Bookbinding, or art of binding books . When the sheets are taken out of the press, and they are dry, they go from the print shop to the bindery. The first thing that the binder does to the books that he wants to bind is to fold the sheets according to their size, in two for folio, in four for quarto , in eight for octavo , and so on proportionately until the smallest which, more for novelty than for utility, can be folded up to in-120. One then takes the sheets one by one to fold them, and one makes sure the edges are quite equal, so that the numbers that are at the top follow one another and correspond exactly. The tool that one uses to fold is called the folder; its purpose is to flatten the fold that the sheet must have by passing [the folder] over the entire thing, but most particularly those parts which must be separated. [1] This folder is a sort of very thin boxwood or ivory rule, about two fingers wide, eight to ten inches long, [2] rounded at both ends, and less thick on the edges than in the middle. Other than the pages being numbered at the top, and that the numbers are consecutive, increasing until the end of the volume, there are also at the bottom of each page the catch words [ réclames ] , that is to say one reads at the bottom of each page, immediately under the end of the last line, the word with which the following page starts, and so on until the end of the book; it happens often enough however that there are no catch words. It’s also at the base of the pages where the signatures are placed; these signatures are letters of the alphabet put in order; one changes the letter with each section, and one repeats the same letter, not at the end of each page, but only on the recto of each sheet and one adds to it in figures, ordinarily roman numerals, the number of sheets, which continues thus until the end of the section, or only to the middle; so that in the latter case, the place where the signatures end forms exactly the middle of the section, and indicates the order of the sheets; after which the next section is found signed with the following letter. [3] Although the page numbers, the catch words and the signatures that are at the bottom are more for the sake of the printing than the binding, we couldn’t dispense of talking about them in this article, since they serve to direct the folding, and make sure one doesn’t put the sections out of their correct order. When all of the sheets are folded in the manner which we have just described, the person [ celui ou celle ] who folded them assembles them in a body and collates them, by consulting the letters that are at the base of each folio in order to avoid transpositions.  [4] The gatherings, [5] having been put on top of each other in the order of signature, are beaten with a hammer on the stone to press and flatten them, so that they take up less room in the binding ; this is done by dividing them into beaten sections ,  [6] which are ordinarily nine to ten gatherings each for octavo, and for the other sizes more or less in proportion. One takes care to hold the sheets even, such that one doesn’t extend past another; next one puts them on a beating stone, which is of limestone that is highly polished and level, making sure to put under the sheets a piece of paper that protects against the dirtiness of the stone : then the worker holds these sheets in one hand, and in the other an iron hammer weighing nine, ten, even up to eleven pounds, according to the strength of the arms which must use it, and beats on the sheets while turning them from all sides and in all directions, so that all the parts feel the impression of the hammer; it’s with the help of this hammer that the attentive worker smooths the paper to the point that one doesn’t feel under the fingers that any point is thicker than another, and that no unevenness or depressions are found. This operation done, one puts the beaten sections separated as they are between press boards, [7] and one submits everything either to the standing press, if the sheets are folio or 4 °, or simply to the backing press, if they are in small formats. These boards are walnut for the most part, quite polished, about three to four lines thick in all their length; one must pay attention to choose large enough ones so that they can extend even a little past the sheets on all sides. These sheets thus restrained and tight in the press, don’t swell at all, and keep the form that the hammer had impressed on them. As we are obliged, in the rest of this article, to speak often of different presses used by the binders, before going farther in this subject, and since our sheets are in the press, we are going to give a description of them. As to other tools or instruments that one uses, we will describe their form and indicate their use following the order of the different operations of the worker. We distinguish between four sorts of presses, namely: the standing press, the backing press, the cutting press, and the blocking press. [8] The standing press is composed of ten principal pieces, which are the two legs, [9] the stationary platen, the mobile platen, the small platen, [10] the screw, the two keys, the nut, and the bar. The two legs are two pieces of elm or another type of wood, provided that it be strong, six to seven feet tall, six to seven inches wide, four or five thick; the base is thicker and wider so as to give them a base; they are placed standing and fixed against the wall, and are about two and a half feet from each other: it’s this interval which forms the inside of the press, and where the other pieces which we will discuss are located; such that the two legs make the two sides of the press. The stationary platen is a piece of wood about a foot and a half wide, four to five inches thick, as long as the press is wide, including the thickness of the legs. Square indentations are scooped out of each end of this platen to hold the two legs, at the sides of which edges have been worked up to support them: it is raised about a foot and a half from the ground, and serves as a table, because it’s on this platen that one puts the sheets, or the volumes that one wants to press.

