Spine

The back of a book (not the same as the back cover). This is the book face along which the book block is bound to the cover. Shelved books are usually stored spine out today but in much earlier times books were shelved spine inwards.

This definition is new, i.e. it is not extracted from the book Getting Published: A Companion for the Humanities and Social Sciences by Gerald Jackson and Marie Lenstrup. It was first referred to in the blog Getting Published in a post on bookbinding.

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