single-station sewing (Q842)

Sewing each sewing support individually across the spine with no thread-link between the supports and no separate change-over stations. This early medieval technique is seldom encountered, but shows in the centre fold of each gathering as a series of short lengths of thread one behind each sewing support. One type of single-station sewing has been described by Christopher Clarkson, who called it 'helical' sewing (Clarkson, C., 1993. English Monastic Bookbinding in the 12th Century. In M. Maniaci & P. F. Munafò, eds. Studi e testi. Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, p.185).