Bindings of Early Printed Books
Early printed books were bound in various materials, using distinct methods of decoration and titling.
Blind-tooled pigskin binding of Johannes Thomas Freig's Quaestiones eōthina'i ka'i deilina'i (Basel: printed by Sebastian Henricpetri, 1576) BJ211 .F74 1576
Binding Terms & Definitions
There are several types of binding terms to describe bindings for early printed books. Bindings for books printed before 1800 were made by hand from natural materials, such as leather, cloth, and paper. The terms used in Special Collections to describe binding structures are from the Rare Books & Manuscripts Section Binding Thesaurus.
Term types include:
- Ancillary structures - those parts of the binding that are part of the binding structure though not necessarily supportive, such as headbands, endpapers
- Binders' evidence - includes signed bindings and labels identifying the binder
- Categories of or Occasions for binding - such as armorial or monogrammed bindings
- Fastenings, Attachments, or Titling - includes mechanisms used to close the binding or identify the contents
- Materials and treatment - identifies the materials used to create the binding, such as leather, and the treatment applied, such gold tooling
- Styles of binding - such as Dentelle or Jansenist
- Supports - evidence of supports used in creating the binding, such as manuscript waste
- Textblock - identifies techniques applied to the text block during the binding process, such as gilding the edges
- Types of binding structure - includes the type of material used in binding boards, such as wood
Search terms within each type used at USC can be found in the box to the left.
Binding search terms at USC
Follow the links to find books using the terms below. Click on the "Examples" link to see visual examples of each term.
Ancillary structures
Binders' evidence
Categories of bindings
Fastenings, Attachments
- Brass bosses
- Catches - Examples
- Chained bindings
- Clasp plates - Examples
- Clasps
- Corner pieces - Examples
- Furniture - Examples
- Loop-and-ball fastenings - Examples
- Metal clasps - Examples
- Ribbon markers - Examples
- Ties - Examples
Materials and treatment
- Blind tooled bindings - Examples
- Calf bindings - Examples
- Cloth bindings - Examples
- Cuir-ciselé bindings
- Decorated paper bindings - Examples
- Gold tooled bindings - Examples
- Half bindings - Examples
- Leather bindings - Examples
- Marbled calf bindings - Examples
- Marbled paper bindings - Examples
- Morocco bindings - Examples
- Mottled calf bindings - Examples
- Quarter bindings - Examples
- Panel-stamped bindings - Examples
- Paper bindings - Examples
- Painted papers
- Pigskin bindings - Examples
- Sheepskin bindings
- Sprinkled calf bindings - Examples
- Stained calf bindings - Examples
- Stained vellum bindings - Examples
- Three quarter bindings - Examples
- Tree calf bindings - Examples
- Vellum bindings - Examples
- Manuscript waste - Examples
- Printed waste - Examples
Styles
Spines
Supports
Textblock
- Gauffered edges - Examples
- Gilt edges - Examples
- Marbled edges - Examples
- Painted edges
- Sprinkled edges - Examples
- Stabbing - Examples
- Stained edges - Examples
- Untrimmed edges
Titling
- Cloth binding labels
- Cloth labels
- Edge titles - Examples
- Labels - Examples
- Lettering pieces - Examples
- Paper labels
Types of binding structure
- Flap bindings - Examples
- Limp bindings - Examples
- Vellum wrappers - Examples
- Wooden boards - Examples
- Wrappers - Examples