lying press
A small, portable press. usually made of wood,
with two steel or wooden screws operating through
bronze chucks, in which books to be hacked by
hand, trimmed with the plow, lettered or
decorated, etc., are clamped. The lower face of
the block on the bookbinder's left has a groove in
which the plow runs. It is not known when the
lying press was introduced into bookbinding, but
since it was unusual for the edges of books to be
cut and spines backed before the last part of the
15th century, it was probably invented sometime
after 1500. (161 ,
236 )
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