Glossary
P-Z
page
one side of a leaf in a book or pamphlet
(GG)
palladium leaf
a silvery, non-corrosive, expensive, white-metal
leaf reserved for very fine book decoration and edge-treatments; “an
amalgam leaf resembling silver leaf” (GG, ED)
pamphlet
a short booklet usually printed in large
numbers for wide distribution (often polemical in nature),
comprising a single gathering; sewn, saddle-stitched, or
wire-stitched (stapled); often with a paper wrapper, but
not covered per se (GG, ED, JC)
panel
1. any rectangular space within which
information or decoration is placed
2. a frame tooled with one-, two- and
more parallel lines palleted or filleted (blind or in gold)
on the spine or cover of a leather-covered book; the space
between raised cords where title, author, etc., and decoration
are gold tooled, directly on the leather or on applied
labels, a so-called panel back (GG, ED, JC)
Alternate
terms: |
1. section |
|
2. border |
|
box |
|
frame |
panel stamp, panel stamped
an engraved brass large enough to decorate
most of the leather-covered board in one application of
pressure; from mid-1200s, stamps were made of wood and
metal and were blind stamped; later, panel stamping was
done in gold; for panel stamping, the leather is moistened
and the heated metal panel in positioned face-down on the
cover before the whole is placed in a press (GG, ED, JC)
paper boards
in casing bindings, where paper is used
as the covering material rather than cloth (GG, JC)
paper covers
thick paper, covering material used without
boards, attached to the spine on ordinary, sewn books,
with squares or trimmed flush (GG)
Alternate
terms: |
paperback |
|
softback |
papyrus
a rush from which sheets of writing support
were made; the stalks of the plant are gathered, cut into
smaller sections, and then sliced laterally into thin strips;
after soaking in water, the strips are laid in two layers,
the second, turned 90°, and overlapping the first;
this layer is then pounded together and/or pressed; when
dry, the surfaces are usually smoothed and polished with
pumice; like paper, papyrus is made of a vegetable fiber,
but it otherwise does not resemble paper in that the fibers
are not reduced to a pulp and felted; the term “paper” was
derived from “papyrus” (GG)
parchment
a thin, rather stiff (compared with leather),
white writing (and occasionally printing) support derived
from the skins of goats, sheep, and young animals such
as kids and calves; unlike leather, parchment is not tanned,
but rather dehaired, scrapped, cleaned while stretched
on a frame with pumice and degreased with chalk; the key
in making parchment is to dry it while tautly stretched;
if a thick skin, such as sheep, it is often split, but
most parchment has two distinct sides: a smooth, slightly
glossy, yellowish grain side, as opposed to the flesh side
which is whiter, more matte, and slightly more textured
(it is the preferred writing side); when making up book
pages, like-sides should face one another across the double
page spread; split sheepskin used for parchment is called
forel; see Reed (1972) (GG, JC, ED)
pared leather
leather that has been thinned either overall
by shaving down or at the edges by chamfering, both with
a sharp paring knife; to reduce bulk at the turn-in area
along the edge of the covers and the double-thickness of
leather at the head and tail of the spine, the edges of
the leather piece are pared (GG)
paste papers
decorated papers, used for covering sides
and occasionally, for endpapers; made by coating a durable,
dampened paper with one or several layers of colored starch
paste(s) and either drawing, dragging, pulling, stamping,
etc., some pattern into the paste, see Loring (ED)
pasteboard (paste-board, E.)
a binder’s board made up of sheets
of waste papers (often printed) pasted or glued together;
dates before the use of millboard in the 18th c. (GG, JC)
pastedown (paste-down, E.)
the first/last sheet of paper from the
endpapers that is adhered to the upper/lower covers on
the inside; separate pieces of paper adhered to the inside
covers, sometimes followed with watered silk; the next
free sheet of paper is the flyleaf (GG, JC)
perfect
1. sheets of paper printed on both sides;
in letterpress, one side is printed at least one day before
the other; in special perfecting presses, both sides can
be printed at once
2. perfect binding denotes an adhesive
binding; the name is probably a derivative of the word “gutta-percha” (GG, RE) Persian morocco
soft goatskin used for finest bindings;
Persian sheep and Persian goat leathers are actually made
in India and are not durable (GG)
photogravure
a photomechanical reproduction made and
printed in much the same way as etching, except that the
resulting image is a tonal print; often used to reproduce
images based on other media such as paintings, watercolors,
etc. (GG, BG)
photomechanical reproduction
a number of plate-processes to reproduce
in large quantities an image, usually a tonal image
(BG)
Alternate
terms: |
collotype |
|
halftone |
|
photogravure |
|
process work (E.) |
pica
a unit of measure in the American type
system; there are about 6 picas to the inch; each pica
consists of 12 points
(GG)
pigment
a finely ground mineral that is suspended
in a vehicle for use as an ink, paint, watercolor painting,
etc. (GS)
pin seal
the fine-grained skin of a seal, used
for very expensive binding (GG)
pin seal morocco
hand-grained goatskin resembling pin seal
(GG)
pinx.
