Glossary A-G

adhesive binding

an adhesive binds the gatherings together without sewing or wire-stitching; the clamped book has folds at the back removed or ground away leaving roughened edges, often stopping just short of the head and tail (so that the book looks sewn); caoutchouc or gutta-percha (rubber-based) adhesive used first, according to GG, William Hancock, English, 1836; used first according to JC, Thomas Hancock, ca. 1840; later animal glues used

albumen
egg white; proteinaceous and soluble in water, coagulated by heating; ingredient of glair (GG)

all-over design

term used to describe the design that is carried over the entire book cover, not unrelated decorations or embellishments of a cover and spine (ED)

American joint

in binding when the boards are set away from the back or spine so that a space is left into which the covering material is pushed to form a groove or gully (GG)

American Russia (American russia, E.)

strong, split cowhide for book covers (GG)

antique

bookbinding term used to refer to blind tooling, especially that done before the introduction of gold tooling in Europe in the mid-15th c.; an emulation of an “old” style (ED, JC)

antique gold edges

a dulling finish given to gilt edges, either by leaving the gold unburnished or by washing the burnished gold with water; designs are sometimes tooled onto these edges, blind in patterns, usually a diaper (GG)

antique laid paper

paper formed on a hand papermaking mould where the wire cover is woven in a pattern comprising horizontal wires (laid lines) secured together with two intertwining thinner wires, spaced about one inch apart (chain lines); usually along the chain lines, this cover is attached to the bottom section of the wooden mould frame with thin wire to the ribs underneath; as the watery pulp is attracted to the latter areas, a larger number of fibers accumulate on either side of the chain lines, and these appear as dark shadows in transmitted light (DH)

antique wove paper

paper formed on a hand papermaking mould where the wire cover is woven as in a plain textile weave; cover is attached to the bottom section of the wooden mould frame with thin wire to the ribs underneath; as the watery pulp is attracted to the latter areas, a larger number of fibers accumulate over the ribs, and these appear as dark shadows in transmitted light (DH)

aquatint

an intaglio process by which a tonal image is created through the manipulation of either powdered rosin or a vehicle-rich varnish; the areas of the copper plate that are left exposed after the application and melting of the rosin or between the islands of the reticulated varnish are etched in an acid bath, forming a pitted surface that holds the ink; by burnishing parts of the aquatint with a smooth piece of metal in a handle, whiter areas within the darks are produced; by “stopping out” large areas during etching, a variety of shades can be produced, emulating watercolor washes, hence the name for this process (BG)

arabesque

embellishments taken from Greek and Islamic ornamentation usually of the acanthus leaf and vine, flowers, other leaf shapes, curved lines, etc.; any intertwined design that is calligraphic in nature; used often for borders (GG, ED)

architectural binding

a design on the covers using architectural themes (GG)

arming press

originally, a hand-operated, screw press in which heated metal blocks or stamps were used to impress coat-of-arm designs into leather covers; in 1832, the screw press was replaced by a lever-operated ones, such as the Imperial Arming Press; the increased pressure from the latter allowed the use of much larger metal stamps to impress designs into book-cloth in blind, gold, and/or ink (GG, ED)

armorial

featuring an owner’s coat of arms, usually stamped in gold on leather (JC)

art gilt edges

book edges colored under gold to complement the color of the binding material (GG)

assisted morocco

inferior goatskin, embossed with the characteristic grain of better qualities of morocco and boarded (GG)

author’s binding

copies of a book bound to the specifications of the author for presentation purposes, usually in a better style and materials than the edition binding (GG, JC)

aux petits fers

decoration on book covers resulting from the use of a combination of small, single tools to build up complete patterns (GG)

azured tool, azured tooling

a finishing tool with usually diagonal, closely hatched (parallel lines) lines either without any other design or contained inside the outline of a design, such as a leaf; so called from the use in heraldry of fine horizontal lines that symbolized the color “blue”; use dates from 1550; azured stamping is a mechanized technique that mimics the look of azured tooling (GG, ED)

back

the part of the book formed when gatherings are sewn or wire-stitched to produce a flat surface (or the surface to be coated in an adhesive binding); may be kept flat, or rounded and backed to give a convex shape (GG, JC)

back corner

beveled, upper and lower corners of both boards at the joint from the front of the board to the back; results in easier opening of the boards and provides room for headbands (GG, ED)

back matter

the printed material following the text, such as appendices, endnotes, glossary, bibliography, index (GG)

backing

after sewing and reinforcing the back with an adhesive, the back of the book is rounded to form a convex shape; with the textblock is clamped in a lying press and the cover boards in place at the joint, the rounded gatherings are coaxed with a backing hammer into a curved shape, working from the center of the textblock to each side to create the fanned out shape of the gatherings, the first and last of which extend to the outer edge the boards; 1850, Charles Starr, English, took out patent for a backing machine (GG, ED)

backing press

an iron, horizontal press with one fixed and one moveable jaw; the top part of each jaw slopes slightly to aid in deflecting the hammer blows during backing (ED)

bands

the covered, raised cords, real or false, on the spine that divide it into sections (ED, JC)

basil

an unsplit sheepskin that is vegetable-tanned; a poor-quality leather, sometimes artificially grained to simulate more costly leather; England from early 19th c.; sheepskin that is dyed a crimson color and heavily polished, used for ledgers, etc. (GG, ED, JC)

beveled boards/ beveled edges

usually 45° angle cut, sawn, or sanded; in binding, the shape given to thick boards, before covering, sloping from the outside to the inside of the board, usually stopping just before reaching the inside edge to leave a small section of the original board square; makes thick boards look thinner, less clumsy and emulates earlier binding styles using beveled-edged wooden boards (GG, JC)

