Note 18 to Chapter 5 of the author's Pegasus in Harness: Victorian Publishing and W. M. Thackeray, which University Press of Virginia published in 1992. It has been included in the Victorian Web with the kind permission of the author, who of course retains copyright.
Stabbing means sewing straight through from front to back very close to the spine, rather than sewing through the fold or gutter of the gathering front the inside to the back. Many books originally issued in this form were later rebound in the standard way when the whole book was collected. The stab holes in these books remain visible in the inner margins.
Last modified: 4 April 2001