Italian temporary binding, 18th century (5614533399)

Many early books were issued in temporary or interim covers by the printer/publisher or bookseller. These covers could then be replaced by a permanent binding of the purchaser's choice. Temporary bindings often have untrimmed text edges and may be stab-stitched rather than sewn. Because of their flimsy nature these covers have not survived in large numbers.

Temporary covers were sometimes decorated with printed woodcuts to attract the attention of customers. Here the stiffened maroon paper wrappers have a woodcut print with a geographic symbol appropriate to the volume’s contents. The printed paper labels on the spine suggest that large numbers were bound this way, if not the whole edition; it would not be worth printing labels for one set of 35 volumes. The fore and bottom edges of the textblock are untrimmed.

The publisher, Antonio Zatta, was also a cartographer and one of his well-known early maps of New Zealand (1776) is held in the Cartographic Collection of the Alexander Turnbull Library.

Purchased 1969.

Upper cover and spine of Anton Friedrich Büsching, Nuova geografia (Venezia: Presso Antonio Zatta, 1773-82). RIt BUSC Nuov 1773. Volume 10 of 35.