The platen is a piece of wood approximately the same width and thickness as the stationary platen; it also has a square indentation at each end, which makes it hug the legs, but it doesn’t cover any of their edges like the stationary platen, and it raises or lowers according to the direction one gives the screw to which it is attached by the middle of the platen used by the screw, and the two keys. The action of this platen is toward the stationary platen when the worker wants to tighten it, and away from it when he wants to untighten it. The small platen is another piece of wood much narrower and thinner than the mobile platen, on which it sits flat, and with which it is integrated, by way of screws or pegs. The screw must be made of a very strong wood, its thread carries about three feet in height, and twenty inches in circumference; the large part of its head is twelve to fourteen inches tall, and about two feet and a half around: it’s in this part that there are four holes which serve to lodge the bar to tighten and untighten [the press]. The collar is a part of this same head, smaller by at least half, and which is scarcely a foot in circumference, and four to five inches long, and sort of resembles a small roller whose end would have a round shape, and the same thickness in all its length, if you except however a groove about an inch wide, and at least a finger deep, which surrounds it, and which is so exactly round, that it could only be made on a lathe: this groove is made around two inches away from the large part of the head, that is to say in the middle of the collar it’s this part which fits into the platen that serves the screw, and enters up to the middle of the platen, by a hole equally round, made in the middle of the small platen, and continued in the platen, to which it is attached in the middle by two keys that are little pieces of wood, an inch and a half wide, and a finger thick; these two keys cross the small platen in its entire length, and hold it by passing into the groove on each side of the screw, which holds the small platen and the platen to it in this way once its action is to rise, which is called untightening, and which pushes them conversely to the bottom when it descends, which is called tightening. One feels also, in this position, that the screw is squarely in the middle of the press, the head at the bottom and the thread at the top, which passes into the nut, without which the screw would have no movement, nor could it press. The nut is a piece of wood twelve to fifteen inches square, notched at two ends like the stationary and mobile platen, such that like them it hugs the two legs to which it is stopped in the middle by means of two sorts of iron pegs that cross the entire thing ; it crowns the press, and acts like the capital ; it’s in the middle of this piece of wood that the thread of the screw engages: as this piece is the one that wears the most after the screw, one could put on either side an iron connector, so as to hold it against the movement of the screw. Finally, the bar is a sort of iron tong four to five inches in circumference, and four to five feet long; it is passed by its end through one of the holes made in the head of the screw, and it is introduced successively into the others such that it turns: it’s by this effort of the arms on this bar that one puts the screw in motion, which in its turn moves the other parts of the press which it controls.

The backing press [11] is composed of nine principle pieces; namely, two cheeks, two guide rails, two screws, two keys, and an iron pin : the two cheeks are two pieces of a very strong wood, such as oak, elm, maple, or pear: they are three and a half feet long, and wide by five to six inches square ; it’s between these cheeks that one puts the sheets or the books that one wants to hold; they are pierced by two holes at each end: the first, that is to say, the one closest to the end of the cheeks, is a hole about two square inches wide, through which pass the guide rails; these rails are two pieces of wood about two and a half feet long, and of a thickness proportionate to the holes through which they must pass; they are held by small pegs to one of the cheeks, which for this reason is called fixed , and enter freely into the other cheek which approaches or recedes from the first, according to the direction that the screws give it ; these screws are two pieces of an extremely strong wood, and of one of the types that we indicated above ; they are three feet long, to wit, two and a half feet of thread and half a foot of head, and they are nine to ten inches in circumference ; they are next to the guide rails, and are parallel to them ; they pass freely in the fixed cheek up to their head which is larger than the thread , and then engage in the other cheek held by the two rails on which it can move: the holes in this cheek that serve to lodge the screws are in the form of nuts; the two keys are two pieces of wood an inch and a half square, as long as the cheek is thick; they are passed through the fixed cheek, and in crossing this cheek they enter into a sort of groove made in each screw, such that in this way they are held and they are susceptible only to the circular movement that the worker impresses upon them by way of an iron pin about two feet long and three and a half inches in circumference, the end of which he passes through the holes made for this purpose in the head of the screws; it’s the action of these screws stuck in the mobile cheek that makes this one approach the fixed cheek when the worker wants to tighten it, or that moves it away when he turns it the other way when he wants to untighten it. The distance from one screw to the other is about two feet four inches, and it is essentially this space that makes up the length of the press: as to the width, one determines it according to the thickness of the sheets or the books that one wants to hold. When there is nothing in the press, and it is completely tightened, the two cheeks touch each other in all their length, and appear glued together; when one wants to use it, one opens it by untightening it more or less, according to the need, and so the mobile cheek moves away from the fixed one. Though we call the cheek on the side of the head of the screw fixed, we do not however absolutely exclude movement up or down, but we give it this name as much because it is less susceptible to this than the other one, as to designate it better. This press serves to press the sheets smaller than 4°, when they are beaten, but especially to cut the sewing stations, for backing, for burnishing, and can be used also to press the volume when it is glued, as long as it is not a size that exceeds the size of the cheeks, otherwise one would have to have recourse to the standing press. This press sits flat, like a table, on a case three feet long, and two wide ; the four posts at the four corners of this case are oak, as are the cross-bars ; the panels can be pine planks ; the posts are about two and a half feet in height ; the cross-bars must be even with posts at both ends, and it is these cross-bars that support the press : one could equally extend the panels to this height, but at the two sides the panels and the cross-bars are much lower than the uprights, and leave a space about eight to ten inches for the entire length of the case, in order to leave the worker free to work and put his hands under the press when his work demands it. Its floor is ordinarily [made] of pine boards ; this case is called the tub or press-bearer because effectively it serves to bear either the backing press or the laying press.  [12]

The cutting press is similar in its principle parts to the backing press, that is to say that it is composed like [the backing press] of two cheeks, two guide rails, two screws, two keys, and an iron pin. All the pieces have the same proportions, the same action, and even the same play as in the backing press ; so it would be superfluous to enter into very great detail in this respect; it differs from the other only in that inside the cheek that we call fixed there is a batten that extends from one screw to the other, three inches wide, about two lines thick in the upper part that follows the length of the cheek, and which gets imperceptibly thinner until the end of its width, such that this batten forms a sort of slope; it’s this incline which assures that the book held between the two cheeks is tighter in the upper part than in the lower, and is found so strongly subjected there that it makes a solid body on which the knife can pass briskly, which renders the section clean and polished; from the side where the worker who cuts places himself, there is a small groove made in a straight line from top to bottom along the entire length of the batten, this batten serves to hold the shoulder of the book, so as to not damage the spine, and to keep the round form that it must have; other than this batten which is rather, properly speaking, a small board, there are two others at the distance of about a finger from each other, three to four lines thick and eight to ten wide; these two trindles are attached with small iron points on the mobile cheek, and form two lines exactly square and parallel that extend from one screw to the other: they serve to direct and assure the movement of the knife, as we will explain in due course.