Latin: “painted”; the artist
who painted the image that the craftsman is making into
a fine print (BG)
plain binding
a plain-looking binding with little or
no embellishment made by a job binder
(ED) plate
illustration in a book, often printed
differently from the text and tipped-in on a guard, as
opposed to a figure which is printed along with the text
(GG, JC)
platemark (plate mark, plate-mark, E.)
impression of the beveled edge of an intaglio
printing plate into the paper; see intaglio printing press
(GG, JC, BG)
Alternate terms: |
bevel edge |
|
facet edge (E.) |
pochoir
the application of color by means of tamping
with a stencil brush a “dry” gouache or watercolor
through a stencil (GG)
pocket edition
a small octavo book, about 6.75 x 4.25
inches (GG)
point
a unit of measure in the American type
system; one point is equal to approximately 1/72 inch;
there are 12 points to a pica, and therefore about 6
picas to the inch (GG, JC)
Alternate terms: |
type size |
See also: |
pica |
pointillé
pattern, design or image made up of
dots (JC)
Alternate terms: |
criblé |
|
manière criblée |
polished calf
highly finished calfskin used in fine
bookbinding (GG)
print, printing
1. the act of transferring, numerous
times, some kind of image (textual, decorative, and/or
pictorial) from one surface to another using ink as the
vehicle
2. the individual artifact made from
such action (GG, BG)
printed edges
usually advertising copy, this is performed
on trimmed edge before any rounding and back on the fore-edge
(most
often) with “rubber” type [a rubber stamp?]
(GG)
printer’s mark
a mark or device that represents a specific
printer, just as the publisher’s mark or device
identifies a specific publisher (GG)
private press
a small press that occasionally issues
limited editions, whose quality is often above that of
trade books; often owned by individuals or groups who
do not seek profit in the commercial sense, but engage
in printing and/or publishing for creative reasons and
personal gratification (GG, JC)
privately printed
books issued from either a private press
or financed by the author or another individual, printed
by a job printer (GG, JC)
privilege
having a licence from a governing agency
or authority, which allows the publisher/printer to “make
public” a specific work (GG, JC)
Alternate
terms: |
imprimatur |
|
license |
proof
the existence of a few pages that lay
below the trimmed edges of a book, signifying that the
binder has not cropped the edges (GG, ED)
prospectus
a printed leaflet or broadside describing
a forthcoming book; often with a specimen paper, illustration,
and/or table of contents; first issued in 1469 (GG)
publish
simply, to make public, usually in many
copies and distributed for sale (GG, JC)
publisher
an individual or a group of individuals
(a company or group) that is in business to finance the
production of books and other printed matter to sale
to the public (or members of a group), either for profit
or not; prior to the 19th c., publishers, in the preceding
sense, were rare and the activities of publishing were
more commonly assumed by authors, job printers, governments,
and booksellers (GG)
publisher’s binding
in America from the early 19th c., a
binding done in the same materials and decoration
for the entire edition (or in batches); the specific
binding is designed, arranged, and paid for by the publisher;
prior to the 19th c., sheets were purchased from the
printer by booksellers who would have the books either
temporarily sewn/bound or would sell books in sheets
(or in a temp. binding) to the owner, who would arrange
for the permanent binding in his/her preferred style
or the prevailing style for the times and/or genre of
work (GG)
Alternate
terms: |
edition binding |
|
trade binding |
publisher’s cloth
a large range of book cloth used to
cover cases for publisher’s bindings, since about
1830 in America, see Allen (1976, 1994), Tanselle (1970),
Sadleir (1990) (GG, JC)
publisher’s mark
a mark or device that represents a specific
publisher, just as the printer’s mark or device
identifies a specific printer (GG)
quarter binding, quarter-bound
a binding format where the spine is
covered in one material while almost all of the sides
are covered in another (no corners are covered), e.g.,
quarter-bound leather with paper sides (GG, JC)
quarto
a book format consisting, traditionally,
of a sheet of paper folded twice so that there are 4
leaves and 8 pages; in modern practice, a book size ranging
between 8.5 x 7 and 11 x 15 inches (GG, ED, JC)
Alternate
terms: |
4° |
|
4to |
|
Qto. |
railway edition
a cheap edition of a popular work sold
at bookstalls in railroad stations, often in a small,
pocket-size format (GG)
Alternate
term: |
railway library edition |
raised bands
raised cords that are covered, becoming
an element of the spine (GG, JC)
raised cords
the sewing supports that lay against
the back of the book (GG)
ream
a common quantity of paper sold, consisting
of from 480 to 500 sheets (GG)
rebacked book (re-backed, E.)
