The binding of books; an essay in the history of gold-tooled bindings

II

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C/ESAR,

(GIUNT A, FLORENCE, 1514.)

NiftVhe Binding of Books

An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled Bindings

By Herbert P. Horne

London

MDCCCXCIV

Edinburgh : T. and A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty

TO

T. J. COBDEN SANDERSON

‘ La Reliure est un art tout frangais.’ Such is the sentence which M. Ernest Thoinan places upon the title-page of his admirable work, Les Relieurs Fran¬ cois ; and which, in a particular sense, is abundantly true. In France, alone, has bookbinding been con¬ tinuously practised, and encouraged, as a fine art, since the Revival of Learning : and in that country, alone, does there exist any considerable literature upon its history and methods. In this sense, bookbinding is an art almost peculiar to France : and yet not to France, but to Italy, must be conceded, both the in¬ troduction of gold-tooling into Europe, and the origin of the taste, which determined the nature of the de¬ signs used upon European tooled bindings, for nearly a century. Indeed, it might be questioned, whether early Italian bindings have yet been surpassed in beauty and decoration, by those of other times or countries : but be this as it may, the literature of the art remains wholly in the hands of the French. The Italians have neither collected nor written anything considerable upon this subject ; the Germans, as their

Vlll fashion is, have been more industrious than discern¬ ing : while English works are, perhaps, numerous enough, but not always very critical, or very conclu¬ sive. Some exceptions, however, are to be made in the case of a few scattered essays on particular sub¬ jects, and, especially, in regard to Miss Prideaux’s excellent Bibliography of Bookbinding , London, 1892, which, as she very properly observes in her preface, is the first step towards the methodical study of this sub¬ ject. But a general history and criticism of the art in Europe still remains to be written : and before this can be done with any completeness, the documents, which relate to English, and especially, to Italian, binders and binding, omitting those of other European coun¬ tries, must be collected and examined, with the same diligence and judgment, as the documents, which relate to the French binders.

In writing the first and last chapters of the present essay, which chiefly treat of the technical methods of bookbinding, I have used a number of authorities. The earliest technical works upon Bookbinding are not easily accessible, and are chiefly known on account of an allusion to them in a later work, entitled: IJArt du Relieur-doreur de Livres. This treatise was written by M. Dudin, at the request of the Academic Royale des Sciences to be included in their Description Generate des Arts et Metiers , and

IX was published at Paris, in 1772. ‘ J’avouerai cepen-

dant,’ says the writer in his preface, ‘qu’il m’auroit ete impossible de joindre cet art a ceux de l’Academie, si, aux lumieres que j’ai tirees, d’un Manuscrit de M. Jaugeon, appartenant a l’Academie, & du petit ouvrage de M. Gauffecourt de Lyon, je n’avois eu le secours de M. le Monnier le jeune, Maitre Relieur, & Relieur de S. A. R. Mgr. le Due d’Orleans.’ Three copper plates, in large folio, had been engraved for the work of M. Jaugeon, which still remains in manuscript; and these were used by M. Dudin, being severally numbered 8, 10, and 11, in his treatise, and are signed with the name of Ludovicus Simonneau, and dated 1694-7. This manuscript, which is pre¬ served in the Bibliotheque Nationale [Fr. 9157 and 9158], was intended by the Academic des Sciences, to have formed the last part of a work entitled: Description et Perfection des Arts et Metiers\ a design, which was afterwards accomplished by that body, in the Description Generate , the first portion of which was published in 1761.

The printed book, to which M. Dudin refers, was written by Jean Vincent Capronnier de Gauffecourt, born at Paris in 1692, and an amateur of printing and binding, which arts he practised in his country house at Montbrillant, near Geneva. It is entitled: Traite de la Reliure des Livres> and was published at Lyons,

X without date, or place, in April, 1763. The author, in an introductory epistle, says, that it was printed by himself, 'pour faire usage de son heureuse oisivete.’ Only twenty-five copies were printed and the little work is chiefly remarkable for its extraordinary rarity, and for the circumstances of its production. An interesting account of Capronnier de Gauffecourt is to be found, under his name, in the admirable work of M. Thoinan. Another early treatise in French exists in the article upon Binding, in the Dictionnaire XJniversel de Commerce, d'Histoire Naturelle, d Arts et Metiers , by Jacques Savary-Desbrulons, Paris, 1730.

