Fran Kovac is a bookbinder in Columbus, Ohio, and teaches basic bookbinding techniques at the Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. She is ridiculously camera-shy, but has allowed me to to use a picture of her fingers sewing a link-stitch endband, very much like the endband for the Coptic structure she describes here.
While Rhonda was slaving away in John Townsend's Extreme Bookbinding (see her post, below), I was spending the week with a Late 6th Century Coptic structure taught by conservator and book historian Julia Miller. This is an exquisite structure that is a recreation of an extant manuscript known as "Chester Beatty Ms. 815" but also called "Codex C." The original has a parchment textblock sewn with a link stitch at three sewing stations, on papyrus boards. The book is leather covered with an inked design, with a wide wrapping band held with a bone clasp and an attached bookmark.
We began by making our papyrus boards. Pasteboard is simply a board made by laminating sheets of paper or papyrus together. Julia pointed out that there is evidence that boards were often made with fragments, scraps, inscribed sheets and bits of leather and vellum, pressed together, and in fact, we made samples with scraps left over from class. Codex C had papyrus boards, though, so for our books, we laminated papyrus until we had boards approximately 5 mm (~3/16") thick.
We used paper for our textblock, alas, parchment being rather expensive. I added one parchment end sheet to my model for the most verisimilitude I could afford. We folded and marked our textblocks for sewing. This link stitch is recessed in the original, so we carefully cut notches in our textblock to accept the thread. The sewing is rather different than that which is usually taught today: three stations, single needle, with the thread doubled inside each signature. A note about "Coptic" sewing: historically, not all link sewn books are Coptic in origin. We commonly use the terms interchangeably, but unless what's being talked about is an actual Coptic binding, such as Codex C, we should probably use the term "unsupported link stitch."
After sewing, we added link stitch end bands in colored thread, and lined the spine with linen. We made and decorated our bookmarks, wrapping band and bone clasp. The original clasp is vaguely fish shaped, with a single hole for the strap, and is undecorated except for some scratches. We used cold tooling and ink to decorate the bookmark and ink designs on the wrapping band.
We had lovely goatskin to work with to form the case with the papyrus boards. Goat, sheep, and other hides such as camel are believed to have been used in history. This is, essentially, a very early (the earliest?) case binding; the boards are not sewn to the textblock. The boards and leather were laid out pretty much as we would do today when making a case, although with extra wide turn-ins.
Inside front board showing the wrapping band attachment
The end sheets are pasted down to hold the textblock in place. Prior to putting in the textblock, however, holes are punched through the front board to accept the wrapping band and bookmark, and the tricky work of drawing the inked design began. The model of Codex C which was made shortly after its discovery served as our model for the design; it incorporated a Maltese cross, which seemed the wrong time period to me, so I incorporated a Coptic cross in its place.
My thanks to the extraordinary Julia Miller for another wonderful historic bookbinding class, and to Rhonda for the chance to talk about it!
Early multi-section Coptic codices
Dating from the 2nd century AD, the Copts used a chain stitch to bind multi-section books. In most documented cases, it seems that these books were sewn with a continuous thread and a single needle. The first and last sewing stations thus having half the number of loops as the other sewing stations. There are variations in the chain stitches from this period, though, since the technique was still in development. The cover would be made separately & attached after the textblock was sewn, covering the book completely including the spine. The textblock was attached by pasting it directly to the covers.
Later Coptic codies
After about the seventh century, there are very few extant Coptic bindings and most remnants are very badly damaged but it is evident that the chain stitch was still used. It also seems that the cover boards started being attached as part of the sewing process – unlike the separate attachment of the cover described above for the early Coptic codices.
Ethiopian Codices
Dating from about the sixteenth century, chain stitch binding had also evolved in Ethiopia. These books typically had paired sewing stations, sewn using two needles for each pair of sewing stations (so if there are 2 holes, use 2 needles…or 6 holes, 6 needles etc). The covers were wooden and attached by sewing through holes made into edge of the board. Most of these books were left uncovered without endbands.