The headbanding press is a small press composed simply of five pieces, namely two cheeks, two screws, and a little iron pin. [13] The two cheeks are two pieces of wood a foot and a half in length, three and a half inches in width, and an inch and a half thick; the screws are nine inches long, note six inches of thread and three inches of head; the thread is three and a half inches around, and the head is about seven; these screws engage in the two cheeks in the holes made about four inches from their ends, and pass freely through the first cheek, that is to say in the one that must be against the head of the screw, but the holds of the second are in the form of nuts, which gives to this cheek the same action as the mobile cheek in the backing and cutting presses; the iron pin is seven to eight inches long and half [an inch] in circumference, it serves as in the other presses to tighten or untighten, and is introduced by the end in holes made for this purpose in the head of the screws. Such is the construction of the different presses in use by bookbinders. But let’s return to our sheets, and take them step-by-step until they are finally bound, and they form a perfect volume that can take its place in a library. The sheets folded, collated, beaten and pressed, are collated a second time upon leaving the press, for fear that having divided the total into beaten sections [ battées ] , [14] there isn’t some rearrangment, of which the least is always of great consequence: this second collation is made in the same fashion as the first, that is to say by consulting the signatures. When the worker is certain that his sheets are in order, and that none are out of order, he gathers them in a textblock [ en corps ] to saw [ gréquer ] them when he wants to make a sawn-in binding [ relieure à la greque ]; for this purpose he puts all the sheets destined for the same volume between two small wooden boards, they must be well polished, and a little thicker at the top than at the bottom, such that they form a soft slope: one must watch that the spine of the sheets extends past the edge of these boards by a finger, so as to leave the saw freedom of movement, next he puts the whole thing in the backing press; the opening of the sheets must be on the bottom and the spine on top, and when they are held well and quite tight in the press, the worker then takes the kerfing saw [ la greque ], which is a tool in the shape of a sciot or hand saw, [15] and which is nothing but a blade of tempered steel, [16] about fifteen inches long, embedded in a wooden shaft that serves as a handle; its width out of the handle is about two and a half inches, and it diminishes up to its end where it is reduced to about an inch; the thickness of this blade is two lines, and down its entire length it is armed with teeth like a true saw, with the exception that the points of these teeth are all on the same line, and go neither to the right nor the left as do those of ordinary saws. It’s with this tool that the worker makes on the spines of his sheets as many grooves as he wants to put bands; when one binds properly, one makes five notches or grooves with the kerfing saw on small format [books], and six on large ones. These notches or grooves serve to house the cords, around which the threads that attach the sheets together are held, these cords are called bands [ nerfs ]; these cords thus passed in the grooves made by the kerfing saw, cause no elevation on the spine of the book, of which no part is more apparent than the other, which makes the difference between books bound on sawn-in cords with what one calls bound on raised cords, of which the bands are apparent and make little ribs on the spine of the book. Other than the five notches that one makes with the kerfing saw on small books, or the six on the large ones, in both cases one makes one at each end of the book which serves to stop the thread, and which one calls the kettle stitch , which is always seen on small formats, whether they’re bound on sawn-in cords, or raised bands; but one doesn’t kerf the ends on the quarto, or the folio, when they’re bound on raised cords, such that the kettle stitch appears on the spine of the book until one passes to another operation which makes it disappear, and which we will discuss here later. And so whether the sheets are destined to make a sawn-in book or whether one wants to bind them on [raised] cords, one sews them on the sewing frame with a long, slightly curved needle. The sewing frame [17] is composed of four pieces of wood, namely the table which has along its entire length a sort of open slot five to six lines wide, two screws erected perpendicularly at the two ends of the table in line with the slot, and a cross-piece with two screw-shaped holes, which engage the top of the screw. To use the sewing frame, one attaches from above on the cross-bar as many strings as one wants to make bands, and after having spaced them according to the size of the book, one passes them through the slot, and one stops them from underneath with little copper [18] instruments which are called keys, which have a square hole at one end, and which are shaped like forks at the other. One passes the ends of the strings into the hole of the keys, and then one catches them by turning [the key], such that they don’t slip out at all; next one passes the keys through the slot, and turns them once they are passed through, so that in holding the two edges of the slot they can’t escape or go back on themselves. If all the cords are too loose, one can tighten them as much as necessary, by turning by hand the two screws in the direction which makes the cross-bar rise, that is to say, which brings it away from the table, or in the opposite direction to lower it, if the threads are too tight. Once the sewing frame is thus disposed, one takes a sheet of marbled paper which, folded in half, is the same size as the book one wants to bind, one folds this sheet in such a way that the marbling is on the inside and the white outside, and one sews thus from one end to the other along the cords attached to the sewing frame, next one takes a sheet of white paper folded like the other and the same size; one sews this one like the first, after which one takes the gatherings in order, and one sews them in directing, as with the two first sheets, a linen thread in the middle of each one beginning at the first of these cords up to the last, and making this thread go around each cord. When all the gatherings which must make up the book are thus sewn, one finishes with a sheet of white paper and a sheet of marbled, both folded, placed, and sewn as at the beginning. It is well to observe here that the cords for the bands must be different sizes, according to the size of the book. This operation done, one cuts the cords two inches away from the book, one tapers them on each side, that is to say one untwists them, and thins the ends by scraping them with a knife, after which one dips them in wheat paste and retwists them by rolling them on the knee, so that the ends being dry, stiff, and pointed, one can pass them easily through the board, which is done thus: one takes a sheet of board which one divides, so as to take away as much as one can, and so that there is no waste; it is possible, for example, if it is to cover a 12-mo one takes a sheet of board of the size called catholicon, one divides it into ten equal pieces, and which serve consequently to cover five 12-mo volumes ; the board is cut with the pointe, which is an iron tool with a wooden handle 18 to 20 inches long, including the handle; the end of the tool is chamfered and very sharp; the rest of the tool up to the handle is covered in leather, and resembles closely enough a flat sword blade which would be in its sheath, but whose end would be bare; this wrapping saves the hand of the worker who grabs this tool in the middle, and puts the end of the handle on the front of the shoulder; it is in this position that he passes the pointe on the board along an iron rule, so that the tool cuts in a square line; he must watch to cut the side of the board where the cords must be attached on a slight angle, this is done by tilting the tool, such that the edge advances on one side and returns on the other; the receding side lies against the book, and the projecting side is outside, which finds itself covered by the edge of the first sheets, beginning to form what is called the shoulder, and giving to the binding the play of a hinge. When the board is thus cut, one beats it firmly with a hammer on a beating stone from the side which must be against the leaves, that is to say which must be inside; after which, if one wants to make a proper binding, one glues on top some paper, and sometimes even some parchment, watching to make sure to put either the paper or the parchment on the same side on which the hammer worked. When the board on which one glued the paper or parchment is dry, one beats it a second time, next one laces in the boards, which is done thus: one puts the board on the textblock, and corresponding to each cord two lines away from the edge one makes a hole in the board with an awl which one passes from outside to inside; two lines away from this first hole one makes a second in the same way; and passing the awl next from inside to outside, one makes a third hole which is positioned in such a manner that it makes an equilateral triangle with the others; so the worker takes the end of the cord corresponding to these holes, passes it first through the first hole from outside to inside, next goes back through from inside to outside, and finally brings it back inside by introducing it into the third hole; similar operations are done at the same time for each cord, and when one has thus prepared one side, one treats the other in the same manner and with the same precision. One next stops the cords which are at the two ends of the book by crossing them under the part that one threaded through the first two holes, which suffices to prevent them from moving; as to the cords that are in the middle, one doesn’t stop them in this way, but one cuts the ends about two or three lines away from the board, after which one beats these attachments with a small ordinary hammer, to flatten them and make them, so to speak, sink into the board, such that the ends of these cords don’t make any bump above, when one has thus beaten the cords, one replaces the boards, that is to say, one closes the book, to see that no faults have slipped in during these different operations, and that effectively there is that free play, whatever closure it must have. Next one lines the spine in parchment; so one takes two strips of parchment that are twice as wide as the spine of the book, of which the middle is destined to be glued onto the spine, and the rest on the board inside the book. When the book is bound on sawn-in cords, the part of the parchment which must cover the spine is whole, without any separation or indentation, but one makes an incision corresponding to each cord on the part which must be attached to the board; this strip of parchment thus disposed passes from outside to inside and is introduced in parts between each band, such that they all lodge in small holes which have been made with scissors at the base of each incision; one puts a similar strip on each side of the book, such that the parchment is doubled on the spine.

