blind tooling

A group of theology books and a how-to book on fencing demonstrate the popularity of a 16th-century technique called "blind tooling."

Early codices, such as Coptic bindings had relatively simple finishing, including blind tooling and leather strips woven through covering material.

Some were bound in calfskin or vellum, with hand-marbled papers, hand-sewn spines, the front and back boards ornamented with gold, red, and blind tooling, the edges gilded.