The glove bindings in the library at the Bar Convent in York, in the north of England, have fascinated me since I first came across them in 2020. This collection contains fifteen examples of bindings that have been repaired with gloves. All the books are, without exception, small formats. So far, I have discovered that most of the bindings are made up of either three or four pieces of glove, possibly the same pair in each book as the colour is usually uniform across the repaired areas. Some are completely covered in the glove leather, separated along the seams but retaining its points, but most are patch repaired across the spine or corners. Although beautifully and neatly done, with the leather being taken over and onto the inner face of the boards, there is evidence that these repairs were  not completed by a professional binder or even someone who has been trained in binding. 

        The use and reuse of waste materials in book repair is nothing new. Manuscript or printers’ waste has been used by binders in book construction and repair since the codex was developed.