a book that has had its original spine
material replaced by the same kind of material or something
else, such as cloth for a leather spine (GG, JC)
recessed cords
cords that are sunken below the plane
of the back by first sawing grooves (usually two or three)
into the back; after sewing, the back is flat; if the
look of raised cords is desired, false cords (or bands)
have to be made up and applied to the back of the hollow
before covering (GG, ED)
recto
1. the right-hand page in a book, always
odd-numbered; front of a leaf
2. the primary side of a single sheet;
the top side of a single sheet of paper (the felt side)
or a piece of parchment or papyrus, whether printed or
written on or not (GG, JC)
Alternate
term: |
obverse |
See also: |
verso |
red under gilt edges
Edges that are “sprayed” with
a red dye before gold leaf is applied; seen most often
in devotional books (GG)
register
1. the list of signature letters, words
or numbers found in the book, usually printed at the
end of the book in early printed books
2. in register: two impressions or images
lying exactly over one another
3. signet; bound-in ribbon bookmark
4. entering a copyright
(GG, ED, JC)
Alternate
terms: |
back-up |
|
register in truth |
reinforced binding
for heavy-use books, e.g., public library,
the joints of a book are strengthened (GG)
remainders
those books from a slow- or non-selling
edition that are sold to a book distributor for sale
at much-reduced prices; any binding placed on a remainder
book is called the remainder binding, which often differs
considerably from the original edition binding (GG)
Alternate
terms: |
auction sales |
|
trade sales |
remboîté, remboîtage
(F.)
the replacement of an original binding
with another, usually more elegant, often for fraudulent
reasons; no English term that is equivalent (GG, JC)
repp finish
wove paper into which is impressed a
ribbed pattern to simulate laid paper; seen in some 1840s
papers (GG, APPA)
ribbon-embossed book-cloth
1835–1842; raised designs made in book-cloth by pressing
the material between male and female dies performed in
a fly embossing press; once embossed, the material was
adhered to case, and lettering and additional stamping
in relief could be performed; patterns seen in ribbon-embossed
cloth usually consisted of flower, leaves, vines, etc.,
often with a fine rib grain pattern background, usually
diagonally oriented; common colors were blue and green,
Allen roan
trade name for a thin, cheap, soft,
nondurable sheepskin that is sumac-tanned, as a cheap
substitute for morocco (ED, GG, JC)
roman
any typeface design that is upright,
as opposed to sloped letter-designs such as italic and
script faces; never capitalized; GG is
erroneous in stating that “roman” does not
pertain to black- or gothic letter style, it does, and
the so-called humanistic
typefaces similar to the one you are reading now is more
properly termed “Roman,” because it was based
on letter forms chiseled into Roman stone monuments (so-called
lapidary letter forms) (GG, PG)
rough calf
rather than the grain side being the
side seen on a binding, the flesh, suede-like side is
out; polished (GG, JC)
Alternate
term: |
reversed
calf |
See also: |
calf |
rough gilt edges
1. gilding the edge(s) before the book
is sewn
2. to emulate deckle edges on machine-made
paper, the fore-edge and tail edge of the book are trimmed
slightly, or roughly opened with a knife, while the top
edge is cut smooth to open the pages; at least the fore-edge
is rough gilt; only the head edge can be burnished (GG, ED, JC)
Alternate
term: |
gilt on the rough |
See also:
|
gilt edges |
roundel
a double-line circle with a center dot
(ED)
rounding
the process preceding backing; after
sewing and pasting-up the back, the book lies flat on
the table and the fore-edge pulled toward the binder
which causes the back to fan forward, coaxed gently by
a backing hammer; this creates a round configuration
to one half of the back, and the procedure is repeated
with the book turned the other way up; thus flexed and
slightly rounded, the book can now be lined (saddleback)
or backed into a permanent concave shape extending to
the outer edge of the boards (GG, ED)
Alternate
term: |
saddleback |
See also:
|
flat back |
rubric, rubricated, rubricator
chapter, section, or other division
title written or printed in red, while the text is in
black (GG, JC)
Alternate
term: |
rubrisher |
rule
strips of brass, type-high, used to
print a single line or a line of a simple pattern, measured
across in points; used for separating contents on a title
page, for example, and for boxes, where the ends are
mitered for a neat corner; if more ornamental and broader,
often referred to as Linotype rule slides or Monotype
dashes (GG, JC)
run-up spine
refers to the spine of a book that has
two parallel lines tooled along the length of the joints
and across the spine, forming panels; done with a two-line
roll and a pallet (GG)
Russia cowhide (russia cowhide, E.)
