The Story of Books

About the time of the invention of printing, leather bindings began to be decorated with gold tooling. Tooling is the name given to the designs impressed upon the leather with various small dies so manipulated as to make a connected pattern. When the impressions are gilded the dull leather is brightened and beautified in proportion to the skill and taste expended by the workman. The art of gold tooling is believed to have originated in the East, and to have been brought to Italy by Venetian traders, or, as it has also been suggested, through the manuscripts which were dispersed at the fall of Constantinople. In any case, it was in Italy that it was first adopted and brought to perfection, and other European countries learned the art from Italian craftsmen. Chief among the early Italian gilt bindings are those made of the finest leathers and inscribed THO. MAIOLI ET AMICORVM. Nothing whatever is known of Thomasso Maioli, except that he had a large library and spared no expense in clothing his books in bibliopegic purple and fine linen.

What Maioli appears to have been among Italian book-collectors, Jean Grolier, Vicomte d'Aguisy, was among French bibliophiles. He held for a time the post of Treasurer of the Duchy of Milan, and while in Italy he collected books for his library and made the acquaintance of Aldus Manutius. Many of the Aldine books are dedicated to him, for Aldus occasionally stood in need of financial aid and found in Grolier a generous and practical patron of literature. Some of the famous bindings which distinguish Grolier's books were executed in Italy, others in France, where Italian bookbinders were then teaching their art to the native workmen. They display the same style of design that decorates the books of Maioli, and Maioli's benevolent inscription too, Grolier adapted to his own use, and stamped upon certain of his books IO. GROLIERII ET AMICORVM. The exact signification of these words is obscure. At first sight they might appear to refer delicately to the joy with which the owner of the book would place it at the disposal of his friends, but this does not accord with what is known of the character of book-lovers. Perhaps their only meaning is that Maioli and Grolier were at all times ready to please their friends and to gratify themselves by exhibiting their treasures. But since several copies of the same work are known to have been bound for Grolier—for instance, five copies of the Aldine Virgil—it has been suggested that he occasionally made presents of his books, though he drew the line at lending them.

Grolier's copy of the De Medicina of Celsus, which is in the British Museum, is bound in a somewhat different style from that usually associated with his name. It is in brown leather; blind-tooled except for some gold and coloured roundels in different parts of the device. In the centre of both covers is a medallion in colours, that on the upper cover representing Curtius leaping into the abyss in the Forum, and that on the lower cover representing the defence of the bridge by Horatius. This is an Italian binding.

Although it was Italy who first improved upon the usual methods of mediæval binding, and from her that France took lessons in this new and better way of clothing books, it was France who was destined to bring the art to its highest excellence. Having learned her lesson, she perfected herself in it, and the workmen of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as Geoffroy Tory, Nicholas, Clovis, and Robert Eve, and Le Gascon, carried French bookbinding into the very first rank, where it may be considered to remain to this day.

Some of the finest French examples extant are those which were executed for Henry II. and Diana of Poitiers, Duchess of Valentinois. Both were ardent bibliophiles, and both indulged in very sumptuous bindings for their books. Some of the chief treasures in our great libraries to-day are the beautiful volumes which Henry presented to the duchess, and which are ornamented with the royal lilies of France, accompanied by the bows and arrows and crescents which were Diana's own badges and the initials of the king and the duchess.

Catherine de Medicis also was an enthusiastic book collector, which may surprise those who think that a person who is devoted to books is necessarily harmless. Some of her books she brought to France as part of her dowry, others she acquired by fair means or foul as was most convenient, and to their bindings she paid particular attention and kept a staff of bookbinders in her employ.

To such a pitch of extravagance did the bibliophiles of the period go in the binding of their books, that in 1583 Henry III. of France decreed that ordinary citizens should not use more than four diamonds to the decoration of one book, and the nobility not more than five. The king himself, however, was as extravagant as any of his subjects, at any rate as regards the designs he favoured. Many of his books are clad in black morocco, bearing representations of skulls, cross-bones, tears, and other melancholy emblems. He developed his taste for these strange decorations, it is said, when, as Duke of Anjou, he loved and lost Mary of Clèves.

