BOOK-Binding: The art of gathering and sewing together the sheets of a book, and covering it with a back. It is Performed thus: The leaves are first folded with a folding stick, and laid over each other in the order of the signature; then beaten on a stone with a hammer, to make them smooth and open well, and afterwards pressed. They are sewn upon bands, which are pieces of cord or packthread; six bands to a folio book, five to a quarto, octavo, etc., which is done by drawing a thread through the middle of each sheet, and giving it a turn round each band, beginning with the first and proceeding to the last. After this the books are glued, and the bands opened and scraped, for the better fixing the pasteboards......
The above taken from the first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica or "A Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences" 1771