lighten borders which would appear too
dark in relation to the text area of a page
were they printed solid black |
| Criblé initials |
| |
decorated initials
used at the beginnings of chapters, notably
by the sixteenth-century French printer
Geoffrey Tory, in which the capital appears
on an all-over ground of small dots or sieve-like
pattern. |
| Crown |
| |
a standard
size of printing paper measuring 15 x 20
inches |
| Curtain bindings |
| |
a distinctive
style of book cover decoration, particular
to Spain, and apparently limited to the
years 1814-33. Fillets and gouges were used
to tool patterns that simulated a draped
curtain or pair of curtains. The design
on upper and lower cover was not always
the same. Curtains onlaid or inlaid in leathers
of contrasting colors and also acid staining
were used. |
| Deckle edge |
| |
the rough uneven
edge at the borders of a sheet of hand-made
or mould-made paper; it is caused by the
paper pulp confined under the frame or deckle
of the mould. It can also be called "feather-edge." |
| Dentelle |
| |
lace-like tooling
on the edges or inside borders of a book
cover and pointing towards the center. This
binder's technique was used primarily in
France in the eighteenth century. Dentelles
were later used to embellish doublures. |
| Descender |
| |
the vertical
descending stem of lower-case letters extending
below the base line, as in g, j, p, q, y. |
| Diapered |
| |
said of the
gold- or blind-tooled cover of a book on
which the decoration consists of a panel
divided by a small uniform geometric pattern,
e.g. a diamond. Each compartment of the
pattern may bear a design or be left blank.
Said of cloth for book covers that has a
grained pattern of diamonds or squares:
the style was first popular about 1840.
The uniformly patterned background for pictorial
scenes in illuminated manuscripts. Their
extensive use dates from the later thirteenth
century |
| Diced |
| |
covers of a
book on which the decoration is an ungilded
field of diamonds or squares. To make it
the leather could either be scored in a
rolling press before covering or be impressed
with a hand tool when finishing the book. |
| Divine Office |
| |
a cycle of
daily devotions, the prayers of the canonical
hours (Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext,
None, Compline, Vespers), performed by the
laity or the clergy. |
| Donat |
| |
a term used
in fourteenth century for any grammar textbook.
It derives from the two Latin grammars of
Aelius Donatus, a fourth-century Roman scholar
and teacher of St Jerome, which were popular
in Europe for over a thousand years |
| Dorse |
| |
the back or
verso of a manuscript or parchment sheet. |
| Dorure sur cuir |
| |
a gilder of
leather or finisher. From 1581 onwards French
binders (relieurs) and finishers (doreurs)
were organized as separate guilds and the
distinction is still maintained. |
| Dos
à dos |
| |
two books bound
back to back so that the back cover of one
serves as the back cover of the other, with
the fore-edges of one next to the spine
of the other. |
| Doublure |
| |
from the French
"doubler," to line. An ornamental inside
lining of a book cover made with tooled
leather, silk, or other material. |
| Drop
initial |
| |
the initial
capital letter at the beginning of a chapter
approximately aligned at the top with the
cap line of the first line of text and ranging
at the foot over two or more lines. |
| Duodecimo |
| |
the book size
resulting from folding a sheet of paper
four times to form a section of twelve leaves
(twenty-four pages) by means of right-angle
folds. |
| Editio princeps |
| |
the first printed
edition of a manuscript text. The term applies
particularly to classical texts first printed
in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. |
| Edition |
| |
all the copies
of a work printed from the same setting
of type and issued at one time or at intervals.