The early printers at first executed their own bookbinding, but presently left it to the stationers. It was generally only the larger works which they thought worth covering, and the small ones were simply stitched. Antony Koburger, of whom mention has already been made, bound his own books and ornamented them in a style peculiarly his own. Caxton bound his according to the prevailing fashion, with leather sides, plain or blind-tooled with diagonal lines, forming diamond-shaped compartments in each of which is stamped a species of dragon.

About the sixteenth century it became fashionable to have one's books

as a writer of the time expresses it, and this style naturally lent itself to the needleworked decoration. This decoration was especially favoured in England, and the ladies of the period executed some very fine pieces of embroidery as “pleasant covertures” for their books, using coloured silks and gold and silver thread on velvet or other material. One of the earliest embroidered bindings covers a description of the Holy Land, written by Martin Brion, and dedicated to Henry VIII. It is of crimson velvet, with the English arms enclosed in the Garter, between two H's, and the Tudor rose in each corner, and it is worked in silks, gold thread, and seed pearls. Queen Elizabeth is said to have preferred embroidered bindings to those of leather, and to have been very skilful in working them. The copy of De Antiquitate Britannicæ Ecclesiæ, which the author, Archbishop Parker, presented to the Queen, has a cover which is very elaborately embroidered indeed. It is of contemporary English work, and is thus described in the British Museum Guide to the Printed Books exhibited in the King's Library:—

“Green velvet, having as a border a representation of the paling of a deer park, embroidered in gold and silver thread; the border on the upper cover enclosing a rose bush bearing red and white roses, surrounded by various other flowers, and by deer; the lower cover has a similar border, but contains deer, snakes, plants and flowers; the whole being executed in gold and silver thread and coloured silks. On the back are embroidered red and white roses.” Embroidered bindings remained in fashion during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and plain velvet, too, was often used, sometimes with gold or silver mounts.

The old Royal Library, which was given to the nation by George II., contains a large number of sumptuous bookbindings; and that our Sovereigns were not unmindful of the welfare of their literary treasures may also be gathered from various entries in the Wardrobe Books and from other documents. Thus, we read that Edward IV. paid Alice Clavers, “for the makyng of xvj. laces and xvj. tassels for the garnysshing of divers of the kinge's bookes ijs. viijd.”; and “Piers Bauduyn, stacioner, for bynding gilding and dressing of a booke called Titus Livius xxs., for binding gilding and dressing of a booke of the The Holy Trinity xvjs.,” and so on. Again, in the bill delivered to Henry VIII. by Thomas Berthelet, his majesty's printer and binder, are found such entries as these:—

“Item delyvered to the kinge's highnes the vj. day of January a Psalter in englische and latine covered with crimoysyn satyne, 2s.”

“Item delyvered to the kinge's hyghnes for a little Psalter, takyng out of one booke and settyng in an other in the same place, and for gorgeous binding of the same booke xijd.; and to the Goldesmythe for taking off the claspes and corners and for setting on the same ageyne xvjd.”

Among the various styles which may be classed as fancy bindings may be instanced the seventeenth century tortoise-shell covers with silver mounts and ornaments, which have a very handsome effect, and the mosaic decoration of the same period. This mosaic decoration was made by inlaying minute pieces of differently coloured leathers, and finishing them with gold tooling. It was work which called for great dexterity in manipulation, and in skilful hands the result was very pretty and graceful.

Even from this slight sketch it will be seen that bookbindings have always presented unlimited opportunities for originality on the part of the worker, as regards both design and material. Wood and leather, gold and silver, ivory and precious stones, coloured enamels, impressed papier-mâché, gold-tooled leather and embroidered fabric, pasteboard and parchment, have all been pressed into the service, and the subject of bookbindings is a fascinating branch of book history. But from their nature bindings are difficult to describe in an interesting manner, and words can hardly do justice to them without the aid of facsimile illustrations.

