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CHAPTER V.

ENGLISH BINDING AND BINDERS, FROM THE INVEN-TION OF PRINTING TO THE EIGHTEENTH CBNTURr,IN REFERENCE TO THE STYLES OF WORKMANSHIP,AND SOME OTHER INCIDENTAL FECtJLIARITIES.

In tracing’ the history of English bookbinding, asmore particularly connected with the materials usedand stvle adopted by the successive races ofbookbinders, other facts illustrative of the art,during the period embraced in the previous chapter,have been introduced, but many others remain to berecorded. We shall, therefore, in now taking aview of the peculiarities, manner, and execution ofbindings in two periods, viz. the sixteenth andseventeenth centuries, introduce such records as havebeen met with further illustrative of the subject.

The influence of circumstances is seen in the ex-terior of early printed books and manuscripts, boundafter the invention of printing. Luxury and splen-dour were studied by the great, and a considerabledegree of elegance by all classes of scholars, which