Publishing cover
The publishing house cover (Engl. Binding publisher's , French. Reliure d'éditeur ) was developed in the 19th century and refers to a book cover , the one commissioned by publisher or publisher in serial production for a whole or for only a portion of an edition produced industrially becomes.
The terms publisher binding or publisher binding are not used consistently. With regard to the automated, industrial production method, the term machine binding can also be used in contrast to manual binding . For a uniform terminology, “publisher's cover” should be used for books produced industrially from the mid-19th century.
Publisher binding can be used for handcrafted bindings commissioned by a publisher or publisher. However, this occurs very rarely and then requires further explanation.
Emergence
The 19th century in Europe was characterized by rapidly advancing industrialization , including the production of printed matter and books, beginning with the invention of the high-speed press by Friedrich Koenig . A large part of the rapidly growing reading public demanded a quick satisfaction of their reading needs and thus for fully bound books. Up until this point in time, the buyer usually only bought the printed sheets and then had them bound according to their ideas .
In the wake of the intensifying competitive conditions, however, the publishers could no longer afford to ignore the growing desire for a “finished product”. Accordingly, the aim was to produce large editions with stable usable covers for the general public in the shortest possible time. However, the manual binding could no longer meet this demand, especially since prices had to be kept low. The machine-made binding was the logical next step.
Handcrafted publisher's cover
Individual cases have been known since the 15th century in which large printer publishers , such as Peter Schöffer or Anton Koberger , had their own covers produced in series for expensive works. However, this approach could not prevail at first because books in general and valuable, individual bindings in particular could convey a higher prestige. Nevertheless, these orders can be regarded as the forerunners of today's publisher's binding.
Even in bibliophile circles, where handbinding is still used today, in most cases emphasis is placed on the uniqueness of the furnishings. However, if a larger batch of the edition is bound identically by hand on behalf of the publisher, this is also referred to as a publisher binding.
Todays situation
Today the publisher's cover is common. Every book in an edition is available in an identical version from every bookseller. In the course of this development, the design of the covers has shifted from the bookbinder to the graphic designer, so that production and design are now independent work areas.
While in the 19th century, quite luxuriously designed publisher's covers were produced, the design effort has now shifted to the dust jacket . Elaborately designed publisher covers are comparatively seldom, e. B. for publications in the field of art or architecture . Personally motivated cover decorations are only available from small private presses.
literature
- Doris Fouquet-Plümacher: Kleist on the book market: classic editions for the bourgeoisie . Olms, Hildesheim [u. a.] 2014 (German texts and studies; 94), ISBN 978-3-487-15139-7 .
- Gerhard Mühlinghaus and Annelen Ottermann: Historicism and Art Nouveau: Publisher's covers from the Mainz City Library and the Mühlinghaus Collection . Publications of the libraries of the city of Mainz, volume 56. Mainz 2009.
- Doris Fouquet-Plümacher: Classic editions in the national cultural heritage: The example of Heinrich von Kleist. Berlin 2009 [1]
- Helmut Hiller and Stephan Füssel: Dictionary of the book . Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt a. M. 2002, ISBN 3-465-03220-9 .
- Dag-Ernst Petersen (Ed.): Bound in the steam bookbinding: Bookbinding in the course of the 19th century . Wolfenbütteler Schriften zur Geschichte des Buches, Volume 20. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1994, ISBN 3-447-03507-2 .
- Ernst-Peter Biesalski: The mechanization of the German bookbinding. 1850-1900 . Frankfurt am Main 1991. also: Dissertation, University of Mainz, 1989. ISBN 3-7657-1614-6 .
- Reinhard Wittmann: History of the German book trade. An overview . CH Beck, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-406-35425-4 .
- Paul Renner: The publisher's cover . In: Monthly pages for book covers and handbinding: In-house magazine of the Hübel & Denck bookbinding workshops. Leipzig 1924–1928, No. 4, 3rd year, pp. 32–38.
Web links
- Literature on the publisher's cover in the catalog of the German National Library
- Publishing Binding Working Group
- Publishing cover database of the UB / FU
- Publisher cover wiki
- Examples of publisher covers designed by Alice Cordelia Morse , The Metropolitan Museum of Art