Block (book customer)

Diverging book covers when locking: Binding from the 16th century

In book science, the term lock denotes the tendency of older books to bulge or open in that the pages of the book block strive apart and the book covers press apart from the spine .

Forces that arise from the type of book cover , as well as the hygroscopicity of the parchment and older types of paper, which causes unevenness ("puffing up"), cause increasing distances between the book pages if the book blocks are not held together by a vertical arrangement on a shelf, as is the case was not generally used until the 17th century, after the books had been "kept on desks or in cupboards" until the 16th century. The locking promotes damage caused by dust, for example. For this reason, book clasps have existed since the late Middle Ages , and the book covers were made of hardwood such as beech or oak.

literature

• Eike Barbara Dürrfeld: Research into book clasps and book fittings. An analysis of the history of science since 1877, Mainz 2003, DNB 968355439 (Dissertation University Mainz 2003 ( full text online PDF, free of charge, 338 pages, 12.7 MB)).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eike Barbara Dürrfeld: Research into book clasps and book fittings, Mainz 2003, p. 67.