Medieval manuscripts binding clasps1/8/2024 Up to the 16th century, because books were usually kept flat, it was a usual practice to decorate or write the book title on the edges. Later in history, various decorations were invented to make books valuable cultural treasures. ![]() In later centuries, however, leather use became limited to a certain part of books ( for example, "quarter bindings" used leather only for the spine and a small part of the sides, and "half bindings" used leather only for the spine and the four corners of the covers). When the raised band joined with the covers got covered with leather, a book as a structure was completed. ![]() In this case, because the cover was light, some books had ties attached, instead of clasps, on the fore-edge side of the cover to fasten front and back covers. In the 16th century, the bookbinding technique called "limp," which used thin covers made only of vellum, also came into use. In the early 16th century, they started to make cover cores with millboards, which were produced by gluing together sheets of paper. Wooden board was used for the core of the cover beech wood was used in Italy and Germany, and oak in England and France. Books with a round spine were also produced in the 16th century.Īfter the stitching was completed, the quires were attached to the covers. In the 16th century, the Byzantine bookbinding technique was introduced into Europe, and thread stitching with a support embedded in the spine came into use. Up to the 15th century, books were bound using raised bands in most cases. Then the process of stitching pages together using thread would follow. A weight was placed on the piled quires to squeeze out the air. However, this cutting process was sometimes omitted or performed later. The collation process, in which quires were neatly laid on top of another, was usually followed by cutting the fore-edges of pages straight so that they were aligned. In the 17th century and later, marbled paper was often used for end leaves. End leaves were usually inserted between the cover and the quires to protect both ends of the quires from the heavy cover's pressure. In this process, a quire could be made from not only one but also several sheets or a half sheet of paper. Each quire was made by folding a whole sheet of paper several times. As mentioned in Chapter 3, books were made by putting booklets ("quires") together. In the following section we will have a brief look at the bookbinding process. A look at the incunabula bound using the old methods indicates, however, that such a solid and sturdy bookbinding method was still being used in the second half of the 15th century. As paper came to replace animal skin as the material for books, such heavy bookbinding methods became unnecessary. Thus they sometimes attached bosses to the four corners or the center of the leather cover so that it did not come into direct contact with the floor. In those days books were usually kept flat on their front/back covers. ![]() To prevent this from happening and to keep the books shut tight, they sometimes put heavy covers and even metal clasps on them. Since medieval manuscripts were written on animal skin, they easily became warped or lined with wrinkles easily. The distinctive feature of the method developed during the 8-9th century is that the quires are bound and fixed to a support called a " raised band." Books bound in this way have raised ribs across their spines. The bookbinding technique in use at that time is called the "Coptic bindings." The bookbinding technique used in the incunabula period had been established during the Age of Charlemagne or the Carolingian Dynasty in the 8th to 9th centuries, and it made books more solid and sturdier than those bound by the Coptic method. Cassiodorus, a politician and learned priest of the 6th century, already referred to bookbinding in his book Institutiones (book1, chap.30). It is believed that the form of books changed from scroll to codex in the second half of the 4th century.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |