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works were originally written upon tables of lead, and deposited!!in the temple ot the Muses, m Bceot:a. The ten commandments, jjdelivered to Moses, were written upon stone; and Solon ’s lawsupon wooden planks. Tables of wood, box, and ivory, were 'common among the ancients. When oi wood, they were fre-quently covered w th wax, that people might write upon themwith more ease, or blot out what they had written. The leavesof the paim-tree were, a.lerwarcis used instead of wooden planks,and the finest and thinnest part of the bark of trees, particularlyof the tiiia, philiyrea, papyrus, the lime, the ash, the maple, andthe elm. Hence the word liber, which s.gnihes the inner bark oftrees : and as these barks were rolled tip, in order to be removedwith greater ease, these rolls were called volumina, volumes: aname afterwards given to rolls of paper ami parchment. Linen,silk, and horn, have also been used tor writing, and lastly paperitself. Barks appear still in some measure retained for books incertain northern countries, as among the Calmnc Tartars, where alibrary was discovered by the Russians . The books were exceed-ingly long, the leaves very thick, and made of barks of trees,smeared over with double varnish; the ink, or writing, beingwhite on a black ground. We find in Signior Castagnatta’s ac-count of asbestos, a scheme for making books, which, from theimperishable nature of their materials, he is for calling the booksof eternity. The leaves he proposes to be of the asbestos paper ;the covers of a thicker sort of work of the same matter, and thewhole sewed together with thread spun from the same substance.The things to be commemorated in them were to be written inletters of gold ; so that the whole matter being incombustibleand everlastingly permanent against the force of all the elements,and subject to no changes from fire, water, or air, must remainfor ever, and always preserve the writings committed to them.He carried his project so far as to make paper from the asbestos,quite soft and tractable, and capable of being thickened or thinnedat pleasure, yet in either state equally resisting the fire. Thefirst books were in the form of blocks and tables; but as llexiblematter came to be wrote on, it was found more convenient tomake them in the form of rolls. These were composed of severalsheets fastened to each other, and rolled upon a stick, or umbi-licus ; the whole making a kind of column or cylinder, whichwas to be managed by the umbilicus as a handle, it being reputeda crime to take hold of the roll itself. The outside of the volumewas called frons; the ends of the umbilicus, cornua, which wereusually carved, and adorned with silver, ivory, or even gold and.precious stones. The title, truMafio;, was struck on the outside;the whole volume, when extended, might make a yard and a halfwide, and 50 long. This form was long in use among the ancientJews, Greeks, Indians, Persians , and Romans. The form whichnow prevails is the square, composed of separate leaves; whichwas also known, though little used by the ancients; having beeninvented by Attains king of Pergamus, who also invented parch-ment. This form has now prevailed for so many ages, that fewMSS. in the roll form are extant. Montfaucon only met withtwo among all the ancient Greek MSS. he had seen. The orderand arrangement of letters into lines and pages, with points, mar-gins, and oilier appurtenants, have undergone many variations.—At first the letters were only divided into lines; then into sepa-rate words ; which by degrees were noted with accents, and dis-tributed, by points and stops, into periods, paragraphs, chapters,ire. In some countries, as among the orientals, the lines beganfrom the right, and ran leftward ; in others, as the northern andwestern nations, from left to right; others, as the Greeks fol :lowed both directions, alternately going in the one and return-ing in the other, called Boustrophedon. In most countries, thelines run from one side to the other; in some, particularly theChinese , from top to bottom. The multitude of books has beenlung complained of: the complaint is as old as Solomon, wholived 3000 years ago ; they are grown too numerous not only toprocure and read, but to see, to learn the names of, or even tonumber. As knowledge, however, is naturally advantageous, andas every man ought to be in the way of information, even a super-fluity of books is not without its use, since hereby they arebrought to obtrude themselves on us, and engage us when wehave least design. This advantage, an ancient father observes,we owe to the multiplicity of books oil the same subject, thatone falls in the way of one man, and another best suits the level orthe apprehension of another. “ Every thing that is written (says