An edition may comprise a number of impressions. |
| Emblem book |
| |
a variety of
illustrated book used for meditation and
study that was popular in Europe during
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The emblem was a woodcut or engraving, the
meaning of the moral lesson represented
pictorially being interpreted by a motto,
epigram, verse or prose explanation. |
| Embossed bindings |
| |
covers of leather
or cloth which, before being attached to
a book, had a design impressed on the sides
and spine. This was done with a heated die
and counter die held in a fly embossing
press. Any lettering or gilt filleting was
added by hand after fitting the cover to
the book. |
| Endpaper |
| |
paper, white
or colored, printed or unprinted, inserted
by the binder at the beginning and the end
of a book to help fasten the sewn sections
to the cover. One half is pasted to the
inside of the cover; the other is pasted
to the end leaf of a section. |
| Engraving |
| |
any metal plate
or wooden block prepared by incising the
design or lettering into the surface with
a graver or burin; see intaglio. It also
refers to the printed reproduction made
from such a plate. |
| Entrelacs |
| |
interlacing
ribbons or strapwork. They derive from Islamic
art. As a feature of book covers they have
embellished the work of most great French
binders since the sixteenth century, notable
being those made about 1545 for Grolier
and François I by the so-called Entrelac
bindery of Paris. |
| Etching |
| |
a print from
a plate into which the design has been etched
by acid. |
| Ex-library copy |
| |
Identifies
a book that was once the property of an
institutional or corporate library. Usually
there are noticeable marks and stamps on
the binding and/or in the text. |
| Extra-illustrated |
| |
a book that
has had additional illustrations and printed
matter added to and bound into a volume
since publication. |
| Fan
binding |
| |
a decorative
style for de luxe bindings made in France
and Italy, mostly during the later seventeenth
century. In France it was known as à l’éventail.
The central design on the board was a fully
opened fan, built up from numerous small
tools to give a delicate lace-like effect.
Quarters of a fan were tooled in the four
outer corners of the board. |
| Fillet |
| |
a ornamental
line or lines, usually of gold, impressed
on the back or side of a book-cover. It
also refers to the stamp or wheeled tool
with which lines are impressed. |
| Flyleaf |
| |
an unprinted
leaf at the beginning or end of a book,
being the half of an endpaper. |
| Folio |
| |
the
book format resulting from folding a sheet
of paper once, each sheet making two leaves
or four pages. To define fully the size,
the paper size should also be stated, e.g.
crown folio. It also refers to the individual
leaf of paper or parchment of a book or
manuscript. (see illustration) |
| Fore-edge |
| |
the outer edge
of a book opposite its spine. |
| Fore-edge painting |
| |
a watercolor
decoration, usually a scene or a geometric
design, painted on the ends of the pages
of the fore-edge of a book. Traditionally,
the pages are painted so the decoration
disappears when the book is closed and only
appears again when the pages are fanned.
However, the opposite can also be true of
a fore-edge painting; the decoration can
appear only when the book is closed. Although
extant examples are rare from the Middle
Ages, the tradition of fore-edge painting
dates back to the tenth century and reached
its peak of popularity in England in the
latter half of the seventeenth century.
A "double fore-edge" has two paintings,
which can be seen singly by fanning the
leaves first one way and then, the reverse.
A "triple fore-edge" has a visible painting
in addition. |
| Forel bindings |
| |
early English bindings in which
oak boards were covered with roughly dressed
unsplit sheepskin. They were made by monks
in the eighth and ninth centuries. |
| Foxing |
| |
a brown discoloration
of paper and plates caused by damp which
has affected impurities in the paper. |
| Frontispiece |
| |
in printed
books, an illustration facing the title-page,
sometimes separately pasted and guarded
into a book; in manuscripts the opening
large picture, often a presentation illustration. |
| Gathering |
| |
the
process of assembling in their correct order
for binding the various sections of a book;
also used as a synonym for quire or signature,
the basic unit of leaves in a manuscript
or printed book. (see
illustration) |
| Gauffering |
| |
the decoration
of the gilded edges of the leaves of a bound
book with heated finishing tools which indent
a small repeating pattern. |
| Gilt
edges |
| |
the edges of
the pages of a book after they have been
cut smooth and colored, usually with gold
paint. |
| Gloss |
| |
a word or words
that comment on, elucidate, or translate
those of the main text and often written
in the margins or between the lines. |
| Gradual |
| |
book containing text and music
(introits, graduals and alleluias) sung
between the Epistle and Gospel readings
during the high Mass; their name coming
from gradus (step) alludes to the first
steps of the choir, the eastern part of
the church where the singers sang. |
| Grangerized |
| |
inserted illustrations, letters
or documents with matter from other sources
and not issued as part of a bound volume.
