ABC of Bookbinding:

A Unique Glossary with over 700 Illustrations for Collectors and Librarians

by Jane Greenfield

The vocabulary of designer bookbinding is extremely detailed and specific. I’ve been in the library and antiquarian book world long enough (don’t ask) to know quite a lot of book terms. All of them are useful in understanding and describing the structure and appearance of a book. Many are helpful in parsing a technical description of a designer binding.

In other ways, I’m in the dark:

Tight joint? Kettle stitch? Palladium? Puckered? Maril? Cross-grained?

Thanks to ABC, I’m getting a clue.