Bookbinding

A bookbinding is the hard or soft cover that fastens and protects the book block, as well as the art of making such a cover. In the manuscript and early printed book, the binding was usually made of boards (hence the expression 'to read from board to board'), covered with leather, cloth, or velvet. Leather bindings were decorated with tooling (blind or gold), metal corner-pieces, center-pieces, and clasps, while precious liturgical books had covers (oklads) of silver, gold, enamel, and gemstones. The binding is an important source for dating, localizing, and establishing the provenance of a book: from the technique, the ornamentation of the tooling, super-ex-libris, and owners' coats of arms, one can determine the workshop, time, and ownership of a copy. Sumptuously decorated bindings were had by Old Rus' altar Gospels and Ukrainian old prints. Bindings, as part of the material history of the book, are studied by codicology and bibliology; the restoration of historical bindings is a separate area of conservation.