The practice dates from 1769 when James
Grangers published a "Bibliographical
History of England" with blank pages
bound in to receive desired illustrations.
|
| Grisaille |
| |
a painting
technique first seen in fourteenth-century
French altar cloths, then adopted in manuscripts
and used widely in Europe, in France, the
Netherlands and Italy through most of the
fifteenth century. Painting is in a flat
bluish-gray monochrome with highlights in
white, gold and touches of red as the only
colors used on it. Originally grisaille
signaled a Lenten observance, as the sober
altar cloths covered brightly painted altars
during Lent. |
| Gutter margin |
| |
the inner space between two
facing pages |
| Half-title |
| |
the brief title
of a book appearing on the recto of the
leaf preceding the title-page and occupying
a full, separate page. |
| Hand-colored |
| |
tints added by hand to an printed
illustration such as a woodcut or an engraving;
usually distinguished from coloring added
mechanically, like using pochoirs or stencils. |
| Headband |
| |
a small band often of colored
silk threads, at the head of a book on the
spine, which is sewn or glued to the folds
of gatherings or quires, between them and
the cover, and projecting slightly beyond
the head. The headbands of the twelfth and
early thirteenth centuries were combined
with a leather tab. The conventional cloth
or silk headband was introduced in the early
sixteenth century and decorative glued-on
headbands were introduced in the early nineteenth
century. |
| Head-piece |
| |
a printed or engraved decorative
band at the beginning of a chapter or a
page. |
| Herbal |
| |
a book giving
the names and descriptions of plants. Herbals
are believed to date from the fourth century
BC (Theophrastus); and a noteworthy early
example is the Vienna Dioscorides. |
| Hinge |
| |
a strip of paper or fabric,
placed between the two halves of an endpaper,
where the body of the book is fixed to the
covers, to reinforce the first and last
signatures of a book. |
| Historiated initial |
| |
a letter containing an identifiable
scene or figures (from Latin, historia,
meaning (story) sometimes relating to the
text. |
| Holster book |
| |
a pocket book used for memoranda,
or for works frequently referred to on a
daily basis, so called from its unusually
long and narrow shape resulting from folding
the sheet along the length and facilitating
the use of the book suspended from the belt
(holster or girdle). Or else you should
say that this is synonymous with a girdle
book. |
| Illumination |
| |
the art of decorating books
with bright colors and precious metals so
that they sparkle or light up; also refers
to a picture in a manuscript (see miniature). |
| Incunabula |
| |
books printed from movable
metal type before 1501. The word derives
from the Latin "cunae" meaning
cradle; thus a book made "in the cradle
of printing." |
| Initial |
| |
an enlarged and decorated letter
introducing an important section of a text.
|
| Intaglio |
| |
printing from
a metal plate, usually copper, on which
the image areas of the surface are incised
by gravers or etched by acid. The plate
is then inked and wiped, leaving ink only
in the engraved parts. It is then placed
with a damp sheet of paper on the bed of
a press, layers of felt are added, and all
pass through the press. The thickness of
the layer of ink transferred to the paper
is proportionate to the depth of the incised
or etched recesses. As distinct from planographic
and letterpress printing intaglio plates
leave a layer of ink on the paper which
can often be felt. |
| Jeweled bindings |
| |
covers of gold, silver,
or silver-gilt, often encrusted with semi-precious
stones surrounding a central ivory plaque,
were made in Europe to enclose service
books for the church from about the sixth
century onwards. Such books were carried
in procession and kept in the church sacristy,
not in the monastic library. The use of
costliest materials to enclose the Gospels
was an act of piety, not ostentation,
and even the colors of the gems were symbolic,
each associated with a mystical meaning.
(also called “treasure binding”).
In general, the making of gold and jeweled
covers for church use diminished towards
the end of the thirteenth century, but
later examples were make for royal and
noble patrons. |
| Joint |
| |
the joining
parts on the sides of a book, between the
covers and the spine, where the boards hinge. |
| Justification |
| |
the even and
equal spacing of words or blocks to a given
measure; also used to give the overall dimensions
of the text block. |
| L.
S. |
| |
abbreviation
for locus sigilli ("the place of the seal").
