Recommended Readings

We encourage The History of Bookbinding from 200 to 1900: A Structure-Based Perspective attendees to complete recommended readings to prepare for the workshop.

French, Hannah Dustin. “Early American Bookbinding by Hand, 1636-1820.” In Bookbinding in America. 2nd ed. Ed. H. Lehmann-Haupt, 1-127. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1967.

Miller, Julia. Books Will Speak Plain: A Handbook for Identifying and Describing Historical Bindings, The Legacy Press, December 2010; second printing released in February 2012. Second edition, 2014. Third edition, 2023. Read: Introduction and Chapters 1-4. Any edition is fine, but the 3rd edition is preferred.

Miller, Julia. Tradition and Individuality: Bindings from the University of Michigan Greek Manuscript Collection. Ann Arbor, Mich.: The Legacy Press, 2021. Read: Introduction and Chapter 1.

Miller, Julia. Meeting by Accident: Selected Historical Bindings. Ann Arbor, Mich.: The Legacy Press, 2018. Read: Chapter 5, “A Gift from the Desert: A Report on the Nag Hammadi Codices,” co-authored with Pamela Spitzmueller, pages 420-468.

Pearson, David: “Common or Garden: The Interest of Ordinary Bindings.” Bookbinder 21 (2007) 13-25.

Pickwoad, Nicholas. “Onward and Downward: How Binders Coped with the Printing Press before 1800.” In A Millennium of the Book: Production, Design & Illustration in Manuscript & Print, 900-1900. Eds. Robin Myers and Michael Harris, 61-106. New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Press, 1994.

Szirmai, J.A. The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding. Aldershot, U.K. and Brookfield, Vermont: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 1999. Read: In preparation, read Chapters 1-3. The entire book should be read; this is an essential resource in your library.