inferior Russia leather made of cowhide
and given a straight grain; from 1691, other leathers
tanned and impregnated with a phenolic oil distilled
from a European birch to resemble Russia leather (GG)
Alternate
terms: |
American Russia |
|
American russia (E.) |
See also: |
Russia leather |
Russia leather (russia leather, E.)
a reddish-brown calfskin, impregnated
with an aromatic oil distilled from a birch tree, tanned
with willow bark, and dyed with sandalwood; originated
in Russia; popular in England from 1730 to 1840; tends
to dry out and become friable; often tooled or grained
between plates with a diaper or diced pattern (crossed
diagonal lines, forming diamonds) (GG, ED, JC )
saddle-stitching
sewing booklets and pamphlets through
the fold by placing the gatherings over a saddle in a
sewing machine (GG, ED)
scratted paper
splashing small blobs of color onto
paper, like marbling; used for endpapers (GG)
seal grain leather
split sheepskin grained to resemble
seal (GG)
section
1. a gathering with any accompanying
tipped-in plates and other inserts, awaiting collation
and gathering before sewing (GG)
2. see gathering (GG, ED, JC)
Alternate
terms: |
2. gathering |
|
signature |
|
quire |
See also:
|
1.
signature |
self endpapers
endpapers that are the same paper as
the text paper (GG)
Alternate
term: |
self ends (E.) |
self-wrapper
the upper and lower “cover” of
a pamphlet or booklet printed as part of the text (GG)
semis, seme, semé, semée
decoration of randomly sprinkled, small
ornaments; from heraldry; French semer: to sow (GG, ED, JC)
serial
a book published in parts appearing
at regular intervals; often preceding publication in
book form, e.g., many of Dickens’s works were first
read as serials printed in magazines (GG, JC)
series binding
similar bindings issued by a publisher
for a series of works, often related by subject or genre
(GG)
Alternate
term: |
publisher’s
series |
serigraphy
a printing process involving masking
out nonprinting areas on a screen stretched over a frame,
allowing ink to be squeegeed through the open areas onto
the paper below (BG)
shaved edges
edges of book that have been more than
trimmed but not as severely ploughed as in cropping (JC)
side-stitch
with thread or wire, attaching a pamphlet
or book together by working from front to rear, usually
in a series of holes running parallel to the inner margin,
not through the fold(s) (GG)
sides
the outer surfaces of the upper and
lower boards (GG)
signature
1. a printed notation on the first page
of each gathering of a book, either a letter and/or numeral,
usually located in the bottom margin, under the last
line of the text, near the gutter
2. in America, an alternative term for
a gathering, which is preferred to avoid confusing with
1. signature
3. a gathering without any accompanying plates, etc. (GG)
(GG, ED, JC)
Alternate
terms: |
2. gathering |
See also:
|
3. section |
signed binding
the name of the binder either:
1. palleted in gold (or sometimes, blind)
on the inside of the upper cover of a book, usually on
the turn-in
2. palleted in gold (or blind) at the foot of the spine
3. printed a small printed label, called a binder’s
ticket, located on an inside cover (not to be confused
with the bookseller’s ticket)
4. embossed in blind on the front flyleaf;
the latter two falling during the period 1850–1860,
see Allen (RBS Course Timeline) (GG, JC)
signet (F.)
a ribbon, usually silk, incorporated
into the binding and used as a bookmark (GG, ED)
Alternate
terms: |
bookmarker |
|
register |
|
register ribbon bookmark |
silver leaf
silver leaf generally was not used because
of its tendency to tarnish, but can occasionally be found
on books dating in the early 1850s; other white metal
leafs were used including palladium, see Allen (RBS Course
Timeline)
sixteenmo
a book format consisting, traditionally,
of a sheet of paper is folded so that there are 16 leaves
and 32 pages; in modern practice, a book size about 6.75
x 4.5 inches (GG, ED)
Alternate terms: |
16° |
|
16mo |
|
decimosexto |
|
sextodecimo |
See also:
|
format |
sixties book
specifically refers to books whose binding
designs appeared in English trade books of the 1860s
(JC)
size
1. tub-, surface- or external sizing:
gelatin or starch solution applied to dry paper to seal
the surfaces and prevent penetration of inks, etc.