In England, John Bagford seems the first to have attempted some methodical account of the art ; and two essays, by him, remain unprinted among the Harleian Manuscripts [Nos. 5910, pt. i., and 5943]. The first important work, published in this country, was the Bibliopegia ; or, The Art of Bookbinding, in all its Branches, by John Hannett, first published at London, in 1835, under the pseudonym of John Andrews Arnett ; a book which has passed through several editions, and has been translated into German. A more recent work is The Art of Bookbinding, London, 1880, by Joseph W. Zaehnsdorf ; a second edition of which appeared in 1890. Other technical works in English, French, and especially in German, xi may be found enumerated in Miss Prideaux’s Biblio¬ graphy of Binding.

I have consulted the greater number of these printed books, especially the treatise of M. Dudin, and Mr. Zaehnsdorfs handbook, which admirably illus¬ trates the practice of the commercial bookbinder, at the present time. To these, I should add two papers by Mr. T. J. Cobden Sanderson, which I have freely used : the first is an abstract of a lecture upon book¬ binding, given in 1889, at the Edinburgh Meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Art, which is to be found printed among the Trans¬ actions of the Society for that year ; the second is an article entitled Bookbinding , which was published in the number of the English Illustrated Magazine , for January, 1891.

In the chapter upon early Italian bindings, I have not had the advantage of any general authority; unless the Catalogue of the Exhibition of Bookbindings at the Burlington Fine Arts Club , London, 1891, may be called such. The plates, which occur in the large-paper copies of this work, render it of great value in the general history of bookbinding, and I have constantly referred to it. The excellent introduction to the Catalogue has lately been republished by its author, Miss Prideaux, with the addition of her Bibliography and other papers. The Facsimiles of xii choice examples of Historical and Artistic Bookbinding ,

London, 1889, published by Mr. Bernard Quaritch, is a smaller work of the same kind, and is chiefly valuable on account of its plates. M. Le Roux de Lincy’s Recherches sur Jean Grolier , Paris, 1866, and M. Henri Bouchot’s Les Reliures dart a la Bibliotheque Nationale , Paris, 1888, are the only other books of which I have made any general use. My principal authority in writing the chapter on French bindings, has been M. Thoinan’s recent work, Les Relieurs Franqais , Paris, 1893. This book, together with M. Leon Gruel’s Manuel Historique et Bibliographique de V Amateur de Reliures , Paris, 1887 ; MM. Marius-Michel’s La Reliure Fran^aise depuis r invention de ILmprimerie jusqiia la fin du xviiie siecle, Paris, 1880; and M. Alexandre Quentin Bauchart’s Les Femmes Bibliophiles de France , Paris, 1886 ; have been constantly referred to by me in the course of this chapter. The materials, which have hitherto been collected for the history of gold-tooled binding in England, are few and inconsecutive: and the one general authority on this subject, of which I have been able to make any considerable use, consists in three articles on English Bookbindings , which appeared in the numbers of the Portfolio for March, April, and May, 1893 ; and which have since been reprinted with other essays under the title of Some Minor Arts xm as practised in England , London, 1894. To the writer of these papers, Mr. William Younger Fletcher of the British Museum, I am, also, indebted for no little assistance while writing this essay. Other authorities are given, as they occur, in the text.

The bindings, of any nation are, perhaps, only to be completely studied in the country, in which they were produced : certainly, the art of the French book¬ binder is nowhere to be seen as in Paris, among the books of the Bibliotheque Nationale, and other public and private libraries. Apart, however, from the un¬ rivalled assemblage of English bindings, which are preserved in the British Museum, we possess in that collection, an admirable series of French and Italian bindings : and in order to make the present volume more generally useful to the * amateur ’ in this country, I have endeavoured, in so far as it is possible, to en¬ tirely illustrate my meaning by examples in our National Museum ; adding the press marks of the books in brackets.

It remains for me to add, that I have endeavoured to write about my subject, not merely as an antiquary and a critic, but as an artist ; for the art of book¬ binding is yet a living art, sensible to new emotions, and capable of new expressions.

CHAPTER V Conclusion

Illustrations

PLATE PAGE

i. Doublure, . 33

A 4 Petrarch,’ Venice, 1532.