Usually printed within a circle at the place
for a signature on legal documents. |
| Lace
borders |
| |
lace-like borders
occasionally found in nineteenth-century
French books as a frame for an illustration.
The paper is pieced as in a paper doily.
|
| Lacquered bindings |
| |
fifteenth to nineteenth century
Persian, Turkish and Indian bindings decorated
with a painted miniature on one or both
boards, and without a foldover flap. |
| Laid
down |
| |
a sheet, or fragment, glued
to another support, often card, for added
strength. |
| Laid
paper |
| |
paper which
shows a series of fine parallel lines (wire-marks)
or cross lines (chain-marks) when held up
to the light. The marks are produced by
the wires of the mold in handmade papers
or by the weave of the dandy roll in machine-made
papers. |
| Leaf |
| |
each of the folios formed by
a folded sheet of paper or parchment. A
leaf consists of two pages, one on each
side, either of which may or may not be
written or printed on. |
| Lectionary |
| |
the portion of a breviary containing
the lessons, i.e. readings from the Scriptures,
lives of saints, and homilies appropriate
to each day of the liturgical year. |
| Livre à vignettes |
| |
books having copperplate vignetted
illustrations. They had a great vogue in
nineteenth-century France where an edition
of Molière, 1734, led the fashion.
François Joullain and Laurent Cars
etched and engraved the plates by François
Boucher. |
| Livre d'artiste |
| |
also livre de peintre. A book
that combines original engravings woodblocks
by well-known artists-Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec,
Picasso, etc.-with text and that is usually
wholly conceived and realized by the painter.
|
| Manuscript |
| |
literally handwritten,
the term has come to be used to describe
a book written by hand (from the Latin:
manum and scriptum). |
| Maquette binding |
| |
a sample case
submitted to the publisher for approval
in advance of edition binding. |
| Marbled paper |
| |
paper decorated
with a variety of colors in an irregular
pattern evoking the veins of marbles and
used by bookbinders. Marbling results from
the transfer to the sheets of paper of colors
floating on the surface of a gum solution. |
| Miniature |
| |
an independent illustration,
as opposed to a scene incorporated into
another element of the decorative scheme,
such as a border or initial; from the Latin
miniare meaning (to color with red). |
| Missal |
| |
a book containing
the service for the celebration of the mass
throughout the year. |
| Model-books |
| |
the precursor
of the artists’ handbooks of the fifteenth-century,
being books of outline sketches to guide
medieval artists in basing their iconography
on long established tradition. Model-books
were used by sculptors, metal-workers and
illuminators of manuscripts. By the later
fourteenth-century artists were much less
restricted to conventional interpretations
when illuminating manuscripts, particularly
when working for a lay patrons. |
| Monnier bindings |
| |
the binding
style associated principally with the Frenchman
Louis François Monnier (fl. 1737-76) and
his son Jean Charles Henri (fl. 1757-80),
who in 1757 was binder to the duc d’Orléans.
Features of their work were inlaid mosaics
of Chinese landscapes, brilliantly colored
birds, and allegorical scenes. For the backgrounds
they used cream, red and green morocco. |
| Morocco |
| |
a leather made
from goatskin. Morocco is classed as one
of the most durable leathers for bookbinding.
It is very firm, yet flexible, and is usually
finished on the grain side. |
| Octavo |
| |
written
8vo. The book size resulting from folding
a sheet of paper with three right-angle
folds, to form a signature of eight leaves,
or sixteen pages, and giving pages one-eighth
the size of the sheet. (see
illustration) |
| Opening |
| |
(see
illustration) |
| Palimpsest |
| |
a parchment
or other material from which the original
writing has been more or less completely
erased and new matter writing over. A double
palimpsest is one that has had two such
erasures. |
| Parchment |
| |
deriving its
name from Pergamon (Bergama in modern Turkey),
an early production center and used instead
of paper for writing and illuminating books
in the Middle Ages; parchment is a material
made from animals (sheep, goat, cow, squirrel,
and possibly even cat); vellum is a type
of fine parchment made from tender young
calves. |
| Paste-down |
| |
the half of
an endpaper which is pasted down to the
inner surface of the cover or boards of
a book. |
| Peasant bindings |
| |
a name given
to the crudely tooled and painted vellum
bindings made in Germany, Holland and Hungary
during the seventeenth-century for Bibles
and devotional books intended for rural
family use. Central panels on the boards
were decorated with religious scenes painted
directly on the vellum; alternatively, simple
colored engravings on paper were pasted
on. |
| Pochoir |
| |
a semi-hand-colored
illustration process, similar to a stencil,
used in its essentials as long ago as the
early fifteenth century to print playing
cards and occasionally woodcuts in incunables.