The ordinary bindings of to-day are practically confined to two styles, the cloth and the leather, and those combinations of leather and cloth or leather and paper which make the covers of half-bound and quarter-bound volumes. Cloth binding, the binding of the nineteenth century, is an English invention, and came into use in 1823. On the Continent books are still issued in paper covers and badly stitched, on the assumption that if worth binding at all, they will be bound by the purchaser as he pleases. But although the English commercial cloth binding is often charged for far too highly, no one can deny its convenience, and its superiority over the paper undress of foreign works. Moreover, it is the homely, everyday garb of the great majority of our favourite volumes, and though, no doubt, it is delightful to possess books sumptuously bound, book-lovers of less ambition, or of lighter purses than those who can command such luxuries, are not very much to be pitied. There is something characteristic about a book in a cloth cover which it loses when it dons the livery of its owner's library. Cloth is not only more varied in texture, but admits of greater freedom and variety of design than does leather, so there is something to be said in its favour in spite of the contention that direct handicraft is preferable to handicraft which works through a machine, and that one of a batch of bindings printed by the thousand is not to be compared with a single specimen of tooled leather which has cost a pair of human hands hours of careful toil. The little libraries with which so many of us have to be contented owe their bright and cheerful appearance to the cloth covers of the books, in which each book stands out with modest directness, wearing its individuality instead of losing it in a crowd of neighbours dressed exactly like itself. In a series uniformly bound, however, a family likeness is not only admissible, but pleasing. It gives an idea of unison among, perhaps, widely differing individuals. But the unison which is becoming to a family makes a community monotonous.

On the other hand, something stronger than cloth is necessary when books are to be subjected to special wear and tear, and desirable when a volume is to be particularly honoured or when the library it is to enter is large and important. Protection is the first purpose of a binding, and endurance its first quality, and the experience of centuries has shown that the walls in the fairy-tale were right when they said,

In which, perhaps, the book-lover will see a parable. For, after all, the book is the thing, and the cover a mere circumstance, and those who wish to make books merely pegs to hang bindings upon deserve to have no books at all. Yet it is right that though the binding should not be raised above the book, it should be worthy of the book, and much of the cheap and good literature which is now within the reach of all who care to stretch out their hands for it, is clothed in a manner to which no exception can be taken on any score. Those who have not realised how charming some of the modern bookbindings can be, should consult the winter number of The Studio for 1899–1900.

CHAPTER XV

HOW A MODERN BOOK IS PRODUCED

A description of the methods by which a modern book is produced has to begin at the second stage of the proceedings. The processes of the first stage, including the writing of the book and the arrangements between the publisher and the author, differ, of course, in individual cases. The processes of the second stage, however, are common to a large proportion of the books produced at the present day, though it will be easily understood that they can be dealt with but summarily in this chapter, and that as regards detail much variation is possible.

The second stage in the history of a modern book may be said to begin with the overhauling which the manuscript receives at the hands of the printer's “Reader,” who goes over it with the view of instructing the compositor regarding capitals, punctuation, chapter headings and other details. Although these are considered minor and merely clerical details which are frequently neglected or misused in writing, it is essential that they be carefully attended to in print. Many examples can be given of amusing misprints and alterations of meaning caused by even such a trifle as the misplacing of a comma. When this overhauling is completed the manuscript is ready to be sent to the composing room where the types are set up.

From experience the printer knows that many authors get a different impression of what they have written when they see it in type from what they had when they read it in manuscript, and it frequently happens that alterations on proof are very numerous in consequence. When either from this or any other cause numerous alterations are anticipated, the matter is first set up in long slips called “galleys,” and not put at once into page form. As soon as a few of those galleys are composed an impression called a “proof” is taken from the types so set, and this proof is passed to a reader whose duty is to see that a correct copy is made of the manuscript, and that the spelling is accurate and the punctuation good. This is a work commanding considerable intelligence and experience, as the number of types required for a printed page is very great, and even the most expert compositor cannot avoid mistakes. This marked proof is returned to the compositor to make the necessary corrections. Fresh proofs are got till no further errors are detected, when a final proof is pulled and sent to the author, who makes such alterations as he may desire.

When the corrected proofs are returned by the author they are given to the compositor, who makes the required alterations in the type. After this a revised proof is submitted. When the author is satisfied that the reading is as he wishes he returns the proofs, and the galleys are now made into page form. If it is not expected that the author will make many changes the types are arranged in page shape before any proofs are shown to him, and the work goes through somewhat more quickly.

