• Aeg. All edges gilt
• As Issued. In original condition
• All Published. The book or set was never completed, or no more appeared. als. Autograph letter, signed
• Antiquarian. (i) The largest size of handmade paper (53 x 31 ins or 1350 x 790 mm). (ii) Over 100 years old, or more recently (iii) Old. Antique Leather. Leather (usually calf) dyed unevenly to simulate age.
• Art Paper. Paper with a smooth, hard surface caused by an even coating of caolin or china clay compound on one or both sides.
• Aquatint. An Intaglio process, giving an effect, not dissimilar to a watercolour wash in finished appearance.
• Association Copy. A book valued for its association, former ownership or provenance.

• Bibliography. A listing of related books.
• Black Letter. A variety of old fashioned gothic type, popular with early English printers.
• Blank. A leaf or sheet without any printing.
• Blocking. Cover decoration applied in a press, usually from a metal plate.
• Blind. Decoration or lettering made by plain blocking or tooling without any colour or gilding.
• Boards. The stiff sides of any book in hard covers.
• Bookplate. (or Ex Libris) Ownership label, usually decorative, pasted to the Endpaper.
• Bought In. An auction term, whereby an item did not reach its reserve, and was therefore unsold.
• Bowdler. (or Bowdlerise) To remove, deface or alter words or passages that may be considered indelicate. Named after Dr. Bowdler who in 1818 issued an expurgated edition of Shakespeare. A form of censorship.
• Brightbacks. Books in decorative or pictorial cloth bindings, heavy gilt or enamelled.
• Broadside. (sometimes referred to as a Broadsheet). A sheet printed on one side, often polemical.
• Buckram. A tough binding, of sized cloth.

• c. (from the Latin circa, meaning, about), being of an approximate date.
• Calf. The most common bookbinding leather, smooth textured and capable of taking most dyes.
• Called For. Should be present in a complete copy.
• Cancel. To cut out and replace a wrongly printed leaf.
• Cartouche. A decorative device or border used to enclose a title, name or image.
• Catalogue Raisonné. The complete works, in this case by one artist.
• Caoutchouc. An early (and unsatisfactory) method of securing single sheets by roughening the spine edges and applying a rubber cement and reinforcing with caoutchouc impregnated cloth. Popular in the middle of the nineteenth century. Possibly a forerunner to our modern perfect binding.
• Catchword. A word printed below the bottom line and matching the first word of the next page.
• Chapbook. A small cheap booklet on popular subjects, once sold by Chapmen or street hawkers.
• Chromolithograph. A lithograph printed in colour.
• Cloth. Fabric covering. Widely used since about 1830.
• Collation. The formal description of the make-up of the book.
• Colophon. Statement of publication. Details of which are usually printed at the end of a book.
• Collotype. A photomechanical printing process. Printing is done from a raised gelatine film on a glass support. Used mostly in early photographs.
• Comb Binding. A method of binding using a plastic 'comb' through slots cut in the margin of the single sheets of paper. This enables the volume to be left lying flat open. see Spiral Bind.
• Concertina Fold. A method of folding paper whereby each fold runs in the opposite direction to the one before, to form a pleated effect. Sometimes called an Accordion Fold or Fan Fold.
• Condition. State or condition of the book.
• Contemporary. Dating from the period at which the book was published.
• Crushed Morocco. Morocco pressed or ironed to extreme smoothness and high polish.
• Cuts. (i) Illustrations printed within the text, as opposed to plates, which are printed separately. (ii) excisions or omissions, usually made to satisfy lawyers, etc.

• Dentelle. Lacelike border pattern on a binding.
• Device.
• Dropped Title. (or Dropped Head) The title is placed at the head of the first page of text rather than on a separate title page.
• Dustjacket. (or Dustwrapper, Wrapper). The publishers protective jacket, usually made of paper, introduced in the 19th century. see comment*

• Edition. All copies of the book produced, at any time from the same setting of type. New impressions and reprints are technically of the same edition if neither the setting nor the process has been altered. see impression.
• Endpaper. The paper lining to the inside binding. The Paste Down is pasted to the cover, the Free Endpaper protects the text.
• Ephemera. Printed material of a transitory nature, technically lasting only one day.
• Errata. A list of misprints, errors or omissions.
• Etching. An image printed from an acid etched Intaglio plate.
• Ex Library. Withdrawn from a library. With the usual rubber stamps and markings.
• Ex Libris. see bookplate.