The foundation was a monochrome outline
of the design printed by letterpress or
lithography and colored through multiple
stencils with gouache and watercolors. |
| Presentation copy |
| |
a copy of a
book with a presentation inscription, which
shows that it was a gift usually from the
author, sometimes from the publisher. |
| Private press |
| |
a small printing
house using hand presses or small letter-press
machines and producing well printed books
in limited editions on hand-made paper.
It publishes only the work of the owner,
his or her friends and/or of publishing
clubs, who may subsidies the publication.
|
| Provenance |
| |
history of
original production and contemporary and
later ownership whether of a printed book,
a work of art, an illuminated manuscript,
or a miniature. |
| Psalter |
| |
a book containing
the psalms and often the liturgical calendar,
biblical canticles, a litany of the saints,
and numerous prayers; considered the predecessor
of the Book of Hours. |
| Quarto |
| |
written 4to.
The book size resulting from folding a sheet
with two folds at right-angles to form a
section of four leaves and thus giving pages
one quarter the size of the sheet. (see
illustration) |
| Quire |
| |
gatherings
or booklets of folded bifolia out of which
a book is formed; the most common structure
of a quire is the quaternion (four bifolia,
or eight folia). (see
illustration) |
| Re-backed |
| |
said of a book
having the spine re-covered in a style or
material approximating the old. |
| Recto |
| |
the upper side of a leaf of
parchment or paper as distinct from the
"verso" which is the reverse side;
also refers to the right-hand page of an
open book having an odd page number. |
| Red
under guilt edges |
| |
book edges
which have been sprayed with a red dye before
gilding. |
| Remboîté |
| |
a term descriptive
of a book which, after the original case
or binding has been removed, is rebound
in the covers taken from another book. A
remboîtage may be created to place an important
text which has been unsuitably rebound in
a what appear to be its original covers,
or to put what is deemed a more suitable
or less damaged text in a valuable binding.
Sacramentary. |
| Rinceaux |
| |
a form of border ornament commonly
used during the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries and consisting of fine, foliate
branches usually with ivy leaves. |
| Rubric |
| |
the word, phrase,
or sentence in a printed book or a manuscript
that indicates the content of the following
text and is highlighted in colored ink (usually
red) or with underlining to set it off from
the main text.; rubrics are sometimes heavily
abbreviated. |
| Sextodecimo |
| |
(see
illustration) |
| Shagreen |
| |
a type of leather with a rough,
granular surface. When used for bookbinding,
it is usually prepared from sharkskin. |
| Sheepskin |
| |
the skin of a sheep prepared
as a bookbinding material. Such skins were
used in England for bookbinding from about
1400; the boards they covered were usually
of oak |
| Shell gold |
| |
matt gold used for the gilding
of a manuscript. It is applied with a brush
or quill, and when dry is lightly burnished.
The name derives from its sometime preparation
in mussel shells. |
| Signature |
| |
a folded printed sheet forming
one section of a book; sometimes used in
manuscripts as a synonym of quire or gathering.
Also used to indicate the mark, usually
letters or/and numbers, placed on the bottom
of the first page of each gathering as a
guide to the binder in arranging them in
their correct order. |
| Signet |
| |
a silk ribbon
secured at the head of a book for use as
a page-marker. Signets were frequently used
by sixteenth-century French binders and
were often enriched with precious stones. |
| Slipcase |
| |
a box usually
open-fronted, sometimes with a soft fabric
lining, used to protect a the edges of a
book. |
| Solander case |
| |
a book-shaped
box suitable for holding a book, prints,
pamphlets, loose plates, or other material.
