bear

I learned a tiny bit about bookbinding during my calligraphy courses at university, and once had the privilege of visiting a nearby monastery library where some amazing old hand-written codices could be seen. The monk who showed them to us even turned some pages for us. I came to appreciate books as art, even while, a few years later, I went whole-hog into the digital age for my own reading and have never turned back.

The paper, the leathers and vellum or parchment, the inks and pens/quills/styli, the means of fixing colors to the illuminated page (egg tempera!), the gilding--it's an amazing and deeply engaging art, craft, and technology.