The first signs of bookbinding are dated back to the 1st century AD from the Roman Empire. Instead of scrolls and wax tablets, the Romans folded the papyrus and vellum and attached the sections together, inventing the so-called codices. By the 6th century AD, the scroll and wax tablet had been completely replaced by the codex in the Western world. Bindings from this period onwards were bound between hard covers, with pages made from parchment folded and sewn onto strong cords or ligaments that were attached to wooden boards and covered with leather. At first their spines were flat, the rounded and backed techniques first appeared in books from the 15th century. Luxury medieval books had leather covers decorated, often all over, with tooling, blind stamps (used in this video), and often small metal pieces of furniture (straps or clasps). They were used to secure the wooden covers of medieval books because vellum would react to humidity by swelling. During the same period when the rounded spine first appeared, techniques for fixing gold leaf under the tooling and stamps were imported from the Islamic world. The gold-tooled, as well as blind stamping, leather binding has remained the conventional choice for high quality bindings for collectors.
Since then a lot has changed, a lot has been learned. Nowadays, books are bound in many different styles, varying according to their value, age or the use to which they are to be put. In this video I show the making of a traditional binding that includes sewing on cords, spine rounding, backing and enforcing with linen, board preparation, leather paring and blind stamping. I hope you enjoy it! If you do, I would really appreciate if you like the video and subscribe.