Student Book Arts project [hand bound manuscript on the history of the book]

Hardcover, 9.5 x 6.5 inches, [18] pages. Undated and without much to go on other than the student's name, Pauline Robinson, purchased in Vermont. Likely work from a manual training class, ca. 1910-1920s, by a student around 14 years old. The project is a hand-bound manuscript report on the history of the book. Comprised of two sewn signatures made with laid paper of much better quality (Arches MBM Ingres) than the materials of the case binding. The endpapers are attractively hand-printed with a block pattern and the first page of text is presented in the style of an illuminated manuscript with a decorated capital and traditional calligraphy. The remaining 11 pages of text are written in standard cursive and contain a sort-of history. She begins with oral tradition, philosophizing, "We may say the first book was written on the tablet of human memory," then onto knotted cords ("still used in Australia by the savages"), papyrus, bark, parchment, etc. She mostly makes a survey of written f