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With the invention of printing and the printing press, bookbinding developed as a craft. Before the bookbinder, printers gave their customers individual sheets which the customer would organise themselves.
Jean Grolier from Lyon, was one of the first to develop an individual style of binding in the 16th century. Although French Grolier's binding had an Italian style. Grolier lived in Italy from 1510 and about 1525 which explained his style, and had a vast collection of books in his personal library. He thus begun binding his own collection.
His designs were generally geometric patterns, but some had colour and no geometric patterns.
Since Grolier, binders of great repute have been numerous; and these include Le Gascon and Derom, a family of bookbinders for 100 years.
In the 19th century Hellenic and Roman influence bindings were popular. These had features such as:
- Laurels
- Laurel lines
- Greek keys
Mosaic Style Bookbinding, is a technique adopted mostly by 19th century bookbinders. It is the process of in-laying or on-laying small pieces of leather of various colours to form patterns. Examples of Mosaic bookbinding can date back as far as the 16th century, and was also quite common into the 20th century.
Other bookbinding styles in use in the 19th and 20th centuries were:
- Romantic
- Art Nouveau
- Asymmetric
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