binder’s board

general term referring to a composite board consisting of laminates of paper; boards are 0.012 inch (12 points) and stiff; made from a variety of fibers; in early books, boards were planks of wood, usually oak; boards provide protection to textblock and are almost always fully covered with one or more materials that attach the boards to the back at the spine and carry decoration on the outside of the book (GG, APPA, ED, JC)

binder’s embossed signature

in addition to binder’s tickets and pallets, some binders blind-embossed their names into the front flyleaf, see Allen (RBS Course Timeline) (RE)

binder’s ticket

a small, printed label, located on an inside cover (not to be confused with the bookseller’s ticket); a mottled orange, gray, or black discoloration is often present on these tickets printed on coated paper, where white lead has been used as a pigment (GG, JC)

binder’s title

the title as lettered on the binding (cover or spine), that is different from that on the title page, or on the original cover if rebound or on the original spine if rebacked (GG)

binding press

small, bench presses as well as tall standing presses; pressing was used in a number of processes, primarily to flat newly folded gatherings, and to keep lined boards and covered books flat while drying from one bookbinding step to another (GG)

blank leaves

leaves (2 consecutive pages) that are not printed upon, but are part of the imposition plan of the book; so-called printer’s blanks should be distinguished from binder’s blanks, which are added to the front and back of the book and called endpapers (JC)

blind tooling, blind stamping

tooling or stamping impressed into the surface of covering material without any gold or ink; hand finishing tools, heated, are pressed into dampened leather, with a resulting darkening (drawing color) of the leather in the blind tooled areas; stamp panels into leather for overall, larger designs; heated stamps pressed into grained cloth with an arming press, which causes a depressed flattening of the grain and a slight darkening (GG , ED, JC)

bocasin

a fine-quality buckram (GG)

bole

usually a red clay, although bole can be white (similar to kaolin or China clay); dusted or mixed with glue and painted on edge(s) of book under gold to give the gold greater depth and luster; also serves as the size onto gold leaf is applied; because this is water-gilding, the gold can be burnished (as opposed to oil-gilding which cannot be burnished); best bole is from Bohemia, Italy, and Armenia (GG, GS, ED)

book cover

covers can be made of paper, board, stiff cloth, or leather, used singly or in combination, and usually covered with material(s) (leather, paper, and/or cloth) that hold the book covers to the textblock and that often serves as a surface for decoration; includes the upper and lower covers, but not the spine (GG, ED)

bookbinder

a person who binds books for a living; until the 18th c., bookbinders either temporarily bound sheets for sale by the bookseller (so-called trade bindings) or were commissioned to bind single books according to the owner’s wishes; once edition binding became the normal for most published books, the bookbinder could either carry on as before, or join a large bindery to work on some aspect of edition bindings (GG )

book-cloth

1. any of a variety of dress textiles used to cover unique books

2. 1825, Archibald Leighton, English, developed a filler for the cloth so that glue could not penetrate through the cloth; by 1830s, to imitate leather and silk, book-cloth was patterned with a grain (GG, JC)

book-cloth color

usually refers to the color of book-cloth prepared by dyeing the fabric and then filling it with colored paste; a bright or deep red color was popular from 1848–1860, see Allen (1998); for a discussion of systems for identifying color related to book-cloth, see Tanselle (1967)

bookplate

a printed label that includes the owner’s name, and usually the words “ex libris” and a design; usually located on the front pastedown (GG, JC)

bookstamp

a stamp, rubber or metal, used to impress in ink the owner’s name in the book; also a blind, embossment (JC)

border

1. a continuous, decorative design arranged around lettering and/or an image on a page or cover; can be made from a mortised wood- or metal block comprising the entire border or made up of individual pieces of rule, type flowers

2. a frame made by either palleted, filleted or stamped lines, or by building up sections of the border with smaller decorative tools; in blind, gold, or ink (GG, JC)

boss

raised ornament in silver or brass on book covers, upper and/or lower; usually located at the corners; protects highly decorated covers from abrasion, for embellishment alone, or occasionally, in the 19th c., to emulate much earlier covers (GG, ED, JC)

bound book

term that refers to a book in which the cords (or some other material, such as thongs) are laced through the boards, as opposed to a cased-in book (GG, ED, JC)

brass stamp

a plate of brass engraved (etched and/or routed) with the image in reverse and in relief for stamping (blocking, E.) leather and cloth covers and spine: blind, gold, or in ink; occasionally, the engraver’s name appears somewhere in the design or near/in the border, more common between early 1840s and late 1870s, see Allen (1979) (GG, ED)

Bristol board

fine-quality cardboard, usually with a smooth surface suitable for drawing and printing single sheets; originally made in Bristol, England, it was a laminate of papers adhered together; now a thin cardboard made on multi-cylinder papermachine (GG)

broadside

1. a sheet of paper printed only on one side, often a full sheet or one cut in half

2. a newspaper of a large size (GG, JC)

buckram

strong fabric of jute, cotton, or linen, filled and sized, glazed and stiff; used since 1860 for book covers; single or double warp (GG)

burnished edge

colored edge(s) of a book rubbed with wax and polished with a burnisher (agate or bloodstone set in a handle) (GG, ED)

calender

to press between two or more cylinders under pressure (APPA)

calf

calfskin with a very smooth finish and grainless surface, commonly used in 18th-c. England for “trade” or semi-permanent bindings, while rest of Europe used paper covers; many different names given to calfskin bindings (GG, JC)

calf-finished lambskin

split sheepskin with a smooth finish resembling calf (GG)

caliper mark

incised lines or tiny holes left behind by the caliper, or compass, used by the finisher to mark out position of tooling and lettering (GG)

