Boards

The covers of a hard bound book; the boards are the stiff cardboard or paperboard that is usually covered with cloth or leather; and when covered with paper, the covers are properly referred to as “boards”. Many pre-1850 books were issued by the publishers bound in boards (paper covered), allowing for an inexpensive binding that could later be replaced with leather by a hand book binder. Early (medieval) manuscript volumes were often bound between two oak boards, hence the probable origin of this term.