Suave Mechanicals: Essays on the History of Bookbinding, Volume 1

Nine authors writing on nine topics. This collection of essays, published as the first volume of a series of studies on the history of bookbinding, sets a high standard for interesting and groundbreaking scholarship in the history of the book.

Extensively illustrated, with an additional DVD containing more images.

Evyn Kropf: Historical Repair, Recycling, and Recovering Phenomena in the Islamic Bindings of the University of Michigan Library: Exploring the Codicological Evidence
Sylvie L. Merian: Protection against the Evil Eye? Votive Offerings on Armenian Manuscript Bindings
Consuela G. Metzger: Colonial Blankbooks in the Winterthur Library
Robert J. Milevski: A Primer on Signed Bindings
Julia Miller: Not Just Another Beautiful Book: A Typology of American Scaleboard Bindings
Jeffrey S. Peachey: Beating, Rolling, and Pressing: The Compression of Signatures in Bookbinding Prior to Sewing
Martha E. Romero: European Influence in the Binding of Mexican Printed Books of the Sixteenth Century
Jennifer W. Rosner: Papier-Mache Bindings: Shining in Black, Gorgeous with Pearl and Gold
John Townsend: The 1715 Mohawk Prayer Book: A Study of Six Copies in Colonial American Scaleboard Bindings