Books and Bookbinders: The Joy of Restoration

One of the significant losses of service at the university is the on-site bookbinder. Years ago I had two books rebound at the book bindery, restoring to life books that are comparatively rare. They were The History of English Congregationalism, by R. W. Dale, and the biography of Charles Simeon, by William Carus published in 1847. Simeon was John Stott's theological hero and a significant influence on his understanding of the goals of preaching and biblical exposition.

 

Last night I was chasing through Dale's Congregationalism, using the index, in pursuit of some of the 17th Century argy-bargies about what the church was and wasn't, what was a true church and what criteria decide this, what should be preached and what should be prohibited. Dale's book beautifully rebound 20 years ago, is an 800 page narrative account of Congregationalism, full of the gossip, incidental details, and hard to find elsewhere information that make many of those fat Victorian books still fascinating and useful.

 

Where else would you find the full text of the Savoy Declaration, lists of protagonists and upstarts in the power struggles of State and Church, woven throughout names like Baxter and Goodwin (Thomas the Calvinist and John the Arminian), Howe and Owen? As Church History, it's very different from the way we do it now. But Dale both knew the story and was a powerful proponent of Congregationalism and Independency. His book is a monument to those Victorian nonconformists who became such a powerful social presence in Victorian and Edwardian Britain.

 

The rebinding is a work of skill and craft, making this old book a joy to handle, gold blocking and maroon buckram - what's not to love? When I bought it, it was described by the seller as tatty and disbound! For those who love the book as human artefact, the loss of a skilled bookbinder is to be genuinely regretted.