Paper and Books - Venice: A Travel Guide to Murano Glass, Carnival Masks, Gondolas, Lace, Paper and More - page 61

With the widespread use of moveable type instead of script, paper instead of vellum,
and woodblock prints and engravings instead of hand-painted illuminations, the interior
pages of books were dramatically transformed from their medieval predecessors. However,
a book's exterior, its binding, remained essentially the same as its medieval models. Often,
the legatoria only bound a book once a patron purchased it, and therefore the binding was
customized and could be as simple or as fancy as the topic buyer's budget and desire.
BOOKS AS PURVEYORS OF STYLE
If you read the chapter of this topic on lace, you know that Venetian book-
makers created a large percentage of the lace pattern books that were dis-
seminated across Europe, helping to propel Venetian lace to fame among the
nobility.
Early bookbinders discovered that when leather bindings came into direct contact with
end papers, the result was discoloration and damage to the paper. They began facing the
inside of the leather covers with hand-colored papers. This practice not only meant blank
pages for creative and colorful paper displays, but also later the bookbinders realized they
could reduce the amount of expensive leather they used in binding. Eventually, many book-
binders began using leather only for the spine, disguising the cover boards with colorful
decorative papers.
TURKISH ORIGINS?
Venetians may have played a role in bringing the techniques of marbleized
paper to Europe through their contacts with the Eastern Mediterranean, es-
pecially Constantinople (Istanbul). The method of paper marbling commonly
practiced in Venice is sometimes referred to as “Turkish marbling” and its
techniques are closely related to the Turkish art of paper marbling known as
ebru . However, the earliest European books with marbled endpapers that sur-
vive today (from the 1500s) are German.
The practice of “marbling” paper—decorating paper with colorful patterns that imitate
marble veining—probably originated in China. By the fifteenth century these techniques