• Fep. Front endpaper.
• ffep. Free front endpaper.
• Facsimile. Exact reproduction of an original document or book, often printed by a different, and usually more economical, process.
• First Edition. All copies of a book printed from the original setting of type.
• First Edition Thus. Not the original edition, but the first appearance of some new features, illustrations, revisions, etc.
• Fly Leaf. The part of the endpaper that is not stuck down
• Folio. A publication made up from printed sheets folded once only. The term has now become to mean any large book. see portfolio.
• Font. All size of one variant of a typeface produced by a particular manufacturer.
• Fore-Edge. The edge of the book parallel to the spine.
• Fore-Edge Painting. An image painted on the fore-edge. Usually done while this is fanned out, becoming concealed when the volume is closed.
• Foxing. Reddish brown (fox coloured) spotting caused by damp affecting the impurities in the paper.
• Frontispiece. The plate facing the title page.

• Gatefold. Where a page, usually illustrated, folds out to accommodate the image that is larger than the books page size.
• Gathering. (see Section, and Quire). An individual group of leaves gathered together in the folding of the printed sheets.
• Gauffered Edges. Gilt edges decorated with tooling.
• Grangerised. see Extra Illustrated.
• Guard. (i) Folding Maps, or plates, are sometimes mounted on guards, narrow strips of paper sewn into the book, to obviate sewing through the middle of the image itself. (ii) a leaf (often of tissue) inserted to protect a plate. (iii) A type of repair to the margins of individual leaves.
• Gutta-Percha. (or Caoutchouc). A rubber adhesive used as an alternative to sewing.
• Gutter. The two inner margins of an opened page.

• Half-Binding. A binding of which only the back strip and corners are covered.
• Half-Title. A leaf before the main title-page recording the title, usually without further details.
• Holograph. A manuscript written entirely in the authors' own hand.

• Impression. (i) All the copies of a book printed at any one time, in a single printing, from the same type. (ii) the act of printing itself, or the quality of it, especially of the plates themselves.
• Imprimatur. (from the Latin, 'let it be printed'). A permission to print found in books where publishing required sanction from the relevant authority, usually the Church or State.
• Imprint. Statement of names of the persons, issuing the document, usually publisher or printer, often also including date, and place of publication.
• Incunabula. (from the Latin, 'swaddling clothes'). Books from the infancy of printing, usually before 1500.
• India Paper. A very thin, absorbent paper, generally used for proofs of engravings or woodcuts.
• Intaglio. A method of printing from an engraved metal plate, which under pressure forces the paper to accept ink from the engraved incisions in the plate rather than from the relief surface.

• Japanese Vellum. Smooth yellowish hand made paper produced in Japan from the bark of the Mulberry.
• Japon. Imitation Japanese Vellum.

• Kraft Paper. Strong brown paper made from sulphate pulp. Often used for wrapping parcels.

• Laid Down. Backed with a stronger paper, or other material.
• Laid Paper. Paper which shows the characteristic parallel wire marks of early papers made by hand with a wire mesh tray.
• Large Paper. Special paper that is larger (and usually better) than the rest of the edition.
• Levant. A highly polished, loose grained Morocco.
• Library Binding. A basic or plain binding used by libraries where continual usage may cause wear to the original binding.
• Limited Edition. An edition that has a restricted print run, this limitation is usually expressed as a fraction.
• Linson. Paper used in binding, often grained to look like cloth or leather.
• Lithograph. An image printed by lithography, a chemical method of printing (originally from stone) using the principle of the mutual repulsion of oil and water. Invented by Aloys Senefelder in 1798.

• Margin. The unprinted space between the text and the edge of the page.
• Marginalia. Handwritten comments made in the margin.
• Mezzotint. A distinctive form of engraving, richly black and textured, in which the plate is worked from dark to light.
• Miniature. Used in this context to denote books below 2ins (or 5cm) high.
• Misbound. Bound in the wrong order or place.
• Monograph. A publication dealing with one single artist.
• Morocco. An elegant and durable goatskin much used in bookbinding, originally imported from North Africa.
• Ms., Mss. Manuscript, Manuscripts.

• Nd. No date.
• Niger. A soft goatskin with no pronounced grain.
• Np. Depending on context, either, No Publisher, No Printer, or No Place (of publication).
• Nd. No Date (usually of publication)

• Oasis. A smooth African goatskin, tanned and dyed in the UK.
• Oblong. Where a books height is exceeded by the width.
• Octavo. (8vo) The most common of the traditional book formats, made up of sheets folded three times, giving eight leaves, or sixteen pages. see list of book sizes.
• Offprint. A separately printed section of a book or publication, usually an individual article or essay.
• Offsetting. A shadow of the print that has transferred to the facing page.