When the types are divided into pages they are placed in sets or “formes,” each forme being secured in an iron frame called a “chase,” which can be conveniently moved about. Each chase is of a size to enclose as many pages as will cover one side of the sheet of paper to be used in printing. Fifty years ago only one or two sizes of paper were made, and the size of sheet generally used for books was that which allowed eight pages of library size on one side, hence called “octavo” size, or when folded another way allowed twelve pages, hence “twelvemo” or “duodecimo.” Other sizes occasionally used are called “sixteenmo” or “sextodecimo,” “eighteenmo” or “octodecimo,” etc.

With larger sized printing machines now driven by steam or electricity, there is greater variety in the size of formes and papers used in printing. In all cases, however, the number of pages laid down for one side of paper must divide by four. The pages are set in the chase in special positions, so that when the sheet is printed on both sides and folded over and over for binding they will appear in proper sequence.

When only a small edition of a book is wanted the printing is generally done direct from the types, but when a large number of copies is required or frequent editions are expected, stereotype or electrotype plates are made. By this means the types are released for further use and other advantages obtained.

Stereotype plates are cakes of white metal carrying merely the face of the types, and were formerly made by taking from the types a mould of plaster of Paris. They are now formed by beating or pressing a prepared pulp of papier-mâché into the face of the lettering. The mould thus obtained is dried and hardened by heat, then molten metal is run into it of requisite thickness. This plate after being properly dressed is fitted on a block equal in height to the type stem, and takes the place in the frame or chase that would have been occupied by the types.

The process of stereotyping is fairly quick and economical, but electrotypes are better suited for higher class work and are much more durable. In this process an impression is taken from the type on a surface of wax heated to the necessary degree of plasticity. When the wax mould has cooled and hardened it is placed in a galvanic current, where a thin coat of copper is deposited on its face. This coat is then detached from the mould and backed with white metal to give it the requisite body and stiffness and the electrotype is now, like the stereotype, a metal plate which can be fixed on a block and secured in a frame ready for the printing machine.

It is outside the scope of this work to describe minutely the marvellous machinery used in printing. It is interesting to know that the first printers had no machine but a screw handpress by which they laboriously worked off their books page by page, and that even so late as the middle of the nineteenth century all books with scarcely an exception were printed at handpresses which enabled two men to throw off about two hundred and fifty copies of a comparatively small-sized sheet in the hour. Now the machines commonly in use, attended by only a man and a lad, throw off from a thousand to fifteen hundred copies in an hour of a sheet four or even eight times the old size.

Books are almost universally printed on what is called the flat-bed machine, so-called because the types or plates are placed on an iron table which with them travels to and fro under a series of revolving rollers constantly being fed with a supply of ink which they transfer to the types or plates. Immediately these get beyond the inking rollers they pass under a revolving cylinder with a set of grippers attached, which open and shut with each revolution. These grippers take hold of the sheet of paper and carry it round with the cylinder. When it comes in contact with the types or plates travelling underneath, the impression or print is made. Some machines complete the printing of the sheet on both sides at one operation. In others the sheet is reversed and is printed on the other side by passing through a second time. In either case the sheet forms only a section of a book; the complete volume is made up of a number of these sections, folded and collated in proper order in the bindery. There they are sewn together and fixed in the case or cover.

For illustrated books the pictures were formerly produced by engraving on wood, but they are now chiefly photographed from the artist's drawing on a light sensitive film spread on a metal plate, and etched in by acids. In whatever way produced, when printed with the text they are always relief blocks which are placed in proper position in the chase alongside the types or plates. Coloured illustrations are produced by successive printings. Special illustrations are frequently produced separately by other processes and inserted in the volume by the binder.

Machines of a different construction, such as the rotary press, and capable of a very much higher rate of production, are in use for printing newspapers and periodicals with a large circulation, but these do not properly come into consideration when telling how a modern book is made.

[The above chapter has been kindly contributed by the printers of this volume.

G. B. R.]

AUTHOR'S POSTSCRIPT.

In our endeavour to note the chief points in the history of books, and in considering the manifold interests which are bound up with their bodies, we have had to neglect their minds. To have tried even to touch upon the vast subject of literature in our story would have been as futile as an attempt to transport the ocean in a thimble. For literature consists of all that is transferable of human knowledge and experience, all that is expressible of human thought on whatever matter in heaven or earth has been dreamed of in man's philosophy. And though our aggregate of knowledge be small, it is vastly beyond the comprehension of one individual being.

