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LEFT BOOK BINDING 109 BOOKKEEPING took in the world) is the "Papyrus Prisse," which must be assigned to a Tery early period of Egyptian history, probably prior to the 12th dynasty — t. e., at least 2000 B. c. Owing to its wonder- ful adaptability to literary purposes, the prepared papyrus tissue (see Papyrus) spread to Greece (at least before the time of Herodotus) and to Rome; and though it was so far supplanted, es- pecially in certain regions, by the finer kinds of prepared skins — the material used by the Jews, Persians, and other Oriental nations — it maintained its posi- tion as a book material down to the 10th century A. D. Ali Ibn el Azhad, in 920, describes the different kinds of pen re- quired for writing on paper, parchment, and papyrus (see Dr. Joseph Karabacek's "Das Arabische Papier," Vienna, 1887). The ancient papyrus book, whether Egjrp- tian, Greek or Roman, was got up very much like a modern mounted map. A length of the material, written on one side only, was fastened to a wooden roller, round which it was wound; this formed a tanva (Egyptian), kulindros and Ceylon with writings on talipot or other palm leaves. The holding together of folios of a literary man's manuscript by a small clasp at one edge is an essen- tially similar device. The present method of binding seems to have been invented by or under Attalus, King of Pergamus, or his son, Eumenes, about 200 B. c. The oldest bound book known — the binding was ornamental — is the volume of St. Cuthbert, about A. D. 650. Ivory was used for book covers in the 8th centurv; oak in the 9th. The "Book of Evanirel- ists," on which the English kings took their coronation oath, was bound in oak boards, A. D. 1100. Velvet, silk, hog-skin and leather were used as early as the 15th century; needlework binding began in 1471; vellum, stamped and orna- mented, about 1510; leather about the same date, and calf in 1550. Cloth bind- ing superseded the paper known as boards in 1823; india rubber backs were introduced in 1841, tortoise-shell sides in 1856. The chief processes of bookbinding are the following: Folding the sheets; gath- ( Greek), or volumen (Latin); hence our ering the consecutive signatures; rolling volume. Specimens of Egyptian rolls still exist, extending to upward of 20 and even 40 yards ; but the great inconvenience at- taching to the consulting of such enor- mous scrolls made it much more usual to break up any lengthy literary produc- tion into sections, each on a separate roll. In Egypt the rolls were kept in jars (holding say 9 or 10 each) ; in Rome in wooden boxes or canisters (often of costly workmanship), or in parchment cases. The change from the rolled to the folded form of book appears to have taken place in the ancient world after the adoption of the parchment or vellum. the packs of folded sheets; sewing, after saw cutting the backs for the cords; rounding the backs and gluing them; edge cutting; binding, securing the book to the sides; covering the sides and back with leather, muslin, or paper, as the case may be; tooling and lettering; and, finally, edge gilding. Books may be full bound, i. e., with the back and sides leather; or half bound, that is, with the back leather and the sides paper or cloth. Bookbinding may be divided into two classes — viz., case binding or cloth work, and leather or bound work. The former was introduced by Pickering, the pub- though practically the same arrangement lisher, and Leighton, the binder, in 1822 of successive surfaces had been in vogue in the books or tablets of waxed wood used for notes and letters. BOOK BINDING, the art of stitching or_ otherwise fastening together and cov- ering the sheets of paper or similar mate- rial composing a book. The edge of a modern book constituted by the margin of the paper composing it is called the binding edge. When books were literal volumes, or rolls, the way of binding them, if it couH be so called, or at least of keeping them together, was to unroll them from one cylinder and roll each again, as it was perused, on another. When books be- came separate folios the first method of dealing with them seems to have been the tying them together by a string passed through a hole at the margin of the pile. This is still done in the south of India Before that time books were issued by the publishers bound in millboards covered with colored paper. In both France and Germany most books, even the finest, are originally issued in paper covers; where- as, in England, the whole edition often appears in cloth binding. BOOKKEEPING, the art of keeping books in which pecuniary transactions are so unremittingly and so accurat^y entered that one is able at any time to ascertain the exact state of his financial affairs, or of any portion of them, with clearness and expedition. The art, in a certain undeveloped state, must have existed from immemorial antiquity, but it received such improvement and im- pulse at Venice as to make that com- paratively modern city to be considered its birthplace. The first known writer on bookkeeping was Lucas di Borgo, who -y«L U— Cyc