Detail map of Ansbach, Bayern, Germany Overview map of Ansbach, Bayern, Germany

A: Ansbach, Bayern, Germany

Christoph Ernst Prediger Issues the First Exhaustive Manual on Bookbinding

1741 to 1753

From 1741 to 1753 Christoph Ernst Prediger, a bookbinder in Anspach (Ansbach), Germany, published in 4 volumes, each extensively illustrated, Der in aller heut zu Tag üblichen Arbeit wohl anweisende accurate Buchbinder und Futteralmach welcher lehret, Wie nicht nur ein Buch auf das nettest zu verfertigen, sonder auch wie solcher sein gebührende Dauer hält . . .

"Vol. 1 is an exhaustive manual of bookbinding and box-making, with tables showing the cost of materials, the time taken over the various processes and the cost of different styles of binding. The other three volumes deal with more specialised work such as the binding of school books, and there is inevitably a good deal of repetition. Volume III has an appendix on apprenticeship regulations" (Pollard, Early Bookbinding Manuals [1984] no. 22).

Timeline Themes