cameo binding

covers inserted with a cameo, first seen in Italian bindings from 1500–1560; later, a stamped or embossed image resembling a cameo appears on the cover(s) (GG, ED)

cancel, canceling

a page printed to correct an error and tipped onto a stub left behind when the incorrect page was cut out (GG, ED, JC)

canvas

coarsely woven linen or cotton cloth used to cover books; thicker and more durable than book-cloth but inferior to buckram; late 18th c. to 1830, plain canvas covers used on school books and on books sold by chapmen (but not considered chapbooks); also appeared on the spines of late 19th c. books of the Arts & Craft Movement with plain paper sides, usually blue, brown, or gray (GG, JC)

carbon black

any of several types of black pigment used in inks made by partial burning a variety of materials: natural gas, oil, wood, bones, and mixed with a drying oil (GS)

cardboard

laminated board either of individual sheets of paper and an adhesive or made on a multi-cylinder papermachine (no adhesive); early types of cardboard had burnished surfaces (GG)

cartouche

enclosed space for lettering, motifs, images, e.g., maps; a scroll with rolled ends enclosing a title (GG, JC)

case

a mass-manufactured, off-the-book-constructed cover and spine, which is adhered to the textblock by adhering the super and/or tapes, then the first and last sheets of endpapers as pastedowns to the inside of the covers; case consists of two boards, a thinner strip of cardboard, thick paper, or hollow for the spine, all which are adhered to a large piece of book-cloth (or paper); extra margin of board at head, fore-edge, and tail for the squares with enough margin for turn-ins

cased book, cased-in book

bound book, laced-in book (GG, ED, JC)

catchword

a word printed below the last line of the text, near the fore-edge, on the recto page that denotes the next word on the succeeding page; useful when collating gatherings (GG, ED, JC)

chalking

any situation when the vehicle in ink or colored paste evaporates or deteriorates to the point that the pigment is powdery and lighter in color than originally (GG)

chamfered edge

usually 45° angle cut or shape; in binding, the shape (usually through the use of an abrasive) given to thick boards sloping from the front to the back, usually stopping just before reaching the back edge to leave a small section of the original board intact; makes thick boards look thinner, less clumsy and facilitates opening (GG)

chapbook

usually a cheap, paper-covered booklet or pamphlet sold by chapmen or hawkers, about 6 x 4 inches and 24 pages; often decorated with woodcuts; in America, seen from 1725–1825 (GG, JC)

chased edge

gilded edge of a book decorated by the finisher with heated finishing tools, called goffering tools, to produce a wavy or crimped effect (GG)

chemical wood pulp

fibers for a good-quality paper made by debarking trees and cutting them into uniform chips of wood, followed by chemical processing in digesters at high temperatures and under pressure; the resulting pulp, after bleaching, contains very little or no lignin (APPA)

cheveril

a leather made from the skin of the guinea deer (ED)

chipboard

cheap paperboard made from recycled paper and other fibers; of low density and relatively weak (APPA); thin, hard-surfaced gray board (ED); laminates of pulp, no adhesive; often used for cases (GG)

chromolithography

lithographic printing in many colors, each having its own stone; 1837, Engelmann, France; appeared in English books in 1839 (GG)

circuit edges

excess covering material, usually limp vellum, leather, or paper, which turn in to protect edges of the text (GG)

clamshell box

a hinged, three-part, protective container for a book that folds into a tightly closed box (GG, JC)

clasps

brass or other metal pieces secured to the outside covers, usually two at the fore-edge; used to keep the book closed so the parchment leaves (especially) did not cockle or warp (GG, JC)

cloisonné

images made by soldering one edge of metal strips onto a metal, usually copper, sheet forming outlines; the interiors are filled with a powdered glass paste and fired into hard, glasslike enamel; in binding, a style that resembles the jewel-quality of cloisonné (GG, ODA, ED)

cloth boards

1. stiff cloth bindings with no boards (GG)

2. wooden boards with a thick metal strip that protrudes slightly over one long edge placed into the groove in a French joint in a case to set the joint during pressing (ED)

3. a kind of binder’s board (ED)

cloth hinge

on inside of the joint, a piece of cloth is attached to the board under the pastedown, is pushed down into the groove, and is then either sandwiched between the endpapers and the first gather or adhered to the recto of the flyleaf; an embellishment, especially for doublures (GG )

cloth-faced, cloth-lined

referring to a cheap cover material made of paper covered on one or two sides with linen or cotton (GG )

coated paper

text, illustration, and endpapers that are coated on one or both sides with a mixture of pigment(s) and a vehicle; early 19th c., the endpapers were pastel in shade, while between 1855 and 1885 darker colors were used, see Allen (1998); if white, basic lead carbonate is used alone or with other colors, gaseous pollutants or sulfide pigments can change the white component to a salmon, gray, or black color, causing discoloration sometimes mistaken for mold damage (GG, GS)

Cobb’s paper

thin, matte, self-colored paper for endpapers and sides of half-bound books; 1796, James Cobb, English, papermaker (GG )

colophon

found in early printed books until about 1570, and later in the private press movement at the end of the 19th c.; for the latter, a paragraph or page describing who made the book and the materials used, e.g., paper, typeface, endpapers, leather; often found at the end of the book (GG, ED, JC)

colored edge

edge(s) of book tinted with a dyed or pigmented ink; may be coated with thin layer of wax and burnished; applied with a brush or sprinkled on with textblock in a clamp (GG)

colored paper

paper that has been dyed in the beaten or vat, thus colored through the sheet (RE)

compensation guards

narrow guards, located in the gutter, that run the length of the page, which are sewn in in order to compensate for the bulk nearer the fore-edge of folded maps, charts, etc., so that the book lies flat (GG)

conjugate leaves

1. two leaves of a book adhered together to form one leaf

2. the other half of a leaf as sewn in a book, not necessarily the page opposite; for example, the conjugate leaf of pages 1/2 in a quarto is pages 7/8 while pages 3/4 is conjugate with pages 5/6 (GG, JC)

continuous guard

a piece of paper folded as an accordion or concertina that goes behind each of the folds through which the gatherings are sewn; used to protect the back folds of materials such as vellum from the adhesive applied to the back after sewing (GG, ED )

copyright page

page usually on the verso of the title page upon which the copyright information is printed: date, copyright holder, country of publication, other copyright notice and rights information (GG)

cords

thick, multi-ply threads of hemp or flax used as sewing supports for back of book; used either as round cord or unwound and used flat; in the former, the thinner sewing thread is wrapped around the cord, while in the latter, the thread goes across the cord; if kept round, the cords show as bands on the spine of book, raised cords; France, late 16th c. to mid-17th c. and England until 1710, recesses sawn into the back for the cords, thus a flat-back produced, recessed cords; sawn-in cord style was quicker to sew, but when glue is applied, it seeped into gaps in the folds and an inflexible back is created and to temper this, the hollow-back was first used in France in 1772; in board attachment, the cords (rounded or flattened) can be laced through the boards from the outside of the board to the inside; the ends are splayed out (slips) and with glue or paste, hammered flat against the inside of the boards; in 19th c. books, slips were sandwiched between two pieces of board (split board construction), which were then adhered together; or the slips were adhered to inside of covers and pastedown applied, as in cased-in books (GG, ED)

corner

triangular pieces of leather, cloth, or paper placed across each outside corner of the book covers; depending on the proportion of the size of the corners and the depth of the spine covering toward the center of the cover, such books are often referred to as half- (smaller) or three-quarter (larger) bound (GG)

cottage binding

a style resembling a 17th c. binding decoration, associated with Samuel Mearne’s workshop, which features small tooled designs in the shape of a gabled roof (or broken pediment) (GG, ED, JC)

countermark

in paper watermarking, the design, usually a name, initials, device, and/or date, that often appears on the left side of a sheet opposite (counter) to a pictorial design appearing on the right half (GG)

cover

the upper cover is the front and the lower, the back of the usually covered board or limp material used to protect the book; upper and lower covers are preferable terms to front and back as the latter could be confused with the back of the back which refers to the folds of the sewn gatherings (JC)

cover board

cover material made by pasting together two pieces of cover paper (GG)

cover paper

strong, thick paper used as wrappers for brochures and pamphlets; plain or embossed surfaces (GG)

cover title

the title of the book stamped, lettered or printed on the cover of the book; may be an abbreviation of the title as it appears on the title page (GG)

creaser

an iron finishing tool used to burnish straight and curved lines, see Johnson

criblé

a pattern, design, or image made up of dots

cropped, cropped edges

severe trimming of textblock, usually while being rebound; cutting into the text (GG, ED, JC)

cross-grain morocco

goatskin with diagonal grain, produced artificially (GG)

crushed Levant, crushed morocco

large-grained goatskin; the surface is flattened between so-called crushing, metal plates under pressure, or ironed or press on the piece of leather and after covering the book, the surface is highly polished (GG, ED, JC)

cuir bouilli

leather hammered from the back or pressed onto a wooden die creating an embossed look (GG, ED)

cuir ciselé (E. cuir-ciselé)

resembled or imitating a decoration process practiced in 15th c. Germany, Austria, and Spain, which involved cutting or punching into the upper layers of a usually dark-colored leather to obtain a relief effect; 1866, Henri M. Michel, France, specialized in this type of cover decoration (GG, ED, JC)

cut

once reserved for denoting a woodcut, in 19th c. term used to refer to any letterpress printing block of wood or metal; an illustration printed from such a block and usually found within the text (GG, JC)

cut edges

all pages of a book are cut back enough so that all leaves are flush; if not quite flush, this is said to be “proof” that the book has not been cropped (GG, ED)

cylinder printing press

for letterpress printing, first successful machine designed by German Frederick König, 1812; form of type is locked up on press bed and the large-diameter cylinder carrying the paper revolves over the inked-up type to create the impression, see Moran (1973) (GG)

Alternate term:

intaglio printing press

deckle edge

irregular edges produced by contact with the deckle of the hand mould; edges produced on the cylinder papermachine by masking out areas on the cover with waterproof material which repels the pulp, thus acting like a deckle; on the fourdrinier machine, false deckle edges are produced by deckle straps on the endless wire or jets of water on the two edges of the sheet just before it transfers from the wet section to the drier section of the machine; false deckle edges also created in dry sheets by sand blasting, knives, etc.; traditionally trimmed away by the binder as they attract dust; in modern practice, deckles on handmade paper books are left as a mark of being handmade and for their aesthetic and “antique” qualities (GG, APPA, ED, JC, DH)

decorated papers

endpapers or cover papers on which are printed a pattern in one or a few colors; base paper is usually colored through (GG)

delamination

separation of laminated materials: plies of boards, between cloth or leather and board, etc. (GG)

delin.