2. internal sizing: rosin soap with
alum added to the beater (or engine, as in engine sizing);
precipitated onto the fibers and set as an adhesive in
the paper when dried over heated drums; provides internal
strength, but paper still needs to be externally sized
for most purposes; very acidic often leading to brittle
paper, especially in presence of large quantities of
lignin found groundwood (mechanical wood) pulp papers
3. a thinned adhesive used to provide tack, e.g., for gold
leaf applications (GG, APPA, ED, JC)
Alternate
term: |
3. pounce |
size staining
compared to foxing, these stains are
larger with amorphous shapes and irregular edges; probably
due to deteriorated sizing in/on the sheet, and/or the
transfer of bad sizing from sheet to sheet during dampening
and letterpress or intaglio printing; exacerbated by
damp and dirty storage conditions (RE)
skewings
excess gold leaf brushed off covers;
collected in a rubbing-off chest or from under slanted
wooden floors and sent off to be refined into gold (GG)
skiver
an nondurable, thin leather used for
the very cheapest of leather bindings, as well as for
labels, etc., of the outer half, grain and flesh sides,
of a split sheepskin, tanned with sumac, and finished
through graining and polishing to resembled better leathers;
used in England from 1768; when worn is difficult to
distinguish skiver from roan (GG, ED, JC)
slipcase (slip case, E.)
a five-sided, protective container with
the front open to slip in a book, spine-side out (GG, ED, JC)
slips
the frayed and splayed ends of cords
before they are adhered to the inside of the covers (GG, ED)
smooth calf
untooled calfskin binding (GG)
smooth-washed cloth
book-cloth that is not grained with
some kind of pattern (GG)
Smyrna morocco
sheepskin grained to resemble morocco
(GG)
Spanish calf
a light-colored calf, ideal for staining
with a brilliant dye, usually in dashes or large flecks
of color (GG, JC)
spine
the outer area of the book that covers
and protects the back; the area that carries the title,
author’s name, etc. and is exposed on the bookshelf;
often shows marked difference in fading and deterioration
because of exposure to air, light, and heat compared
with the rest of the book (GG, ED, JC)
Alternate terms: |
backbone |
|
backstrip |
|
shelfback |
See also:
|
back |
split skin
thick skin, usually from sheep, split
laterally to yield either a thinner outer leather or
parchment with a grain and a flesh side with the other
part discarded, or two skins, one with a grain and a
flesh side, and another with two flesh sides, see Reed
(ED)
sprinkled calf
calfskin that has been decorated by
sprinkling acid on it, often using a bundle of twigs
dipped in the acidic solution; if classical gold tooled
ornaments added, called Etruscan style (GG, ED, JC)
sprinkled edges
usually all three trimmed edges are
sprinkled or splattered with color ink(s) while the book
is clamped tight (ED, JC)
squares
the margins of the book cover that extent
beyond the textblock when the book is closed; this protects
the edges (GG, ED, JC)
stab-sewing, stab-stitching
holes are pierced near the edge of the
back, either for one or a few gatherings, from the front
through to the back, and then fastened with thread; wire-stitching
and stapling in the same manner; the pamphlet or book
cannot open flat; sometimes used as a temporary sewn
fastening of small books before the final binding is
done (GG, ED, JC)
stamping press
later version of arming press; gas-heated
platen to keep stamps at regular temperature for stamping
blind, gold leaf, or inks on book covers (GG)
stereotype
from Greek: solid or fixed type; a relief
printing plate that is used as a substitute for set pages
of moveable type or a block; after the form(s) of type
are set, one of three methods can be used to make the
stereoplate: 1. the form(s) placed in a casting box and
plaster of Paris is poured into it making a mould or
matrix, once dry, the plaster cast shrinks away from
the type enough to remove it and then cast a plate with
molten type metal (lead, tin, antimony); 2. wet papier
mâché is pushed into the set or block within
a frame, then used as a mould for casting a plate; or
3. flong, layers of soft papers, are beaten into the
type or block, dried, and used as a matrix for casting
the plate; papier mâché and flong have the
advantage of being useful for several castings and for
being flexible enough to be cast curved for use on rotary
presses); corrections are made in the plate by drilling
out the offending letter and soldering in the correct
one, usually causing a bold or light letter on printing;
to make the plate useable, the back is filled with type
metal to a predetermined thickness (not usually type
high as this would involve too much metal and render
the plates very heavy, even when cut into individual
pages); experimented with in late 17th c., but not commercially
viable until the early 1800s in England, in America,
by 1813 (GG, JC)
stilted covers
a book bound in taller covers than usual
so it matches height of other books (GG, JC)
straight-grain morocco
goatskin that is wetted and worked with
a ridged board to straighten the grain to run in parallel
lines; about 1766, Roger Payne; until 1810, often dyed
green or red, and after, dark blue or black; coarse version
of this called scored calf (GG, ED, JC)
Alternate
terms: |
boarded leather |
|
English morocco (in France) |
strapwork
intertwined double-tooled lines forming
a geometrical pattern; found on many bindings done for
Jean Grolier (ED)
strawboard
cheap, relatively weak cardboard made
from unbleached straw (thus it has a dark yellow color)
plus other waste fibers; used in cases (GG)
stub
a narrow strip of paper in the gutter
that is either the unused half of a guard, or is created
when an incorrect leaf is cut out (a cancel), and onto
which the correct leaf is tipped; created by cutting
down an unused leaf at the gutter in order to compensate
in thickness for extra material (plates, specimens, etc.)
