An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled
Bindings by Herbert P. Horne
London 1894
bands were used, which lend an uncommon richness to the back, when it is covered and
finished. Both cord and leather were employed by the binders of the fifteenth century, for the
bands. An early example of a book sewn upon cords may be seen in a copy of the Moralia i,l Job,
o(St. Gregory, 1475, [Co 66, k. 3.], in the British Museum. When the bands were
double, and leather was employed, a single strip was divided in the centre, by an incision equal
to the width of the back: on this, the book was sewn, as upon double cords; the slips being
thus left single; as on a copy of the Sermones Hyemales, of Saccus, Deventer, 1480, [C. 66,f,
9.], in the same collection.
There will be occasion, hereafter, to speak of the taste, which gives to the backs of
contemporary bindings, an unpleasing roundness; and to their squares, an unnecessary
projection: the same gross taste determines the choice of the paper on which they are printed.
If the book be small, and the paper be thick and hard, it is not possible to make a good binding.
The early Italian printers selected their papers according to the sizes of the books, for which
they were intended to be used; but the modern English printers endeavor to give a pretentious
appearance to a slight volume, by the use of heavy leads, and thick paper. The sheets of a foho
by Torrentino, or of an octavo by Giunta, how admirably well is their substance chosen in
relation to their size! The Catullus, T£bullus, and Propert£us, edited by Graevius, and printed by
Rudolphus a Zyll, in 1680, although it contains nearly 1400 pages, measures scarcely more thaIY
two inches across the fore-edge, in its contemporary binding: whereas a book of the same
number of pages, printed upon the same paper as the costly edition of a certain Life of
M£chelangelo, which has been recently published, would measure rather more than five inches,
across the fore-edge. Yet what more beautiful paper could be desired, than that on which the
volume of Rudolphus a Zyll is printed?
In marking the position of the cords upon the back of the book, the spaces between them are
generally made equal; and smaller than the remaining spaces at the head and tail of the
volume. This difference is necessary, that these spaces at the head and tail may appear to be in
relation with those between the cords; otherwise, owing to a curious optical delusion, the latter
would appear larger than the former: but their precise number and distribution is to be
determined by the nice sense of the workman, according to the nature of the book to be bound.