Latin: “drew”; the artist who drew the image from which the print was made by a craftsman (BG)

deluxe edition (de luxe, E.)

edition of a standard work on a better grade of paper (or parchment or vellum), often with larger margins, larger sheets, specially cast type, and/or expensively bound (GG, JC)

demonym

an author identified by descriptive term(s), e.g., “by A Gentleman,” rather than a name (GG)

dentelle bindings

French: “lace”; resembling 18th c., early French bindings by Padeloup, le jeune and later by Derôme; borders with edges of scalloped, lacelike designs made using a combination of small finishing tools; the designs in corners feature lacelike ends pointing toward the center; when bird motifs are added, dentelle à l’oiseau; also found as turn-in decoration on inside covers, often with doublures (GG, ED, JC)

Derôme bindings

Jacques Antoine (1696–1760) and Nicolas Denis (1731–c. 1788) Derôme; resembling bindings that feature gold tooled, dentelle borders on covers and on doublures (GG)

device

design identifying a printer/publisher and usually printed on title page and/or last page of book; sometimes appears on cover and/or spine (GG, JC)

diced leather

describes an overall pattern of small diamond, lozenge, or square shapes impressed into leather, usually calf and Russia leather, by scoring in a rolling press before covering or by blind tooling after covering (GG, ED, JC)

dictionary

reference book containing words or subjects, defined and arranged alphabetically (GG)

dies

an engraved, etched, or electroplated, male and female metal (earlier wood) blocks used to emboss a design into leather or cloth by pressing the material between heated dies under great pressure (GG)

divinity calf

bindings with beveled-edge covered in dark, grayish-brown calfskin; often blind-tooled in single lines; ecclesiastical works (GG, ED, JC)

dos à dos binding

two works literally bound “back to back” using a shared middle board serving as the back cover for both; the other work upside down so that no matter how the book is opened, one of the books is the right-way up; at both edges, the spine of one and fore-edge of the other are visible (GG)

double rule

two lines of brass rule, one of which is thicker than the other (GG)

doubled tool

a mistake made in tooling when the subsequent placement of the tool in a line already tooled is aligned incorrectly (ED)

doublure

on the inside covers of books, a decorative lining of tooled leather, vellum, or watered silk, often with elaborate gold tooled borders, e.g., dentelle or arabesque design; a French term with no English equivalent (GG, ED, JC)

drawn on, drawn in

a paper cover that is adhered only to the back; if endpapers are attached to this, the binding is called drawn on solid (GG)

drill

coarse, cotton cloth used in bookbinding (GG)

duck

strong cloth of linen or cotton used in bookbinding (GG)

duodecimo

a book format consisting, traditionally, of a sheet of paper cut, folded, and inset into a gather of 12 leaves and 24 pages; in modern practice, a book size ranging from about 7.5 x 4.5 and 7.5 x 5.25 inches (GG, ED, JC)

Alternate terms:	twelvemo
	12mo
	12°

dust jacket (dust-jacket, E.)

originally a thin, translucent paper wrapped around a book with flaps tucked between each cover, sometimes with a die-cut hole to reveal title on spine; used to protect the binding from handling; first known use of a dust jacket was in 1830, country??; 1880s saw more use and by the end of the 19th c., the practice was becoming common, with printed blurbs (review and author notes) on the inner flaps (GG, JC)

Alternate terms:	dust cover
	dust wrapper
	jacket

dutch gold leaf

alloy of 80% copper and 20% zinc beaten into leaf form and used as a cheap substitute for gold leaf for tooling and stamping; discolors to dark yellow, orange, and/or white colors, and sometimes has an iridescent sheen not seen on gold leaf (GG , ODA)

dye

usually complex, organic compounds (liquids or solids) that, when added to a vehicle, dissolve in it (GS)

écrasé leather

split sheepskin, mechanically crushed to give a grained effect and then polished (GG)

edge trimmer

machine for trimming edges of paper before casing-in; 1865, Latham, English?? American?? (GG)

edge-rolled

fillet-tooled board edges on leather covers (GG, ED)

edges

1. referring to the edges of the textblock; head-, fore-, and tail-

2. referring to the edges of a board, its thickness (GG, JC)

edition

all the copies of a book printed at the same or any subsequent time with the same setting of type; any substantial changes are made to the setting, or if re-set, revised or enlarged, constitute a second, or subsequent, edition(s), or revised or enlarged editions (GG, JC)

edition binding

hand- or machine-binding of a large number of books from all or part of a printed edition for which identical processes and materials are used; arranged by the publisher; often edition binding done in batches, sometimes bound up several years apart in which case, these secondary, tertiary, etc. bindings might be different from the primary, etc. binding; practice of edition binding arranged by the publisher rather than by the bookseller began around 1830 with the introduction of cloth cases (GG)

eighteenmo

a book format consisting, traditionally, of a sheet of paper cut, folded, and inset into a gather of 18 leaves and 36 pages; in modern practice, a book size of about 6.5 x 4 inches (GG)

Alternate terms:	octodecimo
	18mo
	18°

electrotype

like a stereotype, a relief printing surface made from forms of set type; a wax matrix is made from the type, and after dusting with graphite, the matrix is immersed in a copper sulfate solution along with a sheet of copper; when each is attached to an electric charge, copper ions move from the sheet to form a shell on the matrix; once the electroplating is done, the copper shell is filled from the back with molten lead; the electrotype is then ready for printing; electrotypes are considered superior to stereotypes in that the details of the type, such as hairline serifs, are preserved; late 1830s (GG, JC)

emblematic decoration

pictorial motifs used to denote either the author’s name, the owner, country of origin or ownership, or the subject matter, e.g., fish motifs used to decorate The Compleat Angler (JC)

embossed, emboss

raised designs made in a flat material by pressing it between male and female dies; in bookbinding, the above performed in a fly embossing press with heated dies on leather or cloth; once embossed material was adhered to case, lettering and additional stamping in relief could be performed (GG, ED)

encyclopedia (encyclopaedia, E.)