Byzantine bindings
There were also Islamic bookbinding methods employing the link stitch, and Byzantine/Greek bookbinding methods using a link stitch. An interesting variation employed by the Greeks was sewing the sections in two groups, then joining them so the chains meet in the middle. This makes it look like the chain stitches change direction in the middle of the row. The Byzantine bindings are more likely to have elaborate endbands which are worked onto supports and anchored to the cover boards through holes in the boards. These books typically had full leather coverings.
This quick summary is largely based on information in Szirmai’s text, The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding. There are five chapters dedicated to link stitch bindings so this is really a miniscule summary of what I read.
There is some debate surrounding the various terms used to described the chain stitch binding methods that are so often used today, especially concerning the very loose application of the term "Coptic binding." Ekthesis has a nice article about the Coptic binding which includes some discussion of these issues.
Photo courtesy of The Crafty Kitten
Originally posted to the BEST Blog, Oct 2007
When I was preparing for the local craft market that I mentioned previously, I prepared the signatures and the covers for these six journals. I had the covers made, pressed, dried, and the signatures were folded and pressed and I took them with me to the sale to work on if there was any downtime. I got only two of them bound while I was there, each are sewn with four rows of chain stitches, or the small-c-coptic sewings. Now I've finished the others and added the buttons and ribbons.
Here is a beautiful example of a leather-covered spine, from Kaija, Paperiaarre. Thanks for finding that perfect example for me, Astrid!
And since I was in chain stitch mode, I made some itty bitty books too, but without the endbands:
My first limited edition artist's book: Tying Knots. I created the illustrations and wrote the instructions for eight different knots, and used them to make this book. Actually I made two of these books, a very limited edition of two. The pages are eska board covered with laser printed parchment paper. The covers have woodgrain printed fabric backed with mulberry paper. Brass findings on the front cover are used to attach two ropes. The ropes can be removed and used to practice the knots, of course. The binding is a Coptic-type chain stitch. One of these books spent some time at Another Room in Alameda, California. 
About a month ago I participated in a workshop about the single quire Coptic books that were discovered in 1945. There were 13 of these books stashed in a jar in Egypt since the 3rd or 4th Century! These books are often called the Nag Hammadi codices. There is a previous blog entry about the workshop.
The covers on the original books were lined with papyrus to stiffen the covers. I didn't have any papyrus, so these are stiffened with just heavy paper. And I used some great Japanese papers as end papers pasted down on the inside of the covers. The best thing about these, is the single quire. The text block is just one thick stack of paper folded in half. These each have 40 sheets of paper (compared to 8 that I normally have per section). I pressed these for a week to get them to stay folded satisfactorily. Blue and sage leathers inlaid, lined on the inside with handmade paper. Long stitch binding through the spine and decorative stitching on the covers in white linen.  Hardcover multi-signature coptic sewing. Black leather with raised letters on the front.  Portfolio case custom fit to this book. I backed the fabric myself. Leather label on the spine with gold lettering.  Japanese box. Dark green book cloth with paper lining. This is now my bookbinding toolbox.  Japanese wrap-around case, custom fit to these two Japanese butterfly books.  Rebound copy of Jonson's Lives of the Poets. Leather spine and new cloth covers. I found this cloth at a drapery store and backed it myself. Leather label on the spine with gold lettering.  Rebound copy of the Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music. This was originally a perfect-bound paperback. Brown bookcloth spine and hand marbled papers. Leather label on the spine with gold lettering.  Rebound copy of The Cat in the Hat. Scanned then printed the image for the new front covers.  One of my first attempts at making a girdle book.  'Our Stars' - Accordian fold artist's book with flaps and pockets, pull-out tags, found images, and quotes.  Japanese multi-page scroll.  Accordian fold with little pamphlets sewn into some of the valleys. This was made as a birthday card with photos and text.  Little Red Riding Hood tunnel book. A case structure, with the tunnel book attached on one side and a pamphlet containing the story attached to the other side.  Expirimental binding: sections sewn onto stiff hemp twine. Leather cover.  Photo album and matching photo storage box. Japanese chyiogami paper.  Japanese stab bindings, hemp leaf pattern. |