It may open at the side or front with hinges,
or have two separate parts, one fitting
over the other. It is named after Daniel
Charles Solander, an eighteenth-century
botanist, who originally devised it for
the preservation of botanical specimens. |
| Spine |
| |
the part of
the outer cover of a book which protects
and encloses the back and is usually lettered
with the title, author's and the publisher's
name (in a publisher's case). |
| Swash letters |
| |
italic capitals
having top or bottom flourishes or both |
| Text
block |
| |
the body matter
of a page as composed in column or paragraph
form and differing from display matter,
headings, illustrations, or other printed
or manuscript material; in manuscript cataloguing
used as a synonym for justification. |
| Thrown clear |
| |
a map, plan,
or illustration printed with a blank page-width
guard and folded into the book. The whole
of the opened map can thus be thrown clear
of the page area for easy reference while
the relevant text is being read. |
| Tipped-in |
| |
said of any
leaf that is pasted into the book by one
edge and does not have a conjugate leaf;
may be separately printed illustrations,
maps, errata slips, miniatures, or even
text trimmed to the page size of a book
before insertion. |
| Title-page |
| |
usually the
recto of the second leaf at the beginning
of a book giving the title and sub-title,
the author's name and his qualifications,
the publisher's imprint, and sometimes a
colophon and the date of publication. The
verso of a title-page often states the edition
or impression, printer's name, statement
of copyright and occasionally typographical
information. The first book to include on
its title page the information now customary
was printed by Wolgang Stöckel of Leipzig
in 1500. |
| Tooling |
| |
the impressing
by hand of lettering and decoration into
a leather or cloth binding with heated tolls
or stamps used to apply pigment or metal
foil. Blind tooling is done with heated
tools but no gold or foil; for gold tooling,
gold leaf or spool form is used. When the
entire cover design is a single piece, it
is called a "stamp." |
| Trimmed |
| |
used to indicate
that the edges have been cut down from their
original format, thus reducing the margins,
often during subsequent rebinding and most
commonly by machine. |
| Uncut |
| |
a book is described
as being uncut when the edges have not been
trimmed or cut by a guillotine or the plough. |
| Use |
| |
liturgical
forms or customs peculiar to a diocese,
a monastic complex, or sometimes a group
(e.g., use of the Franciscans, Carthusians,
Rouen, Rome, etc.), differing slightly from
region to region, but never amounting to
a rite distinct from that established by
the Church. |
| Vellum |
| |
the skin of
the newly born calf, prepared for writing
upon by stretching and polishing with alum.
It gives a very smooth, fine parchment. |
| Vernacular |
| |
a regional,
pre-national, language, distinct from Latin,
that evolved at different times in different
geographic areas in the Middle Ages and
was often used in daily life and for non-religious
literary creations (poetry, chronicles,
romances, etc.). |
| Votive bindings |
| |
a lavishly
decorated binding, usually enclosing a copy
of the Gospels, given to a church in return
for prayers to be said for the giver’s soul. |
| Watermark |
| |
image embedded
in the paper left from the impression of
the wire paper frame, which contains a unique
device or monogram, the latter often identifying
the maker and thus the approximate place
and date of manufacture of the paper. |
| White vine-stem |
| |
form of decoration
in which white vines left as blank parchment
are displayed in the borders usually of
humanistic manuscripts; originating in the
fifteenth-century Florence, the ornament
was thought, wrongly, to imitate ancient
manuscript decoration. |
| Woodcut |
| |
the earliest form of printed
illustration in which an impression is taken
from an inked form cut in a block of soft
wood. The design of a woodcut is of bold
black lines or areas depicting a design
against a white background (relief) whereas
that of wood engraving is the reverse (intaglio);
woodcutting is therefore known as a black-line
method whereas wood engraving is a white-line
method. |
| Wove
paper
|
| |
paper which,
when held up to the light, is seen to have
an even or regular pattern of fine mesh
without the chain lines that distinguish
laid paper. Jame Whatman was probably the
first manufacturer of wove paper, and it
was first used by John Baskerville in 1757,
when he printed his Virgil on it. |
| Xylography |
| |
the process
of engraving on wood. |