When the book is not bound on sawn-in cords, and by consequence the bands are raised, the part of the bands [sic] [19] which must be applied to the board is whole, with no separation, but to that which must cover the spine of the book one makes as many slots as there are bands, & one proportions the size of the former to that of the latter. One passes the parchment from inside to outside in strips between each band, which is done practically the same on the other side. When the book is thus lined in parchment, one replaces the boards; one then takes two polished backing boards, that is to say a little thicker on the top than on the bottom; these boards must be a little longer than the volume that one puts between them, watching to place them evenly from the shoulder, without engaging the spine : thus in this position one holds the book and these boards in the backing press, which must not be tightened too much, and one holds everything raised over the cheeks about an inch and a half : next one takes an awl which must be neither too large nor too pointy, and introduces it along the first gatherings on each side of the book, so as to spread them a bit from the middle, & make them bend back gradually on the shoulder, hitting them lightly with a little hammer, using for this procedure the side that is long and that is only two lines thick at the end, which must be rounded. This operation done at the two ends of the book, or, as the Bookbinders say, at the head and tail, and that’s what they call backing a book. After this one lowers the book between its boards in the press, the spine above and the opening below, as it was for backing, and so it only extends past the edge of the cheeks by three quarters of an inch or thereabouts; then one tightens it as much as possible in the press, and one ties the volume between its boards with a cabled string, with which one makes several turns around the part of the boards that extend past the cheeks; when this part is sufficiently contained, one stops the string, one almost completely removes the book from the press, and manages to tie it between its boards, by making more similar turns of the thread above the first wrapping, then one puts it back in the press, and with a large brush one coats the back of the book with flour paste; and when it has soaked in this glue, one passes the scraper over it, which is an iron tool about 9 inches long, round in the middle, which serves as a handle for the worker; this area is about two inches and a half in circumference; it is flat at its ends, which are different sizes, to serve different sizes [of books]; one of the ends is about two inches wide, & it is this one that one uses for folio and quarto; the other has scarcely an inch in size, & is destined for the smaller sizes, such as 8 ^o , 12 ^o , & others even smaller. Its two ends are armed with teeth arranged in a straight line. The action of this tool is to scrape the spine of the book, so as to make the flour paste penetrate more; one charges it next with strong glue, [20] after which one pricks it with the scraper, giving it blows, watching nevertheless to spare the bands. One certainly senses that the parchment strips must be turned up on the outside of each side, so that the tool cannot damage them. One coats it again with flour paste, the parchment strips as well. When the spine of the book, together with the parchment strips, is well imbued with paste, one lays the parchment strips on the spine, without, however, gluing them exactly, and one leaves it this way for about two hours, after which one passes the burnisher over it, which is an iron tool about eight to nine inches long, resembling the scraper in its shape and dimensions, with the exception that instead of teeth there is a very blunt and concave end, such that it perfectly enfolds the spine of the book over which it passes. One lifts off the parchment strips that are laid on the spine of the book to use this tool, whose function is to lift the extra paste that couldn’t penetrate, and to refill with paste the little cavities made by the scraper. It is also used to straighten the bands should they have been displaced; finally, with the concave shape of its end, it gives, or at least keeps, this ever-so-slightly rounded shape of the spine of the book. As soon as the spine of the book is thus burnished, one puts more flour paste on it, by passing the brush over it, but very lightly; one also gives a light coat to the parchment strips, with which one next covers the spine of the book by pulling them firmly with the fingers, and extending them well over each other, so that they do not make any wrinkles. One must take care to glue the parchment on the flesh side, otherwise it will unstick while drying. This preparation made, one takes the book out from the press, and lets it dry in front of the fire tied between its boards as it was in the press, taking care however not to put it too close, for fear that the parchment would draw back with too much heat. When it is sufficiently dry, one puts it back in the press without untying it; one lightly rubs it on top with the burnisher, to redress the bands, round the spine, and address the little inequalities that can occur; one again covers the parchment that covers the spine in strong glue, and one lets it dry as before; when it is dry one unties it, and, on each side, glues the second leaf of marbled paper to the first leaf of blank paper; after this one puts the book between two pressing boards, always watching to not engage the spine of the book between these boards, so that the shoulder is well defined. When it has spent about half an hour in the press between the pressing boards, one takes it out and next puts it in the cutting press, to make the edge: what is called plowing the edge of a book, is trimming the sheets on three sides with the help of a knife mounted in its plow; but before explaining how to do this step, it is appropriate to describe the construction of this instrument. The entire thing is composed of nine main parts, which are the two feet of the plow, two guide-rails, a wooden screw, a knife, an iron screw, a nut, and a key. [21] The two feet of the plow are two pieces of wood that ordinarily measure four to five inches in height, two in thickness, pierced by three holes: one at each end, and the other in the middle. The two guide-rails are two pieces of wood about a foot and a half long, an inch and a half wide, and a little less thick, these guide-rails are embedded and pinged in the holes made at the foot of the plow, which is found to the right of the worker when he plows, and pass freely through the ones made in the other foot, on which it runs like the mobile platen of the presses, either the backing, or the cutting [press]. The screw is a piece of wood two feet long in total, that is, a foot and a half of thread and six inches of head: it is between four and five