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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;2manybooks, post: 3657336, member: 8267&quot;]I believe there are reasons to doubt this explanation for the term.</p><p><br /></p><p>The use of &quot;spine&quot; in reference to the binding of a book first appears in the early 20th century. Prior to this the terms back, backbone, or shelf-back were used. Of course, these could also refer to the spine area of animal skin.</p><p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/parts-of-a-book-terms-and-meanings/spine" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/parts-of-a-book-terms-and-meanings/spine" rel="nofollow">https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/parts-of-a-book-terms-and-meanings/spine</a></p><p><br /></p><p>But it is more likely that the terms are based on a comparison of the structure of a bound book with human anatomy - the stiff element of support to which other parts are attached is the spine/backbone. Additional meaning is derived from the historical practice of shelving books with the back/spine facing the back of the shelves, with the fore-edge facing out. It was not until the mid 16th century that information such as the author and title were placed on the spine of a book, leading to the practice of the book being shelved with the spine facing out.</p><p>Petroski, Henry: The Book on the Bookshelf. Alfred A. Knopf, 1999.</p><p><br /></p><p>The forerunner of the earliest codices (codexes), (manuscripts bound in a form that we would recognize as a book, as opposed to a scroll), was a device used by the Romans to record written information. These were wooden tablets with a recessed surfaced which held wax that could be written on with a stylus. Tablets were sometimes tied together along one edge.</p><p><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Wachstafel_rem.jpg/220px-Wachstafel_rem.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex</a></p><p><br /></p><p>These had the basic elements of the structure of a book, but clearly not an association with animal skin parchment. Some of the earliest codices are made of papyrus, a plant material.</p><p><br /></p><p>Parchment was a labor intensive and expensive material. A skin would be used in the most efficient way possible, and not limited to just the &quot;back&quot; portion. Surviving examples show that scribes sometimes used pages that show the irregular outline of the extremities of the original skin, and that flaws in the material could be accepted and worked around. The way pages were cut from the skin would depend on the size of the skin and the size of the desired pages. Sections were cut and then folded to form 2 or more &quot;leaves&quot;. It seems unlikely that orienting the spine of the animal with the spine of the final book would be a significant priority.</p><p><a href="https://library.osu.edu/site/rarebooks/2008/12/01/107/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://library.osu.edu/site/rarebooks/2008/12/01/107/" rel="nofollow">https://library.osu.edu/site/rarebooks/2008/12/01/107/</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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