Binding was born with the appearance of the book as we know it today, between the II^nd and VI^th century.
      Originally presented scrolled, the book then acquired its current presentation : the codex, compilation of leaves assembled in signatures, stitched with a linen or hamp thread around beef nerves set perpendicularly to the leaves and holding two wooden planks (the boards).
     First covered with gem inlaid plates, the first covers were the work of goldsmiths. Then the boards were covered with leather, chiseled or stamped with flowerets or blocking stamps, metalic style of which one end is engraved and heated before being pressed onto the slightly moistened leather where it leaves an imprint.
     In the meantime some magnificent illuminated manuscripts were covered with precious materials: velvet, silk, damask…
      Vertical storage, not existing until the XVI^th century, books were laid down flat upon stands, their binding being protected by cabochons nailed down throught the boards.
      At the end of the XV^th century, with the invention of printing and the replacement of parchment by paper, books took the shape we know nowadays. The bindings, with the influence of the Italian renaissance were inspired by greek classicism. Geometrical figures with interlaces , drawn for Grolier are very well known.

     Each age was marked by great bookbinders for example the Bozerian in the XVIII^th century were binders to Napoleon I.
     With the appearance of painter book at the begining of the XX^th century, works are presented on loose leaves in a box, the editor leaving the bibliophile the choice of having them bound or not. This is the case at Editions Carrés d'Art.



     Great creators : Marius Michel, Legrain, Cretté, Paul Bonnet, Kieffer, Mercher… have gone through the XXth century as the heirs of those " book binders " who have made an Art form of a necessity.