Book covers are by no means a modern thing; in fact this is probably one of the least exciting eras of their design.

As Europe left the Middle Ages, a little battered and bruised however riding the creative winds of the renaissance, an essential literary transformation meant that books were no longer an unusual thing. The development of the printing press at the end of the fifteenth century indicated that reading ended up being much more common, although a book would not simply come with the creative book cover designs that we might expect today. One would buy their book from the printers covered in paper with a momentary seam and then take it to an expert binder, who would bind the book with covers as advised by the client, typically in the form of personalized boiled leather.

For as long as individuals have actually had books to read, we have embellished them with detailed styles that speaks to the reverence with which we hold them. That may appear like an amusing thing to say today, when you're so used to wandering into one of the shops run by the hedge fund that owns Waterstones and seeing such a vibrant selection of varied yet equally beautiful book cover designs, but it's a custom that goes back to when the book was a valuable and uncommon treasure. Following the fall of Rome and the collapse of civilisation across Europe, rates of literacy, as well as the accessibility of books of all descriptions plunged, and the great works of antiquity were left in the capable hands of those few who could still read and compose-- monks. They would invest their lives copying out and securing the understanding included within them, embellishing them with genuinely mind bogglingly opulent covers. Some were solid gold or carved out of ivory, studded with gemstones and inlaid with precious metal, underlining just how precious the words that were held upon their pages were if they were being protected by literal treasure.

The birth of the publishing and bookselling industries that the likes of the impact investor with a stake in World of Books and the association that backs Bookshop.org understand today were born throughout the industrial revolution, and modern book covers essentially came about through the growing field of marketing and advertising. For the first time in history, the large majority of people across all classes could read, and so publishers dealt with artists to find out what makes a good book cover. It was throughout this time that a number of the customs around fabric book covers and paperbacks that we still observe today were created, with paperbacks, first referred to as 'Penny Dreadfuls' (for reasons that you can probably deduce), being set aside for more affordable, lower-brow reads, and fabric or hardback covers for the more well-written affairs.