reference work containing summary of knowledge, usually arranged alphabetically (GG)

endpapers, end papers (E. end-papers)

blank folio(s) of paper sewn with or tipped onto the first and last gatherings by the binder to serve as pastedown, flyleaf, and/or extra endpapers; endpapers can be either text, white (self-colored), colored, marbled, printed pattern, or coated papers; if the flyleaf and next endpaper are adhered together, resulting leaf is known as a “made endpaper”; in 19th c. publishers’ bindings, the patterns of endpapers fall into two main categories and time periods: 1841–1856, small, simple, rather open patterns based primarily on geometrical designs; 1878–1900, more complex designs based on floral, vine, leaf motifs, filling the space, sometimes overprinted, complementary images in two colors, including “gold” and “silver”, see Allen (1977) (GG, ED, JC)

Alternate terms:	end-leaves and lining papers (E.)
	endleaves
	flyleaves
See also:	flyleaf
	pastedown

engraving, engraved

1. intaglio: metal plate into which the design is created with a burin; generally, black lines on a white background; copper, steel, and later zinc plates; the print from it

2. relief: wood engraving made with a graver and other clearing tools that remove material that will print white; generally, white lines/areas on a black background; endgrain boxwood or other close-grained wood; small in size, unless composite block made up of several smaller units; the print from it

3. “engraved”: a notation made in the plate of an intaglio print (and sometimes on a wood engraving) denoting the person who made the plate; note: intaglio prints often self-described in legend as “engraving” could be any one or combination of different intaglio processes including etching and aquatint (GG, JC, BG)

entrelac

interlacing ribbon or strapwork as tooled or stamped design, in gold, ink, or blind; derived from Islamic arabesques and later binding styles for collectors such as Jean Grolier and François I by the Entrelac bindery, Paris (GG, ED)

ephemeris (pl. ephemerides)

an almanac or calendar; diary; word used in association with 17th- and 18th-c. periodicals; astronomical almanac (GG)

erratum slip (pl. errata)

a slip or sheet of printed paper loosely inserted or tipped into a book listing the errors found after printing or publication (GG, JC)

etching

use of an acid or other corrosive liquid to dissolve away, either 1. metal: line etching and aquatint, binder’s brass stamp; or 2. stone: lithography (GG, BG)

Etruscan binding

the use of simple, classical motif, gold tooled decoration on marbled, tree, or sprinkled calf (JC, ED)

extra cloth

colored book-cloth, either plain or with a grained pattern (GG)

face

the polished surface of the end of a piece of brass or steel bar for engraving and filing the image for a finishing tool, stamp, or punch (ED)

false bands, false raised bands

in a book with a hollow back (with sunken cords or not), the illusion of raised cords under the spine created by gluing strips of leather or thick board to the hollow before covering (GG)

fan binding

resembling the gold-tooled decoration of 17th-c. French and Italian bindings incorporating a fully open fan as the center motif on the cover and a quarter fan in each corner; design built up with small finishing tools (GG)

fanfare binding

resembling the very elaborate gold tooled design covering almost all of the sides, France, 16th and 17th centuries; made up of many small finishing tools, often azured, with a relatively small center motif; naturalistic flowers, leaves, vines, branches, intertwining ribbons, and arabesques; often enclosed in geometrical compartments tooled with fillets (GG, ED, JC)

fecit

Latin: “made,” “did”; the artist or the plate-preparer or master printer; often used in legends under intaglio prints (GG, BG )

figure

1. an illustration, table, diagram, map, or chart printed along with the text and numbered along with other such informational material

2. another term for number (GG, JC)

filler

mineral pigments or clays added to paper pulp to improve opacity, density, bulk, texture, and color as well as usually lower price (GG, APPA)

fine paper edition

like “large-paper edition,” a designation of a deluxe edition made on, usually, handmade paper (GG, JC)

fine-grain morocco

a very durable morocco with a natural grain brought out by hand (GG)

finishing

those decorative hand processes including gold or blind tooling and/or lettering with finishing tools, following the forwarding of the book; also the application of any other decorative elements such as onlays or inlays; the binder who specializes in this is a “finisher” (GG, ED)

finishing tool

brass tool, with a shank or a wheel, that have ornaments engraved into the face, inserted into a wooden handle; used heated to decorate leather either in blind or with gold leaf; if the image on the face or wheel of the tool is primarily solid, it is called “cut solid”; if the image is defined rather by lines, it is “cut open” (GG, ED)

first edition

the first appearance of a book in a specific setting of type, or from stereotype or electrotype plates; if no substantial changes are made to the setting, subsequent printing are still considered part of the first edition (GG )

first printing

all copies of a book within an edition that are printed first (GG)

flat back

a binding style where the spine-covering material is adhered directly to the back; the back is narrower and flatter than that of the rounded and backed book (GG)

flexible binding

1. a book that is sewn on supports, such as cords, that are laced through the boards

2. binding where there are no boards and the outside is covered in leather; a thin cardboard or thick paper may be used to stiffen the leather; the pastedown is applied directly to the leather or to the stiffener (GG, ED)

flexible sewing

sewing through the fold employing supports, such as cords or tapes (GG)

floret

finishing tool with a small flower or leaf design (GG, ED, JC)

floriated

term used to describe a border or book cover made up of tooled or stamped small flower or leaf ornaments (GG )

flush boards

boards attached to the pastedowns and then covered with a paper cover; whole book trimmed flush; edges of board are exposed (GG, JC)

fly embossing press

a huge press with very large barbell-shaped screw handle; sheer weight needed to deliver enough pressure to emboss leather or cloth between male and female dies (GG)

flyleaf (fly leaf, fly-leaf, E.)

commonly, the free, right half of the endpaper sheet that appears inside the upper and lower cover (the other side of the flyleaf is the pastedown); occasionally, the flyleaf is adhered to the next half-sheet of paper and this two-thickness leaf is called a “made endpaper”; strictly, the leaves following the first free leaf (GG, ED, JC)

flyswing

the thin leather label used on the spine of leather- or cloth-covered books; made of skiver; once applied to the spine, it can be gold-tooled or lettered (GG)

folio

1. a book format consisting, traditionally, of a sheet of paper folded only once yielding 2 leaves and 4 pages; traditionally and in modern practice, these are large books

