| The Public Paperfolding History Project
Last updated 24/10/2024 x |
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| Bat Books | |||||||
| This
page is being used to collect information about the
history of Bat Books. Please contact me if you know any
of this information is incorrect or if you have any other
important information that should be added. Thank you. Bat books are books which hang upside down from the belt and whose pages can be unfolded like wings. The term 'bat book' was coined by the German scholar J P Gumbert, who published a catalogue of all known examples, some 63 in all. There are generally only 6 to 8 pages in a bat book and they are linked together by tabs at the foot of each page. The pages are not paper but parchment or vellum. The pages are generally folded into half downwards to reduce the height and then either into thirds or quarters sideways to reduce the width. The most well-known type of bat books are medical almanacs fron the 13th to 15th centuries, one of which is illustrated below.
********** c1265 The oldest extant example of a Bat Book was made at Glastonbury Abbey around 1265 and lists relics and place names of the area. ********** |
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