inches in circumference; the head is a little larger, and serves as the right-side handle for the worker, just as the end of the threads serves him thus on the left side: this screw passes freely in the middle hole, made in the foot located to the right, and engages in the one made at the foot on the left, which is in the form of a nut, and which makes these feet approach or recede as needed, like the cheeks of the backing, cutting, or finishing presses. The knife is a piece of steel six to seven inches long, flat and really thin, very sharp, finishing in a sword blade point, flat and wide, [22] and square-shaped at the other end, which is used to attach it, and that one calls the heel [ talon ]; it’s in the middle and at the bottom of the foot of the plow that is to the right, that the blade is attached by pressing the heel which is inserted in a groove of which the width and depth are in proportion to the width and thickness of this heel. One moves next to the iron screw, whose flat head is embedded in the hole made in the heel: this screw traverses the foot of the plow and leaves through the top. The nut is a piece of iron which stops the screw; it has two upright arms, an inch and a half long, and of which the ends are turned down. The key is also a piece of iron, seven to eight inches long, and two in circumference; the end which the worker holds to use it is round, but it is a bit flattened at the other end, and pierced down its entire length, as in the case of a tapestry needle; it’s this slot through which one puts the two branches of the nut to tighten or untighten the screw, whose head traps the blade. This instrument thus mounted, one plows the book in the following manner. One lowers the two boards of the book from the head towards the tail about two lines, because although the boards are held by the cords, they retain nevertheless enough freedom to lower or raise as needed, after which the worker puts his book standing up in the press, the spine turned on its side, and the shoulder of the book lodged in the groove created by the board [23] attached against and inside the fixed cheek, taking care to apply a board to the other side between the book and the mobile cheek; this strip of board must extend past the book by at least a finger. One uses the board to hold the book against the force of the knife, and at the same time to protect the shoulder on this side, next the worker puts his knife, mounted as we have just described, on the press, making the batten close to the inside of the press enter in the groove or slide made along the foot of the plow that is to its left; such that the other batten borders the outside of this foot. These two battens of which we gave the position in the description of the cutting press, serve as directors of the whole plow; the knife thus positioned, it is pushed forward, in such a way that the section begins at the spine of the book. One must be careful not to turn the screw whose two ends, as we have described, serve as a handle, because the knife will take too much material, or not pass freely, or not make a neat and tidy section: one must therefore turn little by little, and continue in this way until the blade reaches the strip of board that was supporting the book. The worker must feel by the greater or lesser resistance of the knife, to what degree he must turn the screw in his hands, which must be held loosely. As soon as the head of the book is plowed, he takes it out of the press, and takes the measurement of the inside of the book with dividers, beginning with the edge of the head that he just trimmed, up to the end of the margin he wants to keep at the tail, and which must always be larger than that at the head; [24] this measurement taken, he closes his book to mark the board, which he also lowers two lines, as in the first operation, then the rest is prepared and executed in the same manner. The book being thus plowed at head and tail, one takes it out of the press, one lowers the board by half of the amount of surplus that one gave it, so that there is not more at one end than the other; this surplus is called the square . Then the worker takes the dividers, puts one end in the middle of the head of the book, on the side and at the spine end, and traces a curved line on the side and at the fore-edge end, but still however on the head; he traces a similar line on the tail, making sure to keep the same opening of the dividers for the two ends. This line directs the worker in dividing the edge; in this manner the fore-edge is even. One calls the fore-edge of the book this concavity that one sees on the edge; so he opens the boards and completely turns them back, and in rocking the book, for a moment he makes the spine lose the rounded form that it had, in such a way that it becomes flat and uniform, and the leaves advance further in the front. He seizes them in his fingers, and watches to see if the two sides exactly follow the traced lines at head and tail. When they are thus placed, he puts them between two boards a little longer than the book, but less wide, and takes care [not] to disturb the leaves: of these two boards, which based on their use are called cutting boards, the one in back, that is to say that occupies the place that the board strip held, is more raised than the other, and serves like the other to hold the edges of the book. The one in front, which is found to the right of the worker, is at the level of and parallel to the cheek. These boards resemble backing boards, and are polished; the thicker part is put at the top, so that the book is held tighter. When it is thus held by the press, one makes the edge by directing and tightening the knife little by little on the extremities of the leaves, by way of the screw of the plow where it is attached. The edge made, one takes the book out of the press, and with a paint brush applies on top [of the edge] a red stain composed of flour paste and ground brazilwood: one gives it two or sometimes even three coats. One must be careful that in reddening the edge in this way the stain does not enter between the leaves: one avoids this fault by pushing on the book, so as not to leave any empty spaces between the leaves. When the book is in this state, one makes the shoulder, that is to say, one makes a bevel inside the board from one side to the other with a very sharp little knife, this is done on both sides; next one cuts down the four angles to facilitate the opening; then one trims the board. We use the term trimming the board for cutting one or two lines from the edge, more or less, according to the size of the book, which is done with the pointe that we discussed above, and that one draws along the length of an iron ruler positioned between the edge and the board. When the board is thus cut, one puts the book on a table, the spine above and the edge below, in order to see if the board was trimmed equally.