11. Florentine Binding, . Frontispiece

A 4 Caesar,’ printed by Philippo di Giunta, 1514.

hi. Binding for Grolier, ..... .77

Bembo’s 4Gli Asolani,’ Venice, 1530.

iv. Florentine Binding, . 94

A manuscript of 4 Onosander.’

v. Cameo Binding, . 94

vi. Binding by Geofroy Tory, . 106

A ‘Petrarch,’ Venice, 1525.

vii. Binding by Nicholas Eve, . . . . .118

A ‘Horace,’ Venice, 1581.

viii. Binding for Sir Kenelm Digby, . . . .127

His own ‘ Conference with a Lady. ’

ix. Binding for Seguier, Bishop of Meaux, . 141

A ‘ Pontificale.’

x. Binding for Charles ii., . .191

xi. Binding by Roger Payne, . 203

‘Euripides,’ Cambridge, 1694.

xii. Binding by Mr. Cobden Sanderson, . . . 208

Shelley’s 4 Adonais.’

Figures i. and 11. . 9

BOOKBINDING.

Chapter I. The Craft Of Binding

If we would understand a fine art, with that completeness, which its criticism requires, it is neces¬ sary, that we should first be acquainted with its various technical methods, especially in so far as these control, and determine, the nature of the design and workmanship employed in its productions. A fine example, not only of the bookbinder’s, but, also, of every other, art is directly the result of the limita¬ tions imposed upon the skill and taste of the workman, by the process of his craft, and by the materials used in its practice. To appreciate these limitations in the binder’s art, we must follow the various 4 stages through which a book passes, in his hands ; or, at least, for our present purpose, as many of these as are necessary to the production of fine and sumptuous bindings.

Folding. — If the book is in sheets, or ‘quires,’ the first stage, through which it passes, is that of folding. This is effected by an instrument called a folding stick: and great nicety is requisite, or the A book, especially if its margins are small, will be seriously damaged, when its edges are cut ; a fault, which we find even Le Gascon committing, according to the letters of Peiresc. If the printer has justly ‘imposed his forme/ and the folder correctly done his part, the fields of the type will coincide, and the several margins be equal, throughout the book. A sheet, or quire, thus folded is called a section: the top of the sheet is called the head ; the bottom, the tail ; and the front edge of the sheet, the fore-edge. If the book has already been cased, or bound, then it is, first, pulled to pieces, or divided. The glue is removed from the back, the threads with which the book is sewn are cut, and the sections, as they are pulled apart, are laid evenly one upon another.

When the binder comes to pull in pieces a modern book, which has been cased, that is to say, tempo¬ rarily bound in cloth, or paper, he often finds, that the sections have been irreparably damaged. This injury is the result of the casing having been viciously done, and without regard for the permanent binding, which is likely to supersede it, if the book is of value. A volume temporarily bound should be folded as carefully as a book permanently bound; but it should not be pressed, or rolled, or beaten. It should be sewn, but it should not be sawn; and the back should be left intact. Neither single sheets, nor any sections, should be pasted on, or overcast ; but sewn with the rest of the book; the former having first been mounted upon guards. The end-papers, moreover, should not be pasted on, but sewn with the quires of the volume. For this purpose, additional sections of plain paper, similar to that on which the book is printed, should be supplied by the publisher. The book should not be rounded ; still less should it be backed, which is an unnecessary operation in temporary bindings, and often the cause of irreparable mischief. In perma¬ nently binding a book, this temporary backing has to be struck out with the hammer; and the sections, when backed a second time, are apt to take their old form, which in most cases is the wrong one, having been fashioned without proper care, or by machinery. Lastly, the edges of a cased book should not be cut. In brief ; nothing should be done in temporary bind¬ ing, but what is necessary ; and what is necessary should be perfectly done.

Collation. — The next stage is the collation of the book, to ensure that all the sheets are in their proper sequence, according to the signatures of the several quires, or sections. In our modern practice, these signatures generally consist of letters, which are placed at the foot of the first page of each quire. The signature of the first quire of the text is ordinarily B, the title-page and preliminary matter being reckoned as A. The letters J, V, and W, are not often used ; and when the remaining letters of the alphabet have been exhausted, AA is used for a second, Aa for a third repetition. Particular attention must be given to the collation of any inserted leaves, for which special directions are generally furnished to the binder. The collation of old books, where irregular signatures are frequent, obviously requires peculiar knowledge ; but the principles of collation may best be understood, by reading such a volume as Mr. Jacobi’s admirable little volume of Notes on Books and Printing ; or the French treatise of Dudin, where such matters are set forth at great length.

