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Bifolium:
A sheet of writing material, generally parchment during the Middle Ages. The parchment was folded in half to produce two leaves (four pages front and back). A gathering of bifolia folded together form a quire.
Binder:
A person who is fully or partly responsible for sewing a codex together and adhering the binding. The binder was often another member of the scriptorium, separate from the scribe. The term binder can also refer to a binding medium.
Binding:
The sewing and covering of a book. After the leaves of a manuscript were written and illuminated, they were assembled into gatherings known as quires and sewn together. For added stability, the quires were sewn onto horizontal supports referred to as cords that attach to the spine. The cords were then attached to stiff covers at the front and back of the book. The covers were often wood, which was covered with leather. Sometimes the cover was decorated with leather tooling, gilding, or tanning. A clasp was frequently attached to the cover and bosses added extra protection to the binding.
Binding Medium:
An ingredient in paint or ink that binds the pigment and makes it adhere to a surface. Clarified egg white was the main binding medium in manuscript illumination.
Board:
A solid cover at the front and back of a book. Wood was generally used until the early sixteenth century, preferably oak or another hardwood to minimize worming. The boards were attached to the quires by cords, which were threaded through the boards and secured (often by pegging). The boards and spine were generally covered with damp leather (although parchment, fabric, or paper might also be used), which was folded over the edges of the boards (forming what are known as turn-ins) and glued down. Pastedowns were sometimes applied to hide the turn-ins.
Book block:
All the leaves bound together in a volume and enclosed within a single binding.
Book of Hours:
A book, used for private devotions. Its central text is the Hours of the Virgin, which is a shortened version of the divine office. The text entered into popular use by the end of the twelfth century and continued in general use until the sixteenth century. It often includes the private devotions from the book of Psalms known as a psalter. The majority of these books are illuminated, in a manner that reflects the patron’s budget. They often contain scenes from the life of Jesus, depictions of the apostles, martyrs, and saints and themes relating to the end times.
Bookworm:
The larvae of a wood-boring beetle that eats the paper and glue in books.
Boss:
A raised metal ornament that was commonly applied to fifteenth century manuscripts. Bosses serve a protective function for the binding.
Breviary:
A book containing the texts needed to perform rites during a church service. A breviary is often adorned with intricate initials at the beginning of a paragraph, or an important passage. Some copies contain miniature paintings of Biblical scenes. In the eleventh century, the psalter, antiphonal, lectionary, collector, martyrology, and other texts were combined to form the breviary.