#bookbindings

Re-binding the Disintegrating Book

I am not blogging this book today, but merely its binding, or rather its re-binding. More than once now I have gotten my hands on a hardcover or a softcover books whose binders should have been ashamed of themselves. Said book’s binding disintegrated upon reading. And with cookbooks and craft books, this is especially annoying as you hoped to use them repeatedly.

There is a solution: get yourself to your local copy shop and see that they can do for you. If there is enough of an inside margin, they will offer you a few options for re-binding and for what to do about the cover, and, voila, your book is back in good shape.

A View from Above

These images come from a late Sixteenth Century printing of the Dietenberger Bible. Dietenberger undertook this translation (from Latin Vulgate into vernacular German) shortly after the Protestant Reformation. Dietenberger's Bible varied from the Lutheran version, which modified key passages considered integral to Catholic tradition. Dietenberger's work was just one of several Catholic Bible translations published in the wake of the reformation.

Images from: Dietenberger, Johannes. Catholische Bibell Das ist Alle Bücher der H. Schrifft beide Alts vñ Newen Testamēts. Zu Cöln : Durch Geruinum Calenium / vnd die Erben Johan Quentels, im Jar 1571.

Call Number: BS237 1571

Luxury Bookbinding of the Belle Époque, 1879 Front doublure Binding by: Victor Champs (French; 1844–1912) The New York Public Library, Spencer Collection

Shelf Reading in Special Collections

For those of you not familiar with library lingo, shelf reading is the process of checking a collection for improperly shelved materials.

Without patrons, we are now getting a chance in Special Collections to do some collection care. Check card catalog, check shelf, repeat ad nauseam. Shelf reading is never terribly exciting, but we have found some interesting bindings.