This text consists of articles on the history of bookbinding and related subjects, most of which have been published previously in a wide variety of places. Several articles have been updated and two have been substantially rewritten. They have been grouped under seven headings and range from general topics such as bookbinding as a subject for study and the need to preserve the book in all its aspects, to more detailed descriptions of binders, the binding trade, collectors and collections.

The work of G. D. Hobson on the history of bookbinding, in particular English medieval and Renaissance bindings, is well known. His studies on Romanesque English bookbinding marked a pioneer effort to trace the development of the art of binding in early medieval England, and remain the fundamental introduction to the subject. Similarly, his celebrated study of blind-stamped panels in the English Renaissance book-trade has become a classic. The author's interests also extended to French bindings, and his work on Parisian bookbinding in the first quarter of the sixteenth century is of great importance; it is reprinted here with a number of his other studies on Grolier bindings. The collection of these articles in one volume, with an introduction by A.R.A. Hobson, represents not only a valuable introduction to the work of one of the major authorities on English bookbinding, but also a compendium of some of the most outstanding contributions to the subject.

An expanded version of a series of lectures, supplemented with the results of ten years of intensive research in major libraries on the Continent, the United Kingdom and the USA, this major volume surveys the evolution of binding structures from the introduction of the codex two thousand years ago to the close of the Middle Ages.

Based on the Lyell Lectures given by Howard Nixon at Oxford in 1979, this lavishly illustrated book traces the decorated binding in England from the earliest surviving example, the St Cuthbert Gospel dating from a little before the end of the seventh century, to the beginning of the Modern Movement in the late 1940s. This books emphasis is on fine binding in leather, with the styles and designs used for its decoration, and with the tools employed to effect these designs. This work is the first to trace comprehensively the development of this English tradition and bring together numerous illustrations of the superb bindings produced over the last eight centuries.

"This second printing of David Pearson's English Bookbinding Styles 1450-1800 includes a new introduction and a number of additional references and relevant points that have come to light since the book was first published in 2005."--Publisher's web site.

In this illustrated survey, the author explores the use and purpose of bookbindings - over and above protecting the text inside them - and the purpose of the study of the book as a physical object. Examples from the British Library's collection are included.