lief does not come into the hands of all persons: periups somemay meet with my books, who may hear nothing of others, whichhave treated better ot the same subject, it is of service, therefore,that the same questions be handled by several persons, and afterdifferent methods, though all on the same principles, tiiat the ex-plications of difficulties a.id arguments for the truth may come'to the knowledge of every one by one way or other.” '1 lie mul-titude of books, before the invention of printing, w;!s the onlysecurity against the t<5tai loss of them ; it is this that lias preservedthem against the injuries of lime, the rage of tyrants, the zeal ofprosecutors, and the ravages of barbarians; and ‘ handed themdown, through long intervals of darkness and ignorance, safe toour days. Solaque non norunt luec monumeiila mori : Books arethe only immortal monuments. By 8 Anne, c. It), the anther ofany book, and his assigns, shall have the sole liberty of printingand reprinting the same for fourteen years, to commence fromthe day of the first publication thereof, and no longer; exceptthat if tlie author be living, at the expiration of the said term,the sole copyright shall return to him for other fourteen years :and if any other person shall print, or import, or shall sell orexpose it to sale, he shall forfeit the same, and also one pennyfor every sheet thereof, found in his possession. But this shallnot expose any person to the said forfeitures, unless the titlethereof shall he entered in the register-book of the Company ofStationers. By statute eleven copies of eacli book, on the "bestpaper, shall, before publication, be delivered to the warehouse-keeper ol the Company of Stationers, for liie use of the RoyalLibrary, the libraries of the two univcisities in England, the louruniversities in Scotland , the library of Sion College, the librarybelonging to the College of Advocates in Edinburgh , the libraryof Trimly College Dublin, and the King’s Inn, Dublin , on painof forfeiting the value thereof, and also five pounds. By Stat. 34Geo. III. c. 20, and 41 Geo. III. c. 107, persons importing forsale books first printed within the united kingdom, and reprintedin any oilier such books shall be seized and forfeited ; and everyperson so exposing such books to sale for every such offcHceshall forfeit the sum of ten pounds. The penalties not to extendto books not having been printed for twenty years. By the actof union, 40 Geo. III. c. 67, all prohibitions and bounties on theexport of articles (the produce and manufacture of either country)to the other shall cease; and a countervailing duty of two-pencefor every pound weight avoirdupois of books bound or unbound,and of maps or prints, imported into Great Britain directly fromIreland, or which shall be imported into Ireland from Great Bri-tain , is substituted.

BOOK-BINDING , the art of gathering together and sewingthe sheets of a book, and covering it with a back, kc. It is per-formed thus: The leaves are first folded with a folding-stick, andlaid over each other in tne order of the signature; then beatenon a stone witli a hammer to make them smooth and open well ;and afterwards pressed. They are sewed upon hands, which arepieces of cord or packthread ; six bands to a folio book ; five toa 4to, bvo, 3cc. which is done by Thawing a thread through themiddle of eacli sheet, and giving it a turn round each hand, be-ginning with the first and proceeding to the last. After this thebooks are glued, and the bands opened and scraped, for the bet-ter fixing the pasteboards; the back is turned with a hammer, andthe book fixed in a press between two boards, in order to make agroove for fixing the pasteboards; these being applied to the sidesof tlie book, holes are made for fastening them to it, when it ispressed a third time. Then tlie hook is at last put to the cutting-press, betwixt two boards; the one lying even with tlie press, forthe knife to run upon ; the other above it for tlie knife to rimagainst: after which the pasteboards are squared. The' next ope-ration is the sprinkling the leaves of the book ; which is done bydipping a brush into Vermillion or sap green, holding tlie brushin one hand, and spreading tlie hair with the other; by whichmotion tlie edges of the leaves are sprinkled in a regular manner,without any spots being bigger than tlie others. There remaintlie covers, which are either of call-skin or of sheep-skin : thesebeing moistened in water are cut out to tlie size of tlie book;then smeared over with paste made of wheat-flour: and after-wards stretched over the pasteboard on the outside, and doubledj over tlie edges withindde ; after having first taken off die fourI angles, and indented and platted tlie cover at the head-band ;

which done, tlie book is covered, and bound firmly between two*' boards