tipped or mounted onto a text page (GG, JC)
subtitle (sub-title, E.)
the explanatory material, usually set
in small point size, typeface, and/or color, under the
title on the title page (GG, JC)
super
a starched and glazed, loosely woven
cotton fabric, similar to cambric, used as a lining for
the back of a book; the extensions of the fabric beyond
the back are adhered to the inside of the covers in cased
books and can often be seen and felt under the pastedown
(GG, ED)
Alternate terms: |
crash |
|
Jaconet |
|
mull |
|
scrim |
supported-sewing
sewing on supports such as cords, tapes,
or thongs (ED)
Alternate
terms: |
bound book |
|
laced-in boards |
supralibros
the owner’s name, coat-of-arms,
initials, or monogram stamped or tooled onto the cover
(or spine?) (GG, ED)
Alternate
term: |
personal bindings |
table book
elaborated decorated trade binding,
meant to be placed face-up on a table; popular in America
in the 1850s (GG)
Alternate
term: |
coffee-table book |
tail
refers to the bottom of the cover, the
lower edge, or the lower margin on a page; opposite the
head (GG, ED, JC)
Alternate
term: |
foot |
See also:
|
head |
tailband (tail-band, E.)
a “headband” at the tail
of the book; often the term, headbands, refer to both
head- and tailbands (GG, ED, JC)
Alternate
term: |
bottomband |
See also:
|
headband |
tapes
woven strips of cloth, between 1/4 and
1/2 wide, used as sewing supports (GG)
tawing
treating animal skins with alum and
salts of iron or chromium; skins are white and supple;
alum-tawed pigskin used on heavy books, and also as thongs
for sewing supports, ties, etc. (GG)
Alternate terms: |
alum-tawed |
|
Hungarian leather |
|
whittawing |
See also: |
leather |
|
parchment |
textblock
the whole of the printed matter plus
any endpapers after folding and collating and after sewing
(JC)
text illustration
illustrations printed within the text
as opposed to separately printed plates (GG)
thirtysixmo
a book format consisting, traditionally,
of a sheet of paper cut, folded, and inset into a gathering
of 36 leaves and 72 pages; in modern practice, a book
size ranging from 4 x 3.25 and 4.75 x 3 inches (GG)
Alternate
terms: |
36° |
|
36mo |
thirtytwomo
a book format consisting, traditionally,
of a sheet of paper cut, folded, and inset into a gathering
so that there are 32 leaves and 64 pages; in modern practice,
a book size around 4.75 x 3 inches (GG)
Alternate
terms: |
32° |
|
32mo |
|
trigesimo-secondo |
thongs
strips of leather, especially alum-tawed
pigskin, or vellum used as sewing supports or as ties
(GG)
three-decker
usually a novel that is originally issued
in three octavo volumes, often with paper-covered boards
and paper labels on the spine; heyday was between 1850
and 1870, and these had better binding in cloth and with
gold stamping; relatively expensive per volume (GG, JC)
Alternate
term: |
triple-decker |
three-quarter binding, three-quarter-bound
a binding format where the spine and
a larger proportion of the sides are covered with one
material, while a second material covers the remaining
side area; when the whole of the spine and large corners
are covered in one material, while the sides are covered
in a second, in about a 3:1 ratio; three-quarter-bound
in calf with marbled paper sides (GG, ED, JC)
ties
tapes, thongs, ribbon, or similar material
secured to the outside covers, usually three (top, fore-edge,
and tail); used to keep the book (or portfolio) closed
(GG, JC)
tight back
a book structure whereby the covering
material is adhered directly to the back; disadvantage
is that the covering material tends to wrinkle and crack
compared to the hollow back (GG)
tipped in, tipped on
instead of being sewn or stitched into
the book, a plate, illustration, page, endpaper, etc.,
is either adhered to a guard, stub, or onto a page; in
the latter, the extra material can be pasted along at
the gutter (tipped-in) or elsewhere on a page (tipped-on)
(GG, ED, JC)
Alternate
terms: |
paste-in |
|
paste-on |
title page (E. title-page)
the page carrying the essential information
about the book including the title, subtitle, author,
credentials, publisher’s mark, publisher’s
name, address(es), date (GG, JC)
top edge gilt (t.e.g.)