One next attaches the end of a ribbon that one has taken care to keep at least an inch longer than the book, and which one calls the bookmark; this bookmark is attached at the top and in the middle of the spine, when it is attached one puts it in the book that one headbands soon after. The endband is a decoration of thread or silk in various colors, or even sometimes of gold or silver [thread], that one puts at both ends of the book on the end of the edge; it’s a type of fabric worked on a single piece of rolled-up paper if it’s simple, or two, one on top of the other, if it’s double; other than to ornament, it also serves to hold the top and the bottom of the gatherings of the book; as soon as it is headbanded, one covers it. Although various leather-workers apply several treatments to the skins one uses for bookbindings, the bookbinders apply others that are specific to their art; it’s that which we will explain, but only for calfskin, which are the kind that bookbinders prefer, the others being used equally in proportion. After having been dampened and soaked in water, the calfskins are scraped on the beam [ chevalet ] with a scraping tool, [25] which is a type of iron knife, not very sharp, with two wooden handles and about a foot and a half long; as to the beam it is very simple, consisting only of a long stave of a barrel on top of which the bookbinder pushes, so that he lifts with the knife whatever looseness may remain on the top of the skin; [26] the skin thus scraped and still humidified, is cut to size with large scissors or a type of forceps into pieces according to the books that one has to cover, and in this state it is pared on the marble with the paring knife, a tool reasonably similar to the cobbler’s knife, but with a flatter and shorter blade; paring a covering is to diminish the thickness across its full surface, but mainly on the edges of the side that the skin that must be glued to the board; one understands that these steps, with the exception of the last, cannot apply to morocco, [27] basane, [28] or vellum with which books are covered fairly often, and that would be ruined if they got wet. [29] To apply the covering one coats it in wheat paste, that is the term, which is done with a glue brush; one applies it next on the outside of the board and then one folds it over the same board on the inside and all around, taking care to impress it at the four angles [30] and to pass it between the board and the spine of the book in the area of the endbands, one knows next how to pass the folder as much outside as inside and on the edges, so that the covering attaches completely in every place and so that it doesn’t have any folds; then one sets the headcaps, that is to say, with the end of an awl, of which the point is blunt, one ever-so-slightly makes the edge the covering come out over the endband which one rounds and places equally at the head and tail; this operation done, one ties it up; one calls tying up a book tightening it between two boards thicker on one side than the other, and which one calls tying-up boards, with a sort of string that the cord-makers call the foüet ; [31] one puts in the thicker side of these boards against the spine side of the book; one does this step to make the covering adhere more strongly to the board and the spine, as well as to better form the bands when it is bound on raised cords; a gauntlet or piece of leather called thus, serves the binder who puts it around the right hand, to be able to better pull, without injury, the cord that he takes over the spine of the book, crossing it in such a way that each band finds itself trapped between to cords; then the bookbinder takes the band nippers, which is an iron tool in the shape of small pliers; the edges of these pliers, that is to say the part by which they pinch, is flat; that is used for nipping the bands, which is done by bringing the cords with which the book is tied against each side of the bands with these band nippers; the work which one does with these band nippers is called band nipping; then one puts it to dry, after which one unties it to let the place of the book that the boards were covering dry; when it is sufficiently dry, one lightly beats the flats of the board from the outside with a hammer on the beating stone, after which one sprinkles [32] the covering, which is done with a brush designated for this use, dipped in a black that one lets fall in raindrops above and that makes little spots by lightly hitting the brush on a small stick, or simply on the second finger of the left hand, at a reasonable distance from the book; next one lets the sprinkling dry, and one coats the cover with egg white, which is called glairing; when this coat is dry, one throws very weak acid on it, to reduce the size of the black spots which can be too large; then on the spine of the book, between the first and second band from the top, one glues a piece of red morocco or whatever color one wishes, that exactly covers the space from one band to the other and that is as wide as the spine of the book, to put the title in gold letters; sometimes one adds another one in the panel below, to inscribe also in gold the number of the volume; after that, on the inside of both sides of the book, one glues the part of the parchment strip that is found there to the sheet of marbled paper, and one adheres the whole thing to the board with flour paste; the parts of this strip that are inside the book at head and tail are called guards; one then lets it dry in the standing press, from which it passes when it is dry, to the backing press, for burnishing. To burnish a book is to pass on the three rouged edges of the book, a hound’s tooth or wolf’s tooth, embedded in a copper [or brass] ferrule and inserted in a wooden handle at least a foot long, and about three inches in circumference, so as to give shine to the edge and to polish it; the boards that one uses for this operation are sloped like almost all the others, and the thicker part one always puts at the