I read in an advertisement for Isaiah Thomas's "Folio pulpit and family
Bible with fifty elegant copperplates" of 1791, which ran in the newspaper
that Thomas published in Worcester, Mass., the Massachusetts Spy, the
following:
"N.B. Works of this kind are not fit for whole binding under several months
after they are printed as the plates and the letterpress are both liable to
injury by the hammer and press of the binder. This is the reason of their
being published in boards, in which state the work may be read and handled
without injury. Purchasers can have the work bound afterwards, either in
one volume or two as best suits their coveniency."
PROBLEM: What does the term "whole binding" mean?
QUESTION: Has anyone encountered elsewhere the term "whole binding" or a
distinction made between "whole binding" and "published in boards"? (I have
received the suggestion that "whole binding" means binding in one volume,
which may very well be the case. However, the syntax of Thomas's paragraph
clearly establishes an opposition between "whole binding" and "published in
boards".)
N.B. Divagations about the inadvisability of immediately binding up a
freshly printed book containing fifty copperplates and the alternative of
issuing the book in boards, however interesting and worthy that topic, are
irrelevant to my question, which focus narrowly on the meaning of the term
"whole binding".
Donald Farren
4009 Bradley Lane
Chevy Chase, MD 20815-5238
dfarren@concentric.net
voice 301.951.9479
fax 301.951.3898
mobile 301.768.8972