2. a term referring to one of several sheets of paper, folded once, that are nested together to form a gather, usually printed two-up, i.e., only two pages printed at once

3. a page numbered on the recto only

4. page numbers (GG, ED, JC)

font of type (E. fount of type)

all of the upper- and lowercase letters, the numerals, punctuation marks, accented letters, and ligatures (joined letters such as Æ or fl) (GG)

foot

sometimes refers to the bottom edge of a book (GG)

fore-edge

the outer edge of the textblock that runs parallel to the back/spine (GG, ED)

fore-edge painting

watercolor-painted fore-edges of two kinds: painting is visible when the book is closed, and painting is only visible when the fore-edge is slightly fanned (sometimes in both directions showing different scenes), in the latter case, the edges being gilt or marbled to hide the painting; William Edwards of Halifax, 1750, began a taste for painted edges (GG, JC)

form (E. forme)

a block of set type constituting a page, or when imposed and locked up on the press bed, all of the pages to be printed at once (GG)

format

the dimensions of a book based on the trimmed size of the sheet to be printed, the imposition layout, and how the sheet is folded to form one gather; traditionally, format is either folio, quarto, octavo, duodecimo, etc.; in modern printing, paper is printed from reels rather than from sheets and the traditional format names are used as guides to describing the approximate dimensions (height x width) of the finished book (GG, ED, JC)

fourdrinier papermachine (E. Fourdrinier)

Nicholas-Louis Robert, France, 1798 invented, but not put into commercial use by him, but through the efforts of Bryan Donkin and Henry & Sealy Fourdrinier in England in 1806; first fourdrinier in America set up by Donkin in 1827, ten years after Gilpin’s cylinder machine; the machine involves a moving “endless” loop of wire cloth onto which is poured the paper pulp; using a series of rolls (including the dandy roll), the water is squeezed out enough to reel the “endless” paper up at the end; before drier sections were added to the wet end, the reel of damp paper was festooned over ropes, or roughly torn into sheets and dried in the same way as handmade paper; the forward movement of the wire tends to orient a large percentage of the fibers parallel to the direction, but if the wire is shaken from side to side, this orientation is interrupted, making a stronger and more useable sheet (GG, APPA)

foxing

a distinct type of stain on paper, comprising a small reddish-brown spot surrounded by a lighter brown halo; probably due to minute specks of iron (from papermaking machinery) that act as catalysts for mold-growth and localized cellulose degradation; very resistant to bleaching (GG, ED, JC)

French corner

in a half-binding without corners, the side-covering material is cut in such a way as not to reveal the vellum corner on the outside (ED)

french dash

a ruled line with a swell (GG)

french morocco

split sheepskin with a grain applied to resemble morocco (GG)

french sewing

without using a sewing frame, the gatherings are sewn together without supports (no cords, bands or tapes); the sewing method of the Copts and in the early 16th c. French binders (GG)

french shell

a pattern found on marbled paper, France, 18th c. (GG)

front matter

everything that comes before the first page of text: bastard title, title page, copyright page, dedication, table of contents, introduction, etc. (GG)

frontispiece

an illustration placed opposite the title page; printed with front matter or printed separately and tipped in/on (GG, JC)

full binding, full-bound

a book covered wholly in one material: leather, paper, or cloth, e.g., full morocco, full calf, full cloth (GG, ED, JC)

full gilt edges

all three edges are gilt (GG, ED)

gathering

1. a unit of a book that comprises one sheet of paper folded and/or cut and folded to form a number of leaves and pages; a gathering can consist of 2 leaves (folio), 4 leaves (quarto), 8 leaves (octavo), etc., depending on how large the sheet of paper is and the imposition of the pages in printing

2. a unit of a book consisting of several nested folios of a sheet of paper printed two-up, i.e., 2 pages printed at one time on a rather small sheet cut from much larger sheets; in this format, the so-called folios are collated in numerical order and folded into a gathering (GG, ED)

genre

a category of subject matter that a book falls into, such as travel books, nonfiction and fiction books, cookbooks, mystery books, etc.; also used to describe categories of style or form

gift bindings

1. any leather-bound book meant for presentation purposes; not from the author, which would be an author’s binding

2. a publisher’s special binding for a batch of copies within an edition that are meant as gifts, especially at Christmas time (JC)

gilt edges

unless otherwise noted, all three book edges gold leafed, usually after trimming but before rounding and backing; for each edge, the book is tightly clamped in a press and the edge is ploughed, shaved and/or sanded until all pages are of an even height and the whole surface is smooth; depending on the gilder, an adhesive is applied as a sealant, sometime with bole added, and polished; glair, gelatin, or some other dilute size is then applied and just before dry, the gold leaf is laid on; after dry, it is burnished with a burnisher; cased-in book edges are similarly done if by hand, later a machine was used apply gold foil to the edge(s); gilt edges help to keep air pollution, dust, and dirt from penetrating the paper edge (GG, ED, JC)

gilt head edge

a book having only the head or top edge gilded (GG)

gilt solid edges

Edges of a book that are gilt after rounding rather than before; highly burnished, solid metallic look; often only fore-edge is done this way, while head and tail are gilt after rounding (GG)

glair, glaire

a size made of egg white (albumen) and vinegar or water applied to areas to be gilded, whether by finishing tools on already blind-tooled leather or brass stamps on already blind-stamped cloth; as the protein coagulates upon heating with the tool or stamp, the gilding process is permanent; also used to size the edge(s) of books to be gilt (GG, ED)

glazed morocco

flattened and polished goatskin by calendering (GG)

goffered edges

the edge(s) of the book to be goffered are first gilded (or first under-painted or stained), and then, with heated brass finishing tools, designs, patterns, ornamentation are impressed into the edge (GG, ED)

gold embossing

decoration or picture in gold embossed into a leather or cloth cover using a set of heated female and male dies and gold leaf in an embossing press; cloth cases to be gold embossed were first embossed blind and then prepared by women who would first size the areas to be gilt with a paste-wash followed by glair, and when dry, a thin layer of “grease” was applied followed with the gold leaf, after which the embossing could occur; the heat from the dies reactivated the glair and grease, first causing the gold leaf to adhere and second, to coagulate the glair into a tough, insoluble adhesive; the excess gold was wiped or brushed away and any grease residue removed with a solvent or French chalk; the same basic procedure was followed for gold-embossing leather, see Wolf (1990)

gold leaf

gold alloy made into leaf form by beating small pieces interleaved with a strong, thin paper between outer pieces of “gold-beater’s skin,” usually parchment, until very thin, ca. 0.00004 inch; modern books of gold leaf contain 25 pieces, each leaf between a rouged piece of tissue paper; one ounce of gold leaf covers approximately 250 square feet; beating now done by hand and by machine (ODA, GS, GG, ED)

gold stamping

decoration or picture in gold stamped into a leather or cloth cover using a heated relief brass stamp and gold leaf in an arming press; cloth cases to be gold stamped were first blind stamped, then prepared by women who would first size the areas to be gilt with a paste-wash followed by glair, and when dry, a thin layer of “grease” was applied along with a layer of gold leaf, after which these areas were stamped; the heat from the stamp served to reactivate the glair and grease, first causing the gold leaf to adhere and second, to coagulate the glair into a tough, insoluble adhesive; the excess gold was wiped or brushed away and any grease residue removed with a solvent or French chalk; the same basic procedure was followed for gold-stamping leather (GG, ED)

gold tooling

done with hand bookbinding finishing tools: single ornaments (sticks), fillets, rolls, pallets, and/or gouges; areas of the leather to be gold tooled are blind-tooled by the finisher and prepared by first sizing the areas with a paste-wash and glair, and when dry, follow with a thin layer of “grease” and a layer of gold leaf, after which the tooling could occur; the heat from the tool reactivated the glair and grease, first causing the gold leaf to adhere and second, to coagulate the glair into a tough, insoluble adhesive; the excess gold was wiped or brushed away and any grease residue removed with a solvent or French chalk; introduced into Europe from the East in the mid-15th c. (GG, ED)

grain

1. the natural ripple patterns and creases present in leather

2. the alignment of the largest percentage of fibers in paper in one direction; see grain direction

3. an artificial pattern created in leather, see grained leather, and in book-cloth; see grain pattern (JC)

grain direction

in paper or board, the largest percentage of fibers aligned in any one direction, usually between 10–15%; except in very unique cases, grain direction always runs parallel to the primary movement of the mould (handmade) or cylinder (cylinder papermachine) through the paper pulp or, in the case of the wire web (fourdrinier), the direction of the pulp downwards through a series of jets (slice) onto the forward-moving wire; opposite to the grain is the cross direction; grain direction (g.d.) can be tested in paper and board in a number of ways, e.g., by flexing (more flexible is parallel to g.d.) or noting the swell upon wetting (larger increase in size is parallel to g.d.); in bookbinding (and printing if possible), grain of all papers and boards should run from the head to tail and be parallel to the folds that form the back in either sewn or adhesive bindings; the myth that handmade paper has no grain is just that; Western handmade paper has less grain direction than Japanese handmade paper (APPA)

grain pattern book-cloth

there are many varieties of patterns that were embossed into book-cloth and used for publishers’ binders, e.g., diaper, pebble, ribbed, sand, bead; for descriptions and illustrations, see Allen (1976, 1994), Tanselle (1970), and Sadleir (1990)

grained cloth

book cloth that, after filling, dyeing, and glazing, is embossed between heated, metal female and male die plates or cylinders; the heat sets the starch-sized cloth into a permanent pattern so that it can be cut and glued to the case elements (cover + spine + cover) with spaces for the joints and margins for the turn-ins without flattening the embossed pattern; the variety of patterns used in publishers’ binding during the 19th c. is extensive, see Allen (1976, 1994), Tanselle (1970), and Sadleir (1990) (GG, PG)

grained leather

the grain side of an unsplit leather is the hair side as opposed to the flesh (suede) side; the skins from different animals have different grain patterns, and in grained or boarded leather, this natural pattern is worked up on dampened leather, hand-rolled or rolled between a piece of cork, thus either enhancing the natural grain, to impart another, or to straighten the grain; on cheaper leathers (split and unsplit), an artificial grain can be impressed into a prepared surface with engraved wooden boards or metal plates under pressure; graining is often used to conceal damage(s) in the leather (GG, ED)

graining boards, graining plates

wooden boards or metal plates with cut or engraved patterns, which, when impressed on dampened or paste-washed leather, gives a grain pattern, such as diced calf (GG, ED)

guard, guarding

a narrow strip of paper or linen that is folded lengthwise; one or both edges are used onto which separately printed plates (illustrations, charts, maps) or leaves of text can be adhered (tipped-on); the guard is nested in its proper place around or in a gathering for sewing; if only one edge of the guard is used, the unused side is called a stub; a guard is also adhered to the back of the fold to mend it during rebinding (GG, ED, JC)

guinea edge

a pattern resembling the grooved edge of a guinea (an old English gold coin); a series of short parallel lines, running perpendicular to the edge (GG, ED)

gutter

the inner margin of a page closest and parallel to the fold at the back (GG)