From the end of the 15th century booksellers, acting both as publishers and as retailers of books printed by others, used a variety of strategies to protect their books as they were moved from printer to customer. The varieties of inexpensive parchment- or paper-covered bindings used for this purpose are relatively well-known, but the booktrade also made use of unfinished bindings that held the text leaves together, thus reducing the risk of loose sheets going astray, but adding little additional weight to the textblock, and thus minimising transport costs. These bindings also provided a permanent structure, both with and without boards, that could be completed to the final customer’s specifications.