Beating, or Pressing. — Formerly, after the book had been collated, it was beaten. For this purpose, a beating-stone and hammer were used : the beating-stone, which, despite its name, was sometimes an iron slab, was securely bedded, and possessed a perfectly smooth face. The hammer was small-handled, and heavy-headed. That end of the head, which was used for beating, was considerably larger than the other ; and, like the stone, required to be perfectly smooth, and scrupulously clean. Two or more sec¬ tions of the book, according to their thickness, were then laid on the stone, between two sheets of paper, and equally beaten over the whole of their surface. To ensure this equality, the sheets were continually moved round by the left hand; while the hammer was held in the right Unless great care was taken, that the face of the hammer should fall evenly upon the surface of the sheets, the edge of the hammer was apt to break the paper. After the book had thus been beaten in separate portions, the whole of the sections were gathered up, and beaten together, for a second time. In recent years, rolling machines have been invented to do the work of the beating hammer ; and all books, with few exceptions, are now rolled, whereby a great saving of labour is effected. For ephemeral and commercial work, the value and efficiency of such machines are certainly very great: but neither fine, nor old, books should on any account be rolled. In a new book, the texture of a hand¬ made paper will certainly be damaged, if not de¬ stroyed, by the process of rolling : and in many an old one, the deep impression of the type into the paper, is likely to make it split under such treatment. The use of the beating hammer, on the other hand, requires great skill and judgment ; or the sections will be bruised and cut. The risk of treating a valuable book in this manner is too great to warrant its employment, even by an experienced workman ; especially as another method, both safe and effective, remains in the use of the press. But this, like every other operation of the binder’s art, requires a nice judgment : and the sections of a book should be pressed sufficiently to render them solid, and to keep out the dust ; but not to the degree, at which the paper is killed.

Marking up and Sewing.— The head, and back, edges of the sections are now knocked even, that is, they are brought to an even surface ; and the book is ready for the process, technically known as mark¬ ing up. This consists in spacing out, and marking upon the back, the position of the cords, upon which the book is to be sewn. For this purpose, the book is placed, with the back uppermost, between boards, in a lying-press ; and the position of the cords is then marked on the back with a black lead pencil, by the aid of a right-angled set-square ; their proper number and distribution being a matter of the greatest importance, in good binding.

There are two methods of sewing a book ; one of which is known, as sewing round the cords, and the other, as ordinary sewing. In sewing round the cords, the construction of the binding usually deter¬ mines the decoration of the back : in ordinary sewing the construction is either hidden, or falsified. Sewing round the cords is not only the more artistic ; but it is the stronger, and better, method ; and the one, which I shall describe. In ordinary sewing, the cords are embedded in a series of grooves, cut by a saw ; and the books of the present day are, with rare exceptions, sewn in this manner. Derome was, perhaps, the first binder of repute, who employed this dangerous use of the saw ; and the method of his time may be found described at length, in the treatise of Dudin. In modern books, ordinary sewing is generally accompanied by the use of hollow backs, partly on account of the great saving of labour, which is effected by their use, and partly on account of the excessive thickness of the paper used in modern books, which necessitates the use of this method. 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 endeavour to give a pretentious appearance to a slight volume, by the use of heavy leads, and thick paper. The sheets of a folio by Torrentino, or of an octavo by Giunta, how admirably well is their substance chosen in relation to their size ! The Catullus, Tibullus , and Propertius , edited by Graevius, and printed by Rudolphus a Zyll, in 1680, although it contains nearly 1400 pages, measures scarcely more than 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 Michel¬ angelo , 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 Rudol¬ phus 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 deter¬ mined by the nice sense of the workman, according to the nature of the book to be bound.

In many early books, especially in Italian books of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, double 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 in Job , of St. Gregory, 1475, [C. 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 Soccus, Deventer, 1480, [C. 66. f. 9.], in the same collection.

The cords are first secured in the sewing press, which consists of a wooden bed with two upright screws, regulating a beam or cross bar, round which are fastened as many loose rings of cord, called lay cords, as there are cords to be used in sewing the book. One end of a cord is then tied to one of the lay cords, and the' other end of the cord is next fastened to a small piece of metal, called a key ; which moves along a slot in the bed of the press, immediately beneath, and parallel with, the beam, or cross bar : and in this manner, all the cords

Fig. 2.

