The Family Bible, A Bookbinders Perspective

By the mid nineteenth century the Family Bible was regarded as being more than just teachings inspired by the light of God

. They became sacred objects in their own right, often given a central position in the household and often holding letters and keepsakes in the form of dried flowers.

The Family Bible became the spiritual center of the home.

The Protestant faith of the day, worshipped the living Word, and placed value on sermons over ritual, so it comes as no surprise that the Family Bible became seen as such a spiritual object.

Religious publishers of the time attended to this market by making very large Family Bibles, complete with colour illustrations, pages for recording marriages deaths and births, and that owed everything to bindings of the middle ages.

So the Family Bible became the altar of domestic piety, somewhere where domestic sacred life met the sacred life of the church fathers and prophets.

As bookbinders we were housed in the grounds of a Benedictine monastery, I think for that reason we had such a lot of Family Bibles to repair. Looking at our receipts I see we carried out restoration on approximately 20 large format Family Bibles a year

Unfortunately the design of most of these family Bibles lacked the integrity of the content. Regarding appearance, many of these Family Bibles harked back to medieval examples of binding.

The Bibles often had thick, heavy boards, often half an inch thick or more.

In further imitation of the early codex, they often came with clasps and decorative corners. Some had protective brass edging running right around the board edges.

These brass fittings added substantially to the weight of the boards.

Trying to keep costs down, most of these Family Bibles were covered in thin sheepskin leather.

This insubstantial leather was not up to the job of supporting the heavy boards, that is why so many unrepaired Family Bibles will be found with one or more boards detached from the binding.

It is certainly possible to repair and preserve these books, however the craftsman has to be fed and such work may involve many hours and several hundred pounds.

But the cost of your Family Bible repair is offset by the knowledge that you have taken steps to insure that your Family Bible, with all the records and memories it contains, has been expertly repaired, and will be there to be consulted or added to by future generations.

By Richard Norman

The Family Bible, A Bookbinders Perspective

By: richard norman

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