top, so that the book is tighter at the top than at the bottom; when the edge is thus burnished, one takes the book out of the backing press and one puts it in the standing press between two pressing boards that are equal in all their dimensions, and one leaves it thus for several hours, after which one takes it out and coats the covering with beaten egg white, which is called glairing ; one gives it this primer twice, making sure to let it dry before giving it a second coat, when it is dry, one takes a piece of wool cloth ingrained with tallow, and wipes it on the outside of all parts of the covering ; one next passes a polishing iron [33] over it, which is an iron instrument that is eight inches long from where it leaves the handle until its end; it sort of resembles a P; it has one flat side and the other convex ; it’s this last side that the worker passes over the covering after having heated it reasonably well, it is inserted in a wooden handle fifteen inches long and about five in circumference; when the covering is thus polished and lustrous, the worker gives several blows of the hammer to the four ends of the book, so as to render them equal and square, next grasping the full length of one side of the covering, he forces the board [edges] in, cambering [the board] ever so little, and he does the same to the other side, and in this he has done everything in his power, such that a book thus treated can pass into the hands of the most curious reader. Although we have described how to bind a book properly and solidly, one could nevertheless give it other features which are at the disposal of the bookbinder, but which are not done except according to the will of the people who order the work to be done; these techniques are marbling the edge of books, instead of putting bole on it, gilding the edge and also making gold decorations on the covering; in this regard we are going to give all the clarifications that we were able to procure for ourselves on these articles. When one wants to marble the edge, one does this instead of rouging it; the marbling is ordinarily done with red and blue, these colors are arranged in such a way that they touch each other, without mixing exactly; one lightly touches the edge on top, and one lets it dry, after which one continues the same operations as if the edge had been rouged, in the case where one would want it only marbled ; or if the book is destined to be edge-gilded, one must also marble it, and when it is dry one presses it between two boards thicker on top than on bottom, such that being strongly tightened, neither the undercoating nor the egg white smears or penetrates between the leaves; when the book is thus held, one scrapes the edge with the scraper, [34] which is a small iron tool, curved and wide at the end with a wooden handle, and which being a bit sharp, easily lifts what might remain of the faults and unevenness after the cutting, and the little inequalities that can happen in the marbling; on that edge thus scraped, is laid the undercoating, [a] composition made with Armenian bole, sanguine, graphite, a little suet, or even better soap, and candy sugar; one boils these separately, one mixes them next to boil again all together, one steeps them in gelatin, [35] sufficiently hot and reasonably strong, and one applies it on the marbling; one lets it dry, and when it is sufficiently dry, one glaires it lightly with one part beaten egg white and two parts water, all mixed and beaten together, after which one applies the gold with dividers [ compas brisé ] whose two branches the worker opens more or less according to the amount of gold leaf he wants to apply to the edge, rubbing the branches against his cheek so as to give them sufficient warmth to snap up the gold; [36] these dividers are iron, and resemble a pair of scissors without rings; it is from this tool that it takes its name, the tack that joins the two branches not being at the end as in ordinary dividers, but in the middle like scissors;  [37] when the edge is gilt one lets it dry, and when it is sufficiently dry, one burnishes it; then the rest is done as with rouged or marbled books; by a series of indispensable steps, so to speak, when a book is edge-gilded, one also finishes [38] the cover, but this finishing is only done when the book is entirely bound; to apply the gold one glaires the leather lightly with a small brush to places where one must pass the finishing tools, and when it is half dry, one puts on top the gold leaves, sized with a knife to the appropriate length, on which one next presses punches or rolls fillets, both of them at a reasonable heat; the punches are types of stamps on some of which are engraved letters or punctuation, on others roses or stars; all these different tools have different names, according to the things that are engraved on them; they are called hand tools [ petits fers ] in general; one uses the punches by applying them hot and flat against the places where one wants their imprint to appear. Finally, the fillets are little iron [39] wheels embedded between two branches, also iron, to which they are held in the middle with a spindle, also of iron, that traverses the middle of their diameter as an axel effectively traverses a chariot wheel; these little wheels are more or less large; on the edge of some one sees engraved a sort of lace or embroidery, others only mark several lines together, still others only mark one; to use these fillets one makes them roll, when they are sufficiently hot, along an iron rule, and thus they print, on the part of the spine of the book where they pass, the different ornaments that are engraved on their contour; when the finishing is achieved, one picks up with a moderately stiff brush the extra gold, such that the gilding remains only in the places where the hot irons made their impression: the bookbinder having thus exhausted the resources of his art, and having joined the pleasant with the useful, can enjoy the pleasure of seeing his work admired. See the Plates.

