Peruse enough bookstores – or just stroll past their window displays – and you’ll certainly have encountered the design trends adorning our best (and bestselling) literature. Illustrations abound: ...

Today, book binding covers a wide range of techniques, from simple pamphlet-stitch notebooks to elaborate decorative bindings and intricate covers that people can spend weeks working on.

The material on the covers of books from a French abbey was too hairy to have come from calves or other local mammals. Researchers identified its more distant origin. By Jack Tamisiea Medieval ...