Of the influence of books, and their manifold uses, also, this is not the place to speak. Moreover, even had the theme been unheeded by abler pens, no one who loves books needs to be told to how many magic portals they are the keys, while he who loves them not would not understand for all the telling in the world.

A.

• Aberdeen Breviary, 133–135.
• Advertisements, early booksellers', 105.
• Alcuin, 63, 64.
• Aldus Manutius, 104, 113, 115, 151.
• Aleria, Bp. of, 104.
• Alexandria, 16, 30–32.
• Alost, 117.
• Alphabet, the, 10.
• Amsterdam, 118.
• Antiquarii, 49.
• Antwerp, 144.
• Arabs, the, 13.
• Assyria, 12, 14, 30.
• Assyrians, 11.
• Augsburg, 104.
• Aungervyle, R. (see Richard de Bury).
• Ave Maria Lane, 52.
• Avignon, 85.

B.

• Babylonia, 12, 30, 145.
• Babylonians, 11.
• Bamberg, 75, 94, 103.
• Basle, 104.
• Benedict Biscop, 63.
• Beowulf, 24.
• Berthelet, Thomas, 156.
• Bible, the, 17.
• —— Mazarin or Gutenberg, 94–100.
• —— thirty-six-line, 97.
• —— Mentz, 1462, 102.
• Biblia Pauperum, 74–77, 89.
• Bibliothèque Nationale, 67, 68.
• Bindings, 144, 159.
• Block-books, 73, 80.
• Block-printing, 71.
• Bonhomme, Pasquier, 116.
• Book of Durrow, 39.
• —— Kells, 39–41.
• —— St Albans, 25, 128, 131.
• —— St Cuthbert (see Lindisfarne Gospels).
• Book, production of modern, 159.
• Bookbinding, 144–159.
• Books, adventures of, 144.
• —— beginning of, 10.
• —— chained, 58, 69, 70.
• —— heretical, 22.
• —— in classical times, 26.
• —— in monasteries, 21–24, 47, 145.
• —— not to be destroyed, 22.
• —— ornamenting of, 37.
• —— prices of, 50, 53.
• —— sizes of, 161.
• Booksellers, 28, 29, 51–54.
• Bordesley Abbey, 68.
• Breslau, 104.
• Brethren of the Common Life, 117.
• Breviary, Aberdeen, 133–135.
• Bruges, 52, 104, 116, 117, 119–122.
• Brussels, 117.
• “Brussels” Print, 73.
• Byzantium, 18, 34.

C.

• Caedmon, 24.
• Cambridge, 58, 130, 139, 145.
• Campanus, 104, 108.
• Canterbury, 45, 61, 63.
• Carrells, 57.
• Carswell's Prayer-book, 137.
• Catalogues, early booksellers', 105.
• —— monastic library, 59–61.
• Catechism, Irish Alphabet and, 137, 139–144.
• Caxton, 85, 105–107, 116–126, 128, 154.
• Censorship, Ecclesiastical, 54, 55.
• —— University, 54.
• Chelsea, 70.
• Chepman, Walter, 133.
• China, 14, 71, 81.
• Clairvaux Abbey, 57.
• Clement of Padua, 110, 111.
• Clugni, Abbey of, 60.
• Cologne, 103, 104, 121.
• Colophons, 108.
• Copyists, 27, 28, 31, 32, 49, 51, 52.
• Copyright, 28.
• Corvey, Abbot of, 65.
• Coster, Laurenz, 80, 82–89.
• Cranz, Martin, 115.
• Creed Lane, 53.
• Cumhdachs, 146, 147.

D.

• Davidson, Thomas, 135.
• Dictes or Sayengis, 122, 126.
• Diemudis, 49.
• Donatus, 78, 79, 112.
• Dorchester, 50.
• Dublin, 109, 137–139, 141, 146.
• Durham, 45, 61, 148.

E.

