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reviews

W. K. GNIRREP,J. P. GUMBERT,J. A. SZIRMAI,Kneep en binding. Een terminologievoor de beschrijvingvan de constructiesvan oude boekbanden,voor het Belgisch-NederlandsBandengenoot- schap samengesteld.... Den Haag, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1992, 29,5 x 21 cm, 126 pp., ISBN90-6359-096-9, f 35.

At first sight 'Kneep en binding' [A translation cannot be provided!] looks as if it belonged to the family of greater or lesser dictionaries that set out the terminology of the book in general or of in particular, but it is in truth fundamentally different from them. It differs by being a small part of what should one day become an all-embracing apparatus of binding-terminology and it differs in its methodology which tries first to understand things and then looks to see whether the terms employed are serviceable, on occasion comparing these terms with the terminology formerly used and where necessary even prescribing a new term. This is a heavy undertaking. As stated in the , the Belgian-Dutch Binding Society felt the need for a usable and therefore uniform terminology to be employed in the study and description of bindings. This runs from summary identifications in exhibition catalogues through more extensive descriptions in publications on and printed to specialised studies of bindings. Several working parties set to work. The publication now before us is the result of one of them. The principles postulated in the introduction are important for the evaluation and use of this apparatus: i. what matters are bindings as archaeological objects (intentio- nally excluding machine-made bindings by its chronological limitation: c.1830), and not binding as a craft process (although knowledge of the latter is necessary to the understanding of the former); 2. the terminology used is historical only to a certain extent where the terms pin down the phenomena discussed in a single word without evaluating them in their development. Classical and Middle or Far Eastern binding methods have been excluded in a geographical limitation. The point is made quite rightly that 'it is not true that something short can be ther forerunner of something more detailed, rather, if it is to be good it can only be the from a longer and long-matured version'. All other lists of this kind, published separately or as part of a whole, never got past the former or were satisfied to stay within its limits. The book begins, rightly, with 'co-ordinates and dimensions', the very basis for talking about a book. There follow two chapters on materials (paper, wood, carton, waste, thread & glue. But: textiles have been omitted). Next there are two chapters on the text block and its component parts, leaves and gatherings, logically (or not?) followed by . Here I seem to miss the construction of endpapers with double stubs but not inset. Nor can I find a name for the vellum strips, usually derived from waste, which served as hinge strengthening and are not the hinges here illustrated and most widely adopted in the nineteenth century when they were usually made of leather or more often of linen. Personally, I should in connection with pastedowns have preferred the word 'tegenplakken' [paste against] in place of 'opplakken' [paste on] in order to avoid confusion with laminated . 48

After this come a couple of chapters on sewing and sewing methods, one of the strongest moments in the book. It seems to me that perhaps the chapter on endpapers might rather have followed on here to which that on the 'back' would then have been a natural sequel. 'Back', for the back of the textblock, seems rather an infelicitous word because it causes confusion with what is generally understood as the back of a book. The back stiffening, here called spine lining, could in that case then have been considered together with the stiffening strips used in the construction of endpapers. In the terminology for back lining I miss, next to 'grid-shaped' and 'comb-shaped', expressions such as 'continuous' and 'segmented' with though illustrated are not named. Next come edges and headbands. With the former mention is made of 'snijoor' (as no English equivalent is suggested, the translator suggests 'cornerfold'), 'the part of a leaf which sticks out, produced because during cutting the leaf had been badly folded'. 'Fausse coupe' is given as the French equivalent, but the so frequently used `temoin' is not included and is therefore also unfindable in the . Now, 'cornerfold' is the physical result of (an error during) work done, 'timoin' is the bibliographically inter- esting witness to something no longer there, to an earlier state. The headband has a fascinating chapter offering also quite a lot of historical information. A missing detail is the 'closed plaited headband', again illustrated but without an appropriate name assigned to it to distinguish it from another form of closed headband (i.e. a headband in which a direct connection has been made between headband and back lining). Except for a short concluding chapter devoted to aids, all the rest deals with the covers (or the spine) and the finishing of them: wrappers, covers with boards (where perhaps there room could have been found for a concise identification of kinds of wood), coverings (where I miss the 'weggesneden' [cut-off] as distinct from the 'in verstek gesneden' [mitred] corner and where 'afgeschuind' [bevelled] could have been added as distinct from 'geschalmd' [pared], fastenings (where it would have been possible to distinguish ties into leather, linen and silk and where a reference to board edge fastening, 61.3, would have fitted in well with the tie loop). The catch lacks the names of its components (head, neck) and tail, and a word could have been found for the most frequent forms of this tail) and finally there are the other fittings. At the end there is a list, to be on the safe side entitled a 'selection' of literature. In it, as a matter of principle, Anselmus Faust ought to have been mentioned and why not also Dirk de Bray. Besides, without trying to be exhaustive and with little additional trouble, this literature list could have been a little more comprehensive. In recent years reprints have made a number of earlier bookbinders' manuals more easily accessible. For the sake of completeness, two dictionaries & word lists (which in my view would have been better if arranged chronologically rather than alphabetically) may yet be added: Letterpress bookbinding terminology(London 1928) and above all the German- French, Wdrterbuchder Fachausdriickein der Buchbinderei,ed. Paul Kersten (Halle (Saale) 1937). As regards the vocabulary itself, it seems to me that too little account has been taken of Southern Netherlands idiom. I am amazed for instance that a term such as 'bradel' - even if it should not be recommended as a current term - is not in the index. Anyone experiencing the need to check what is meant by this word or what the suggested term