• Pagination. The sequential numbering of pages.
• Parchment. The dressed undersplit of sheepskin.
• Parts. A once popular method of publishing, whereby a publication is issued in parts, intended to be bound together on completion.
• Pastedown. see Endpaper.
• Perfect Binding. A method of binding where the edge of loose sheets are dipped in adhesive and put in a cover, often in cheap paperbacks.
• Plate. (i) An image printed separately from the text, often on different or higher quality paper. (ii) The printing plate from which an image is produced.
• pp. Pages.
• Prelims. Preliminaries. All the pages (including title page, contents etc) preceding the actual text.
• Presentation Copy. A gift from the author, illustrator, editor or publisher, often signed or inscribed.
• Private Press. A traditional hand press owned and operated in the interests of fine printing. Today used as a term for very small, independent publishers.

• Quarter. A binding of which only the back strip or spine is of the specified material.
• Quarto. (4to). A book, made up of sheets folded into quarters, (giving eight pages)
• Quire. 4 sheets of paper folded to form 8 leaves, as often found in medieval manuscripts. Sometimes used to denote a collection of 24 sheets.

• Rebacked. Where the back strip or spine has been replaced.
• Recto. The front of the leaf, the right hand side in an open volume. The back of this is the verso.
• Remainder. Publishers overstocks, sold off at a discount.
• Remboitage. Rebinding, but by using an old binding from another book.
• Reserve. The price below which an auctioneer will not sell.
• Roan. A thin sheepskin used for binding.
• Rubricated. (i) Manuscript or early book with initials printed in red. (ii) Ruled in red for decoration.
• Russia. A rich scented calf or cowhide, originating in Muscovy and popular in the 1800s.

• Section. see Gathering
• Sextodecimo. (16mo) Small format book made from sheets folded four times to give 16 leaves (32 pages)
• Signature. A section of the book resulting in the folding of the printed sheets a number of times.
• Slip Case. A (usually simple) open ended protective case.
• Solander Box. Protective box carefully hinged to enable the contents to be viewed with the minimum of handling.
• Spine. The part of the books cover or jacket that encloses its page fastening and usually faces outward on the shelf. Usually this displays the title, author's name and imprint.
• Sprinkled. Patterned with small flecks or spots.
• Spiral Binding. A method of binding whereby a wire spiral is inserted through holes drilled into the margin of a sheet. This allows the volume to lie flat when opened. see Comb Binding.
• Square Bracketsb. []. Used to denote information supplied by the cataloguer.
• State. (i) Variations between the different copies of the same impression. (ii) successive stages of the evolution of a printing plate. (iii) Used, as in the physical appearance or condition.

• Teg. Top edge gilt.
• Ties. Tapes or ribbons for tying the volume closed.
• Tipped in. Lightly fixed in along one edge only, most often refers to illustrations.
• Tooling. Decoration applied with a hand tool.
• Tree Calf. A highly polished calf binding with a distinctive tree-like wood veneer pattern.
• Tls. Typed letter, signed.
• Ts. Typescript.

• Unbound. Never having been bound. As opposed to Disbound.
• Upper-case. A typesetting term that simply means capital letters.

• Variant. Copies of the same impression exhibiting unexplained variations.
• Vellum. A highly durable treated calf skin of a natural creamy colour.
• Verso. Back of the leaf. The left hand page in an open book. The front of the leaf is the recto.
• Vignette. A small illustration enclosed in a formal or decorative border.
• Vy. Various years.

• Waf. With All Faults, sold 'as seen'.
• Wraps. Paper covers.

• Yapp. Style of binding with flaps that overlap the page edges. Named after the Victorian bookseller of that name, who in about 1860 made use of such a binding. Often he is attributed with the invention of this type of binding, however examples are known from the beginning of the seventeenth century.
• Yellowbacks. Gaily coloured Victorian Books designed for display on railway bookstalls.

*There is an accepted convention to differentiate between Hardbacks and Paperbacks by using the word Wrappers or Wraps. Often booksellers list books as having Wraps, meaning that it is a paperback, and Wrappers, meaning that it is a hardback in a dustjacket This causes obvious confusion. To avoid this we identify the book clearly by using the symbol H or P (for Hardback or Paperback) beside the price. Furthermore we often clarify this by mentioning the specific binding (especially with out of print titles).