Summary information
Image Caption: a brief description of the photo, including Call number
General Description: a brief description of the binding
Binder: a named binder or bindery (when known)
Country / Style: a country of origin (or in some cases a geographically or nationally distinct style of binding)
Period: a date for the binding (in some cases indicated as a "ca." date, an "early", "mid", or "late" century, or a full century)
Bibliographical information
Call number: the designated shelf location for the bound volume
Provenance: a brief description of former owners, typically derived from the Hamnet bibliographic record (when available)
Author: an author's name for the first, second, or third item bound in (no more than the first three items in a Sammelband are described here)
Title: a title for the first, second, or third item bound in
Created / Published: a place, publisher or creator name, and date for the first, second, or third item bound in
Hamnet URL: a hyperlink to the full online bibliographic description (when available)
Binding description
Dimensions: binding size in millimeters (height by width by thickness)
Covering material: a brief description of the material covering the boards and spine
Sewing: a brief description of the sewing structure of the text block and binding
Headbands: a brief description of the spine headbands and endbands
Edge treatment: a brief description of gilding, gauffering, fore-edge painting, etc. that might appear on the edges of the text block
End papers: a brief description of the paper, including identification of marbling techniques
Closures: a brief description of the presence (or evidence of former) clasps, ties, ribbons, etc.
Decorative description: a narrative description of significant details about the tooling, gilding, and other decorative elements present on the binding.
Technical description: a narrative description of significant structural details. Typically present in entries based on the Fine and Historic Bookbindings catalog.
Other details: may include biographical details, quotations from cited research, etc.
Binding Terms (RBMS): a controlled vocabulary heading from Binding Terms: A Thesaurus for Use in Rare Book and Special Collections Cataloging.
Literature: brief reference to published descriptions or research into the binding (see bibliography for full citations).
Click Vocabulary for more details about terminology in use in the database.
To launch high-resolution, zoomable versions of the images above in our Folger Bindings Image Collection, follow these links:
