The typographic design of old books is part of the way in which they persuaded their readers. It is from old books that we learn about typography and book design and can see them as technological achievements, as things of beauty, and as part of the history of art and of design. Bindings help us to know the owners and to see the book functioning as a means of communication and expression. Bookbinding is a refined decorative art, intimately related to the larger artistic movements, that expresses the place of the books in their eras. In addition, book illustrations are especially potent forms of imagery because of the relations of text and image.
Book illustration is an important part of the history of graphic art, both popular and refined.
They enhance the psychological and intellectual power of the book as well as its visual appeal. These are the factors that give to every old book its presence, like a personality or an aura, and make it an image of the mind and of the soul. Each old book expresses in its many aspects the main, leading, and dominant forces, changes, and themes of its day. There was nothing more powerful in influencing those forces than the printed book. Neither painting nor any other art or craft or medium of public communication shaped history more.