• Edinburgh, 109, 110, 131, 133, 135, 137, 138.
• Egypt, 12, 14, 18, 20, 21, 29–31, 71.
• Electrotype plates, printing from, 162.
• Elizabeth, Queen, 125, 141, 142, 154.
• Elzevirs, the, 117, 118.
• England, 23, 36, 104, 106, 118.

F.

• Faust or Fust, 88, 92, 93, 100, 102, 103.
• Fichet, Guillaume, 115.
• Florence, 104.
• Fountains Abbey, 57.
• France, 23, 77, 78, 104, 115, 131, 133, 151, 152.
• Friburger, Michael, 115.

G.

• Game and Playe of the Chesse, 122, 124.
• Gering, Ulric, 115.
• Germany, 23, 65, 72, 77, 83, 104, 106, 116.
• Glastonbury Abbey, 60.
• Gloucester, 58.
• Greece, 12, 14, 15, 18, 19, 23, 30.
• Greeks, the, 11.
• Grolier, Jean, 151, 152.
• Guild of St John the Evangelist, 52.
• Gutenberg, 82–85, 89–92, 101, 102.

H.

• Haarlem, 80–82, 85–87, 116.
• Hahn, Ulric, 104, 108, 109, 112.
• Herculaneum, 18.
• Hereford Cathedral, 70.
• Holborn, 128, 138.
• Holland, 75, 77, 80, 83, 89, 104, 116, 119, 128, 131.
• Hostingue, Laurence, 131, 132.

I.

• Illuminators, 49, 51, 52.
• Ireland, 36, 38, 104, 138, 146.
• Irish Alphabet and Catechism, 137, 139, 143.
• Italy, 22, 23, 36, 77, 104, 106, 110, 111, 113, 150, 151.
• Italic type, 114.

J.

• Japan, 71, 81.
• Jenson, Nicolas, 107, 113, 130.
• Junius, Hadrian, 88.

K.

• Kelmscott press, 80.
• Ketelaer, Nycolaum, 116.
• Kirkstall Abbey, 57.
• Klosterneuburg, 75.
• Koburger, Antony, 106, 154.

L.

• Lanfranc, 47.
• Latin document, earliest, 15.
• Latin names of towns, 109.
• Leempt, Gerard de, 116.
• Lettou, John, 126.
• Leicester, 61.
• Lekprevik, Roibeard, 137, 138.
• Leland, 61.
• Leyden, 118.
• Libraries, ancient, 28–36.
• —— collegiate, 58.
• —— monastic, 56–65.
• Librarii, 16, 49.
• Lignamine, J. P. de, 111.
• Lindisfarne Gospels, 42–45, 147.
• Lincoln Cathedral, 143, 144.
• Literature, Anglo-Saxon, 24.
• —— beginning of, 13.
• —— of Greece, 14, 15, 19.
• Literatures, antique, 14.
• London, 51, 52, 54, 104, 109, 110, 120, 127, 148.
• Louvain, 117, 118, 144.
• Lubeck, 104.
• Lyons, 104, 115.

M.

• Machlinia, William de, 109, 128.
• Maioli, Thomasso, 151, 152.
• Mansion, Colard, 116, 117, 121, 122.
• Manuscript, oldest Biblical, 17.
• —— oldest Homeric, 17.
• —— oldest New Testament, 18, 20.
• Manuscripts, Arabic, 21.
• —— Arabic-Spanish, 56.
• —— Byzantine, 37.
• —— Classical, 17, 20.
• —— Coptic, 21.
• —— of Four Gospels, 19.
• —— Greek, 14, 15, 18.
• —— Hiberno-Saxon, 43.
• —— Illuminated, 36–46.
• —— Irish, 37, 39–41, 44.
• —— Italian, 37.
• —— Moorish, 56.
• —— printed illustrations in, 73.
• —— Syriac, 21.
• —— Winchester, 45.
• —— of Virgil, 19.
• Marienthal, 117.
• Mentelin, John, 105.
• Mentz, 82, 87, 88, 90, 92, 93, 96–98, 100, 101, 109, 117, 121.
• Monasteries, books in, 21–24, 145, 146.
• Monastic writing, 15, 19, 21, 22, 24, 46, 47, 49.
• Morris, William, 80.
• Musical notes printed, 103, 128.
• Myllar, Andrew, 131–135.