only the top or head edge is gilt; the
fore-edge and tail edge left plain (GG, JC)
trade binding
1. to refer generally to books bound
for the trade, e.g., a bookseller, rather than for a
specific person, and not proscribed in any way by the
publisher or printer
2. in England from 15th through 18th
c., said of a binding in sheep or plain calf, only rarely
lettered on the spine
3. current usage: synonymous for publisher’s
binding, edition binding (GG, JC)
tree calf
calfskin is adhered to the boards, but
turn-in are left free; the spine of the book is covered
to protect it from the treatment that the outside of
the upper and lower covers will receive; with the inverted
book clamped at an inclined angle, water is applied to
run from the “top” to the bottom, forming
a tree trunk and branches (or in other cases, wood grain
as in veneer); when ready, a solution of copperas (ferrous
sulfate) and salts of tartar (pearl ash?) are alternatively
thrown on the cover; where they react with the wet leather,
a dark gray or black staining results (this actually
forms a kind of acidic iron gall ink); the covers are
rinsed and pressed dry; highly polished; the stain is
permanent, and it also tends to deteriorate the leather;
appeared in England in about 1775, John Baumgarten (GG, ED, JC)
trimmed flush
the covers are cut flush to the page
edges after boards are attached (GG)
Alternate
term: |
cut flush |
See also:
|
squares |
trimming
process of cutting edge(s) down until
most leaves are of even width from the back and the book
is open, i.e., the top and fore-edge folds are cut off;
first done by hand with a plough and later on the guillotine;
sometimes cut means cut smooth, while trimming implies
a rough leveling (GG, ED, JC)
Turkey leather, Turkey (turkey, E.)
originally a goatskin treated with oil
before dehairing and then stained a distinctive red before
sumac tanning; imported from Turkey to Venice in early
16th c.; in later centuries, goatskin leathers that looked
like the original that came from the Levant (GG, JC)
turn-ins
the excess covering material beyond
the edges of the boards that are lapped-over the board
edges and adhered to the inside of the covers at the
edges; the corners are cut back in such a way that they
form a butt joint and a mitered corner on the inside
cover (GG, ED)
twentyfourmo
a book format consisting, traditionally,
of a sheet of paper cut, folded, and inset into a gathering
of 24 leaves and 48 pages; in modern practice, a book
size of about 5.5 x 3.75 inches (GG)
Alternate
terms: |
24° |
|
24mo |
|
vigesimo-quarto |
type
pieces of metal cast from a matrix on
the face of which appears a letter, mark, decoration
in reverse; when set and locked up in a form, the surface
of all of these pieces are inked and an impression from
them made when paper is pressed down onto them; each
letter, etc., that appears on the face of a piece of
type (sort, character) is first engraved and filed into
the face of a bar of tool steel, the punch; when completed,
the punch is first hardened then tempered so that it
can be struck into a bar of copper, which becomes the
matrix; once justified, the matrix can be inserted into
a hand mould and many pieces of type cast from it; type
comes in many different sizes (points) and designs; until
the end of the 19th c., type was made primarily be hand
until this was supplanted by Linotype and Monotype machine-cast
type (GG, PG)
Alternate
terms: |
character |
|
sort |
|
stamp (E.) |
type family
all the roman, italic, bold, semi-bold,
small capitals, and display characters that form a family
of the same typeface, such as Baskerville and Bodoni
(GG, PG)
type ornaments
so-called flowers, geometric decorations,
dashes, initials, corners, etc., cast into pieces of
type (GG, ED)
typeface (E. type face)
the specific shape and form of each
letter, lower- and uppercase, as well as the numerals,
punctuation marks, etc., that is found in a font of type
and in a variety of point sizes, drawn and/or cut by
the type designer (PG)
Alternate
term: |
face |
See also:
|
point |
uncut
a book whose pages are not open because
the folds at the top and/or fore-edge were not trimmed
or cut (GG, JC)
Alternate
term: |
unopened |
|
untouched edges |
vellum
an especially fine grade of parchment;
often the skin of a young animal (occasionally, uterine)
such as calf, kid, or lamb, see Reed (1972); thin and
finely grained and used for small quality books, either
as the pages or cover (GG, ED, JC)
vellum corner
for a half-binding where there are no
corners, they are covered with a piece of vellum, leather,
or cloth just at the tips and turned back to the inside;
except in French corners, these tips show when the sides
