672 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tion of modern binding, wliich. in its essence is the union at the 

 back of the folded sheets, which together constitute the folded 

 book, or, as I might say, despite the latent contradiction, the 

 folded volume. 



Throughout the long period which has elapsed since the in- 

 vention of the folded sheet it is said to have been invented in 

 the third century before Christ binding must have undergone 

 many and important changes. But of these changes few records 

 remain. Speaking generally of the binding of the middle and 

 later ages, we may say that at each successive epoch the form of 

 the binding adapted itself to the state of literature at the time. 

 When books were few and large and stationary, the binding was 

 correspondingly large and bossy and heavy ; and when books 

 became numerous and lighter and portable, the binding adapted 

 itself to the new conditions, and, dropping the oak boards, the 

 brass fittings, clasps, bosses, and chains, became itself light and 

 portable and beautiful. And thus wood and silk, and velvet and 

 leather, iron and brass, and silver and gold, and precious stones, 

 were all used by the artificers of the middle and earlier ages in 

 the protection and embellishment of the world's written wealth. 

 The invention of printing, however, and the multiplication of 

 books, gave the victory to leather and to gold tooling, and with 

 the invention of printing, binding passed into its modern phase, 

 and became ultimately a craft apart, the craft of the book- 

 binder. 



To the renown of bookbinding many countries and cities and 

 patrons have contributed, as well as the artists and craftsmen 

 whose work it has been. Singularly enough, the names of very 

 few bookbinders are known, but it is well known that to Grolier 

 and to France is mainly due the gold tooling which is still the 

 chief means of making the bound book beautiful. This tooling, 

 of obscure origin, was practiced first in Europe in Italy, but was 

 soon after introduced into France by Grolier, and the French 

 schools of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are still the 

 great schools of design in that decorative method. 



Deserving of mention or of allusion in this connection, even in 

 the shortest account of bookbinding, are the innumerable crafts 

 crafts for the production of materials and crafts for the produc- 

 tion of tools upon which the binder's own craft depends. For 

 this collaboration of crafts is a fact of capital importance and 

 should always be borne in mind, that the solidarity of all indus- 

 tries may be understood and the dignity of each be appreciated. 



It is to be regretted, however, that at this moment the crafts- 

 men immediately concerned in making a book, the paper-maker, 

 the printer, and the binder, are not in possession of ideas bearing 

 and operative upon the book as a whole, and controlling their 



