Bookbinding

We all know that Gutenberg invented moveable type for his printing press in the 15th Century, but people had been putting books together long before they could mass produce them.  Different cultures tackled the problem in various fascinating ways, dependent on what materials they had on hand, starting in the 1st Century BC.  To keep this post a little focused, I'm going to focus on the European tradition.
    European books are thought to have originated in Greece.  Scrolls were felt to be too unwieldy (even the cool double rolled type) for referencing various parts of the text.  To address this issue, scrolls began to be folded accordion style.  Eventually (200AD?), pages were folded into quires (in half), stitched together, and bound into a codex, making the first book. 
    Ground materials for writing have taken many shapes.  Wood, ivory and bronze have all been used.  The Romans recorded business accounts on tablets that had been dipped in wax.  Papyrus was employed by the Egyptians, but it was not a good material for folding and proved susceptible to moisture, degrading within 100 years in non-arid climates.  A plentiful resource, most records were kept on papyrus until the 4th Century AD, when it was overtaken by parchment.  Parchment is made from any animal skin (vellum being specifically from cows) and if maintained properly can last for 1,000 years.  Paper made from linen rags began to be available in Europe around the 10th Century, becoming commonly used for small cheap texts around 1400AD.  Parchment was more durable and provided a better material to write on, but paper was less expensive.  With the advent of printing and the eventual increase in paper quality, paper came to dominate the market.
    If you've ever folded paper, you know that after a certain number of sheets, the thickness begins to build up, pushing the outer sheet further and further out of line.  To prevent this, multiple quires (or gatherings) are used to form larger books, each with a signature to mark its position in the book (before page numbers).  A screw press or a beating stone and hammer were used to flatten the pages and allow them to lie closer together.  After being pressed, the pages are then evened up with a very sharp knife.  These flattened quires were then sewn together to produce the form we know today.
    Bindings have evolved significantly over the years.  Early books had simple soft covers, with the quires sewn directly into the cover.  In the Middle Ages, the quires were generally sewn onto bands which sat at right angles to the spine, with techniques varying from place to place.  Once sewn together, these pages were usually attached to quarter-inch thick wooden boards (wood varied by region).  Boards were originally of the same dimensions as the pages, but later grew larger to protect the pages (ca 1200).  The bands (holding the pages) were usually attached to the boards with wooden pegs.  At this point, the book could be complete, or the wooden boards could be further covered with leather (other materials may have been common, but have not survived as well).  Clasps might be used to hold the book closed (vellum could absorb humidity) and bosses were employed to protect the corners and surface.  Over time, the boards decreased in thickness and started to be attached to each other and finally to the parchment.  Even after paper came to take over the market, end pages were often made of parchment to protect the contents. 
    Well, that was fun.  Maybe it helped spark your imagination as well.  I'm a little disturbed by how much information I had to cut to make this post somewhat intelligible.  I didn't venture into the business side, or even the first thing about the artists who did the writing and illumination (another post, woo-hoo).  This was a journey, exploring how much I don't know about a topic.  Unsurprisingly, that volume of material is enormous.  If you liked the above, feel free to read more of my stuff and check out the sites listed below.  I am far from an expert on this one.  As always, if you have something to add, or you feel I screwed something up, let me know.  I'm always happy to hear form you.    

http://www.sydneybookbinding.com/bookbinding-classes/coptic-book/

Medieval Bookbinding (very accessible) http://web.ceu.hu/medstud/manual/MMM/bookbinding.html
History and How-To - http://www.antithetical.org/restlesswind/plinth/bookbind2.html
Power Point on Binding - http://staff.lib.msu.edu/alstrom/presentations/bindinghistory.html
Medieval European Bindings (dense)  - http://futureofthebook.com/medieval-bookbinding/
General History of European Books - http://www.leatherboundtreasure.com/history_of_books.html
Highly Detailed (14th C on) - http://www.aboutbookbinding.com/Books/Book-Binding-5.html
World Bookbinding History - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookbinding