BOOK-BINDING BOOK-TRADE. 



621 



the lacing, the superfluous parts are cut away, and the 

 rest are hammered smooth. The book is then pressed 

 again for several hours, to make it solid for cutting, 

 which is performed by a machine called a plough. 

 The boards ought always to be cut a quarter of an 

 inch longer, and an eighth of an inch broader than 

 the book. The partofthe board that projects is call- 

 ed the squares, and is a protection to the book. 



When the book is cut, it may either be gilt, mar- 

 bled (see Marbling), or sprinkled on the edges, or 

 left wliite, as all law-books are. In order to gilding, 

 the book is screwed hard up in the cutting press, 

 between two cutting boards and scraped perfectly 

 smooth with a small circular piece of steel, having a 

 sharp edge all round. It is now burnished with a 

 dog's tooth or agate burnisher; a solution of the 

 wliite of egg and water being spread over with a 

 sponge, the gold is laid on with a piece of paper in the 

 ordinary way, as in sign gilding : after having dried 

 for about twenty minutes, the gold is then burnished. 



Sprinkling the edges of a book is performed with 

 a brush. Holding the brush in the right hand, and 

 a bar of iron in the left, the brush is dipped in the 

 requisite solution, and having beat the brush on the 

 bar till the colour is nearly out, the residuum falls 

 fine, and produces the desired effect. The edges of 

 sprinkled books are either burnished or not at plea- 

 sure. The usual compositions for sprinkling are a 

 solution of umber, vermilion, sap-green, or indigo. 



The head- band is now added, which is an ornament 

 made of cotton cloth, thread, or silk, of two or three 

 colours, placed at top and bottom of the book, across 

 the leaves, and woven or twisted about a stripe of 

 vellum the width of the square. When the book is 

 head- banded, it receives on the back another coat of 

 strong glue, on the top of the glue is laid a piece of 

 cartridge paper the size of the back, and rubbed 

 smooth with a folder. The cover being damped with 

 a sponge and water, the edges pared off on a marble 

 stone, and the rough side smeared with strong paste 

 made of flour, is now pulled on, and doubled over 

 the edges of the boards. When dry, the cover is 

 washed with a little paste and water, and is now 

 ready to be sprinkled, marbled, or stained, as may be 

 wished. Sprinkling is done with a brush dipped in a 

 solution of copperas, in the same manner as the edges 

 are sprinkled. When the covers are to be marbled, 

 they receive a coating of glear (white of egg), and 

 are then spread out, and sprinkled, first with water 

 copiously, and, while the water is running off, with 

 a strong solution of copperas, and then with a solu- 

 tion of salt of tartar or pearl ashes. A very few drops 

 of these produce the desired effect. To be done well 

 it must be done very quickly. 



The letters or ornaments on books are made with 

 brass tools, engraved in relievo. Those parts of the 

 leather on which gold is to be applied, are glazed 

 over two or three times with glear, allowing each 

 coating to dry before another is applied. When dry, 

 the cover is slightly rubbed over with oil or hog's lard, 

 and the gold laid on ; the brass tools, after being 

 heated to about 200 Fahrenheit, are then impressed ; 

 the superfluous gold leaf is rubbed off with a piece of 

 cotton cloth. An iron tool, called the polisher, heated 

 as above, is then applied, and the book, after being 

 pressed for four or five hours in smooth japanned 

 plates, is considered finished. 



There have been of late years several improve- 

 ments made in the art of book-binding, the most 

 material of which are the rolling machine and the 

 stamping press the first supersedes the beating of 

 books when folded, and the other is used for stamping 

 coats of arms, c. on the boards. 



No remains of ancient binding, before the art of 

 printing, have been transmitted to our time. After 



the invention of printing, books were variously deco- 

 rated in binding. Strength and durability appear to 

 have been the first objects of attention. Sometimes 

 the books were covered with velvet, but most com- 

 monly the covers were of wood, planed to a suitable- 

 thickness, over which leather or parchment was fas 

 tened. Sometimes brass ornaments were affixed to 

 the sides, and pieces of brass were put on the cor- 

 ners of the books, with the view of increasing their 

 durability. Some of the most valuable books were 

 covered with clear vellum, then overlaid with gold 

 leaf, and ornamented with various devices. Not un- 

 freqnently the year in which the book was bound 

 appeared in large figures on the cover. In England, 

 the monks and students in monasteries were ancient- 

 ly the binders of books. Of their ingenuity and skill, 

 the various missals and other works preserved in our 

 public and private libraries, furnish abundant evi- 

 dence. Lesne has sung the mysteries of book-bind- 

 ing in a poem (1820, 8vo). For anecdotes relative 

 to book-binding, see Dibdin's Bibliomania and Biblio- 

 graphical Decameron. 



BOOK-KEEPING is a mercantile term, used to denote 

 the method of keeping commercial accounts, of all 

 kinds, in such a manner, that a man may thereby 

 know, at any time, the true state of his affeirs, with 

 clearness and expedition. Book-keeping rests, like 

 commerce in general, on the notions of debtor and 

 creditor, or on the notions of that which we possess 

 or are to receive, and that which we are to pay, and 

 is divided into single, and double or Italian book-keep- 

 ing. In the first, the posts of debtor and creditor are 

 separated from each other, and entered in such a way, 

 that each one appears singly ; while, in the latter, 

 creditor and debtor are in continual mutual connexion, 

 to which end all the posts are entered doubly, once 

 on the debtor and once on the creditor side, by which 

 every error or mistake is prevented. This mode of 

 double book-keeping sprung up in Italy in the 15th 

 century ; yet it had been practised already in Spain in 

 the 14th century, according to a legal ordinance. The 

 principle of this system is, that allmoney and articles 

 received become debtors to him from whom they are 

 received, and, on the other hand, all those who re- 

 ceive money or goods from us become debtors to cash 

 or to the goods. The books which the merchant wants 

 are principally a waste-book, in which all his dealings 

 are recorded without particular order ; & journal, in 

 which the contents of the waste-book are separated 

 every month, and entered on the debtor and creditor 

 sides ; and a ledger, in which the posts entered in 

 the journal are placed under particular accounts, and 

 from which, every year, the balance is drawn 



BOOK-TRADE, BOOKSKLLESS. Before the invention 

 of typography, those who copied books carried on the 

 trade in them. In Greece, in Alexandria, and in 

 Rome, there were booksellers who kept a number of 

 transcribers. In the middle ages there were booksel- 

 lers, called stationarii, at the universities of Bologna 

 and Paris, who loaned single manuscripts at high 

 prices. In Paris, after 1342, no one could deal in 

 books without the permission of the university, who 

 had particular officers to examine the manuscripts 

 and fix the price. After the invention of printing, 

 the printers were also the booksellers. Faustus, the 

 first bookseller, carried his printed Bibles for sale to 

 France. Those who had formerly been employed in 

 copying, now acted as agents of the printers, and 

 carried the printed copies into the monasteries for 

 sale. Towards the end of the 15th century, there 

 were such book traders in Ulm, Nordlingen, and 

 Augsburg. The first bookseller who purchased 

 manuscripts from the authors, and had them printed 

 by others, without possessing a press of his own, was 

 John Otto, in Nuremburg (1516). In Leipsic, there 



