limp binding ( limp cloth, limp covers, limp leather, limp vellum )
A book which does not have stiff boards but
instead has flexible cloth, leather, vellum, or
paper sides, which may or may not be lined. The
term, however, is seldom applied to paper sides.
(See: SELF-COVER
.) Limp vellum bindings for blankbooks were being
produced at least as early as the 14th century and
probably earlier. This type of binding was not a
craft binding, however; it was more convenient to
bind the thin blankbooks of that time in limp
covers. Other limp vellum bindings were produced
in relatively great numbers in the 16th and 17th
centuries, but the limp vellum binding declined
thereafter until revived by the private presses
near the end of the 19th century. In the last
quarter of the 18th century and the first quarter
of the 19th, limp leather was commonly used for
books to be carried in the pocket, but for the
past century or so limp bindings have been largely
restricted to devotional books, diaries, and
sentimental verse, sometimes in the YAPP STYLE . (69 , 236 , 264 )
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