are covered (ED)
verso
1. the left-hand page in a book, always
even-numbered; the reverse or back side of a leaf
2. the secondary side of a single sheet;
the bottom side of a single sheet of paper (the wire
side) or a piece of parchment or papyrus, whether printed
or written on or not (GG, JC)
Alternate
term: |
reverse |
See also:
|
recto |
vignette
1. an ornament or small design or illustration
found on a title page, or over the chapter title (headpiece)
or under the text at the end of a chapter or part of
a book (tailpiece)
2. a text illustration that has no border
surrounding it (GG, JC)
wallet-edged
a limp-bound book that features a flap
at the fore-edge that extends from the edge of the lower
cover onto the upper cover where it fastens into a slot
(GG)
warping
a distortion in the covers of a book,
usually caused by uneven tension on one side of the board(s)
making the cover(s) either concave or convex, due to
incompatible materials, poor technique, inadequate pressing,
and/or climatic changes (GG, ED)
watered silk
silk that is calendered to give it a
watery look; a wavy, damask-like appearance; a material
often used for doublures (GG)
watermark
usually an image or design (as opposed
to a countermark made-up of words and dates) formed in
paper made from contact with a watermark sewn or soldered
onto the wire cover of a hand papermaking mould; as the
mould watermark is raised above the surface of the cover,
the fibers are less dense in this area in the paper,
and so paper watermarks are seen in transmitted light
as lighter areas compared to the rest of the sheet; mould
watermarks can be made of wire sewn onto the cover or
cut from sheet metal and soldered in place; on the cylinder
papermachine, the watermarks are soldered onto the cover;
in fourdrinier papers, the water is impressed into the
wet sheet, and merely pushes fibers aside, thus a dark
ridge can be seen in transmitted light around the edges
of letter or image, not a true watermark (DH)
white lead
basic lead carbonate was a common white
pigment used alone or in combination with other colors
in coated papers; upon exposure to acids (from the leather
turn-in or the adhesive) or gaseous pollutants, the white
lead turns to lead sulfide which can be a mottled orange,
gray, or black discoloration, often resembling mold growth
(GS)
Alternate
term: |
flake white |
wire stitching
1870s, August Brehmer, American, wire
stitching machine; wire staples inserted either through
the fold in a single-signature pamphlet, or stab- (side-)
stitched or stapled through multi-signatures book parallel
to the back and usually from front to the back of textblock
with or without wrapper or cover (GG)
Alternate
terms: |
staple |
|
wire stabbing |
|
wire stapling |
wood engraving
a relief block and print; design/picture
is made by removing the image lines with a graver on
a piece of endgrain boxwood or other close-grained wood;
other tools are used to clear larger areas of white;
generally, white line/areas on a black background; as
the endgrain blocks are necessarily small in size, larger
images are made by gluing up several smaller units to
make a composite block; Thomas Bewick (pronounced, Buick),
English, credited with its revival in late 18th c. (BG)
woodcut
a relief block and print; the image
is made by removing the white areas with carving tools,
knives and gouges, in a plank piece of wood; the surface
is inked up and the image printed onto paper under pressure;
compared to wood engravings and intaglio prints, the
quality of line in woodcuts is somewhat cruder; a black
line on a white background (BG)
wove paper
paper formed on a hand papermaking mould
where the wire cover is woven as in a plain textile weave
and there is underneath a second, more-coarsely woven
wire cloth; these two wire cloths are attached with thin
wire to the ribs underneath; as the watery pulp is no
longer attracted to the latter areas, there is no difference
in pulp accumulation; the paper is more evenly dense
across its surfaces and no dark shadows can be seen in
transmitted light (DH)
wrapper
a paper cover (plain, printed, or marbled)
sewn along with the pamphlet; paper cover adhered to
the back as a temporary binding (GG, JC)
yapp, yapp edges, Yapp
Yapp was a London bookseller, credited
with inventing this technique about 1860; usually limp
leather binding edges (upper and lower covers) allowed
to flop over half the depth of the textblock to protect
same; not to be confused with the overhanging edges on
much earlier limp vellum bindings; very popular on Roycroft
Shop binding in ooze leather at the turn of the 20th
c. (GG, JC)
yawning boards
covers that curve away from the book
(ED)
|