Bookbinding and materials

Bookbinding

Bookbinding protects the book and gives it shape. In hand binding, the gatherings are sewn onto cords or tapes, placed between boards of card or wood and covered in leather, parchment or cloth.

Bookbinding materials include paper for endpapers, thread, glue, board, leather and gold leaf. Heated bronze tools are used to decorate the covers and spine: finishing tools with individual motifs, fillets for drawing lines, and gilding rolls, wheels that print a continuous border.

The binding press holds the book while it is worked, and the embossing press stamps designs in relief without ink.

The MUNAG has one of the largest collections of gilding tools, along with book covers, spines, leather samples and binding presses.