page_title: Bookbinding
section_title: Introduction of paper
hierarchical_section_title: Bookbinding / History / Introduction of paper
caption_attribution_description: English: Gilded book cover of antique Jewish prayer book "Hannah"., हिन्दी: प्राचीन यहूदी प्रार्थना पुस्तक "हन्नाह" का गिल्ड बुक कवर
context_page_description: Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book of codex format from an ordered stack of paper sheets that are folded together into sections or sometimes left as a stack of individual sheets. The stack is then bound together along one edge by either sewing with thread through the folds or by a layer of flexible adhesive. Alternative methods of binding that are cheaper but less permanent include loose-leaf rings, individual screw posts or binding posts, twin loop spine coils, plastic spiral coils, and plastic spine combs. For protection, the bound stack is either wrapped in a flexible cover or attached to stiff boards. Finally, an attractive cover is adhered to the boards, including identifying information and decoration. Book artists or specialists in book decoration can also greatly enhance a book's content by creating book-like objects with artistic merit of exceptional quality.
  Before the computer age, the bookbinding trade involved two divisions.
context_section_description: Although early, coarse hempen paper had existed in China during the Western Han period (202 BC - 9 AD), the Eastern-Han Chinese court eunuch Cai Lun (ca. 50 AD – 121 AD) introduced the first significant improvement and standardization of papermaking by adding essential new materials into its composition.
  Bookbinding in medieval China replaced traditional Chinese writing supports such as bamboo and wooden slips, as well as silk and paper scrolls. The evolution of the codex in China began with folded-leaf pamphlets in the 9th century AD, during the late Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), improved by the 'butterfly' bindings of the Song dynasty (960-1279 AD), the wrapped back binding of the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), the stitched binding of the Ming (1368-1644 AD) and Qing dynasties (1644-1912), and finally the adoption of Western-style bookbinding in the 20th century (coupled with the European printing press that replaced traditional Chinese printing methods). The initial phase of this evolution, the accordion-folded palm-leaf-style book, most likely came from India and was introduced to China via Buddhist missionaries and scriptures.
  With the arrival (from the East) of rag paper manufacturing in Europe in the late Middle Ages and the use of the printing press beginning in the mid-15th century, bookbinding began to standardize somewhat, but page sizes still varied considerably. Paper leaves also meant that heavy wooden boards and metal furniture were no longer necessary to keep books closed, allowing for much lighter pasteboard covers. The practice of rounding and backing the spines of books to create a solid, smooth surface and "shoulders" supporting the textblock against its covers facilitated the upright storage of books and titling on spine. This became common practice by the close of the 16th century but was consistently practiced in Rome as early as the 1520s.
  In the early sixteenth century, the Italian printer Aldus Manutius realized that personal books would need to fit in saddle bags and thus produced books in the smaller formats of quartos (one-quarter-size pages) and octavos (one-eighth-size pages).
  Leipzig, a prominent centre of the German book-trade, in 1739 had 20 bookshops, 15 printing establishments, 22 book-binders and three type-foundries in a population of 28,000 people.
  In the German book-distribution system of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the end-user buyers of books "generally made separate arrangements with either the publisher or a bookbinder to have printed sheets bound according to their wishes and their budget".
  The reduced cost of books facilitated cheap lightweight Bibles, made from tissue-thin oxford paper, with floppy covers, that resembled the early Arabic Qurans, enabling missionaries to take portable books with them around the world, and modern wood glues enabled the addition of paperback covers to simple glue bindings.
caption: Early 20th-century leather book cover, with gold leaf ornamentation
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