Bibliomania in the Middle Ages | Page 3

Theodore De Vinne's
Invention of Printing, will, we think, be found interesting:
"The size most in fashion was that now known as the demy folio, of
which the leaf is about ten inches wide and fifteen inches long, but
smaller sizes were often made. The space to be occupied by the written
text was mapped out with faint lines, so that the writer could keep his
letters on a line, at even distance from each other and within the
prescribed margin. Each letter was carefully drawn, and filled in or
painted with repeated touches of the pen. With good taste, black ink
was most frequently selected for the text; red ink was used only for the
more prominent words, and the catch-letters, then known as the
rubricated letters. Sometimes texts were written in blue, green, purple,
gold or silver inks, but it was soon discovered that texts in bright color
were not so readable as texts in black.
"When the copyist had finished his sheet he passed it to the designer,
who sketched the border, pictures and initials. The sheet was then given
to the illuminator, who painted it. The ornamentation of a mediæval
book of the first class is beyond description by words or by wood cuts.

Every inch of space was used. Its broad margins were filled with quaint
ornaments, sometimes of high merit, admirably painted in vivid colors.
Grotesque initials, which, with their flourishes, often spanned the full
height of the page, or broad bands of floriated tracery that occupied its
entire width, were the only indications of changes of chapter or subject.
In printer's phrase the composition was "close-up and solid" to the
extreme degree of compactness. The uncommonly free use of red ink
for the smaller initials was not altogether a matter of taste; if the page
had been written entirely in black ink it would have been unreadable
through its blackness. This nicety in writing consumed much time, but
the mediæval copyist was seldom governed by considerations of time
or expense. It was of little consequence whether the book he
transcribed would be finished in one or in ten years. It was required
only that he should keep at his work steadily and do his best. His skill
is more to be commended than his taste. Many of his initials and
borders were outrageously inappropriate for the text for which they
were designed. The gravest truths were hedged in the most childish
conceits. Angels, butterflies, goblins, clowns, birds, snails and monkeys,
sometimes in artistic, but much oftener in grotesque and sometimes in
highly offensive positions are to be found in the illuminated borders of
copies of the gospels and writings of the fathers.
"The book was bound by the forwarder, who sewed the leaves and put
them in a cover of leather or velvet; by the finisher, who ornamented
the cover with gilding and enamel. The illustration of book binding,
published by Amman in his Book of Trades, puts before us many of the
implements still in use. The forwarder, with his customary apron of
leather, is in the foreground, making use of a plow-knife for trimming
the edges of a book. The lying press, which rests obliquely against the
block before him, contains a book that has received the operation of
backing-up from a queer shaped hammer lying upon the floor. The
workman at the end of the room is sewing together the sections of a
book, for sewing was properly regarded as a man's work, and a
scientific operation altogether beyond the capacity of the raw
seamstress. The work of the finisher is not represented, but the brushes,
the burnishers, the sprinklers and the wheel-shaped gilding tools
hanging against the wall leave us no doubt as to their use. There is an

air of antiquity about everything connected with this bookbindery
which suggests the thought that its tools and usages are much older
than those of printing. Chevillier says that seventeen professional
bookbinders found regular employment in making up books for the
University of Paris, as early as 1292. Wherever books were produced in
quantities, bookbinding was set apart as a business distinct from that of
copying.
"The poor students who copied books for their own use were also
obliged to bind them, which they did in a simple but efficient manner
by sewing together the folded sheets, attaching them to narrow
parchment bands, the ends of which were made to pass through a cover
of stout parchment at the joint near the back. The ends of the bands
were then pasted down under the stiffening sheet of the cover, and the
book was pressed. Sometimes the cover was made flexible by the
omission of the stiffening sheet; sometimes the edges of the leaves
were protected by flexible and overhanging flaps which were made