Italian blocked binding

The book is bound in brown morocco with a contemporary Italian blocked binding, the sides blocked in gilt, gold tooled inscriptions in centre, gilt spine. The edges are gilt and gauffered. Gauffering (or goffering) is a repeated pattern on the edges of the book and a form of additional ornamentation.

The binding of a book protects the contents, holding the pages together. Bindings may be entirely utilitarian in cloth or even paperbacked, or may be richly and elaborately decorative, custom-designed for a particular purchaser or designed to reflect the contents of the book itself.

Types of decoration on bindings include:

• Blind tooling where an impression is made on the leather without the use of gold or other colour to highlight it. This style can be dated back to the 8^th century and has been used continuously since. Sometimes it is used in conjunction with gold tooling as a contrast.
• Panel-stamps where the sides are impressed with a large plate or block, or by several large ones to create a design. This is less labor intensive than a design created by the small tool technique, and can produce good pictorial effects. They were largely used during the 15^th and 16^th centuries.
• Gold blocking and gold tooling are two different methods which achieve a similar result. Gold blocking was a development of blind-blocking. It became popular during the reign of Elizabeth I and was usually carried out on religious works, and endeavoured to make cheaply produced books look more valuable. Blocks bearing the design were pressed into the moistened leather. Gold leaf was then laid on. Refinements of this basic method continue to be used.
• Gold tooling is considered to have been introduced to Europe in the mid-1400s and spread to England by the end of the century. It was another century before it was widely adopted. In this method small tools are used to apply a variety of small designs, which together combine to create a larger pattern. The combination of different tools varied the pattern that could be applied. Paper patterns were used from about 1830 to produce blind impressions, which could then be tooled in gold without the risk of errors showing on the leather.

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