Fig. r are secured in the press. The book is then laid on the bed of the press, with the back next to the upright cords : and the keys are moved to and fro in the slot, and the lay cords to and fro along the beam, until the position of the cords exactly coincides with the pencil lines, which have been marked on the back of the book. When they agree, the press is screwed up; and everything is ready for the sewing. In order to illustrate the method by which a book is sewn, the back of an early Italian binding, with double cords, is here figured by the side of an explanatory diagram. [Fig. i and 2.] A, in fig. 2, is the head, and B the tail, of the first section, which is now laid on the bed of the press with the pencil marks on its back touching, and coinciding with, the double cords C, C, C, C, C. A needle and thread is taken through the kettle-stitch D, within the central pages of the sheet ; and is thrust out between the two cords, which make the first band, C. The thread is then carried in such a way, indicated by the dotted line in the diagram, as to make a complete circle round each of the cords ; after which it is again introduced within the central pages of the section. The remaining cords having been sewn in this man¬ ner, the thread is finally taken out at the kettle-stitch hole, E. The second sheet is now placed above the first, and sewn in the same way ; but reversely, from tail to head, instead of from head to tail. When the thread is taken out by the kettle-stitch hole D of the second sheet, it must be fastened by a knot to the

IO end of the thread, which should be hanging from the same hole of the first sheet. The third sheet is then sewn like the former ones ; but when the thread is taken out by the kettle-stitch hole E., the needle is thrust between the first and second sheets, and is drawn round the thread, which passes from one kettle-hole to the other ; thereby fastening the sheets by a kind of chain stitch : indeed, the term, kettle-stitch, as Mr. Zaehnsdorf, in his Manual of Book¬ binding, suggests, is probably a corruption of catch-up stitch. A book must be sewn by a continuous length of thread ; but the bulk and numbers of the sections usually necessitate the use of two, or more pieces joined together : and when all the sections have been sewn, the end of the thread must be properly secured at the last kettle-stitch hole. In theory, the sewing of a book is the simplest of operations ; but in prac¬ tice, it requires a skill and judgment, which can only be appreciated by experiment. The thickness, both of the cords, and of the thread, are to be chosen according to the size of the book, and the nature of its paper : and the tension of the thread varied in the several parts of the sewing. In some early bindings, according to Mr. Zaehnsdorf, the head-bands, which I shall describe in their place, were formed during the process of sewing ; ‘ by fastening other pieces of leather for the head and tail, and making it the catch-up stitch as well ’ : but it was necessary to cut the edges of a book treated in this way, before it was sewn.

English binders, on account of the hard paper used in modern books, usually overcast the first and last sections ; that is, they sew them over, as if they were single sheets. Sections treated in this way, are afterwards pasted up, or secured with paste, by the edges of their backs to the next sections. But this method is greatly to be deprecated ; for when these sections break away, which invariably happens, if the paper be hard, and the book be much used, they are so damaged, that they require to be mounted upon guards, if the book be rebound. All single sheets should be mounted upon guards ; and both these, and the end-papers, should be sewn with the sections ; so that the entire book may open to the quick, from board to board. A simple de¬ vice employed by many binders of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, effectually prevented the body of the book breaking away from the end-papers. A sheet of vellum was laid between two sheets of paper ; and the whole was then folded and sewn in the usual way, with the other sections of the book. The outer paper, and vellum, leaves were next pasted upon the boards of the book ; while the four remain¬ ing leaves were left free, as fly-leaves. This method is commonly to be found employed, in the bindings of Grolier : and an earlier example may be seen in the copy of the Moralia of St. Gregory, already mentioned.

In sewing a book round single cords, the method is precisely similar to the foregoing : except that the thread makes a complete circle round one, instead of two, cords. In ordinary sewing, a series of grooves is cut with a saw, across the back of the book, in which the cords are embedded : so that the needle and thread, after being inserted at the kettle-hole stitch at the head of the section, are passed in a direct line, within the fold of the sheet, and without the back of the cords, to the kettle-stitch hole at the tail. In other particulars, this kind of sewingdoes not differ from that of sewing round the cords : but neither fine, nor old, books should be sewn in this manner ; as the sections are always more or less damaged by the saw, in the process. There are a number of variations upon these two methods of sewing : but none is of importance, and most are inferior, being contrived to save either time, or trouble.

End-Papers. — The choice of the end-papers is next to be considered. Coloured end-papers appear to have been first used towards the end of the sixteenth century ; before which time they were commonly made of vellum, or white paper. If a book be printed on a fine hand-made paper, the same paper may be used for its fly-leaves and end-papers : and, perhaps, there is no more pleasing method to be found, especially if the binding be richly tooled. Some of the earliest coloured papers are in stamp, and bear small patterns, in repeat : one, two, and even three wood-blocks being used in their produc¬ tion. Of these papers, the greater part are probably