1. In other words, to crease particularly the folds that would later be cut, to allow for further folding of the sheet in those sizes smaller than folio that require more than one fold.

2. Rather than translating all of the units of measure to metric or imperial within the text, the following guidelines are provided so the reader might translate for himself when necessary: since Antiquity the base unit of measure was the foot ( pied ), divided by four to produce the hand ( main ) and again by four to arrive at the finger ( doigt ), or in other words, 1 foot = 4 hands = 16 fingers. From the start of the Middle Ages these divisions were abandoned and the foot was instead divided by twelve, giving the inch ( pouce ), line ( ligne ), and point ( point ) respectively, or in other words, 1 foot = 12 inches = 144 lines = 1728 points. (These same unit names are still used universally by printers.) These are the measurements most commonly used throughout this and the other bookbinding articles. In today’s measurements, a French foot is 12.792 inches or 32.48 mm; a French inch is 1.066 inches or 27.07 mm; a French line is 0.089 inches or 2.256 mm; and a French point is 0.0074 inches or 0.188 mm).

3. See the article Signature.

4. Celui ou celle , indicates that the worker who folds could be either a man or a woman.

5. He says “sheets” throughout this paragraph but is speaking about the group of sheets.

6. See the article Beaten section.

7. See the article Press boards.

8. These four presses are described in detail in the article Press.

9. Jumelles, see Bookbinding Plate IV, Fig. 1 A A

10. Le mouton. According to the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française 4th Edition (1762), mouton may refer to a large piece of wood reinforced with iron. This word, however, is not used in the description of the plates, and because I don’t think we have a term for this piece in English I’ll use the same description here as in Plate IV, Figure 1 G.

11. In English bookbinding a laying press with one smooth side (used as the backing press here) and one side with rails to direct the plow (used as the cutting press here) would be used, and flipped upside-down as necessary to utilize the two sides.

12. L’âne ou porte-presse; literally the ass or press-bearer, which makes the French explanation fit. In English, however, the name comes from the old practice of simply putting this press on an old barrel or tub in order to catch the scraps of paper in trimming, and from the shape that the stand then came to take when made specifically for the press.

13. La presse à tranche – filer . There is another not mentioned here, described in Press , used for edge gilding that I would call the finishing press.

14. See the article Beaten section.

15. Sciot ou scie à seule branche: The term sciot is a diminutive of scie, i.e. “small saw” –-it may be a specific term from another trade or just a general unofficial one.

16. Fer (iron)—I assume the author means steel here.

17. Here it is worth noting that sewing frames today are table-top objects, but as that shown in the first plate is a freestanding table, the word might better be translated sewing table. Since, however, that isn’t said in English, the traditional sewing frame will be used. The only differences in the two objects would be size, and the built-in legs on the latter.

18. My guess is that these were brass and “copper” here means “copper alloy” as in the rest of the bookbinding articles. Copper would be too soft not to bend under this pressure over time.

19. This must be a mistake; it should say “parchment” here instead of “bands.”

20. The author does not use a different word for “paste” and “[animal] glue”, but calls the former “glue” and the latter “strong glue.”

21. Plate III: the two feet of the plow, figs. 2 and 3 ; the two guide-rails, figs. 5 and 6 ; a wooden screw, fig. 4 ; a knife, fig. 7 ; an iron screw, fig. 8 ; a nut, fig. 9 ; and a key, fig. 10.

22. The blade is angled on both sides, with the point in the middle, as opposed to the English-style plow blades which are rounded at the tip.

23. Tringle (batten), but elsewhere he admits that this batten is really a board (i.e. wider than “batten” would indicate.)

24. Referring here to the margin of the text, not the amount of board extending past the textblock.

25. Known in English as a fleshing knife.

26. Presumably leftover tannage

27. Goat leather (but this term also refers to a specific type of goat skin that came from Morocco)

28. Sheep leather

29. In the case of these first two leathers, the animal would likely be mature, whereas calf would of course be the immature animal, so this ruining may be describing shrinkage. The vellum, of course, would not need more scraping or dampening and would react violently to changes in moisture content.

30. (The back-cornered corners, that is.)

31. A thin and dense cord. See Dictionnaire de l'Académie française (1694).

32. The original French describes it as “marbling.”

33. Plate III figure 22.

34. Not the same scraper as used for the spine, rather a sharp blade without teeth.

35. Colle de parchemin; i.e. animal glue obtained from extracting gelatin by heating scraps of parchment in water. The temperature should not exceed about 60 degrees, at which point the proteins in the gelatin would denature.

36. It’s really more likely that slight grease or static would be transferred to the dividers rather than heat; both of which would attract the gold.

37. Compas brisé, literally “broken dividers,” a tool used by gilders. The same description is found in the article on gilding in Jacques Savary des Bruslons, Dictionnaire universel de commerce (Paris, 1748), 2: 916. “This compass which is of iron, is more like a pair of scissors without rings than like the instrument of that name, which it hardly resembles at all; the nail, which connects the two branches, being not at the end as in the Compass, but in the middle, as in scissors.”

38. Here the problem with the English vocabulary is that “gilding” is used only for edges, while “finishing” describes applying gold to the covering, while in French dorure (“gilding”) is used for everything.

39. In the individual articles on hand tools the metal is identified as copper (alloy), almost certainly brass.