Earlier this fall, Baker Book House announced a hardcover set of the four gospel volumes in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS). I made a brief announcement post here.
Recently, an anonymous reader purchased the set and sent me photos and details. Here is a quick overview he provided:
Size, Cover Design, and Overall Appearance
-Each book is your standard 6″x9″ hardcover book block, or around 6-1/4″x9-5/16″ with the cover
-Slipcase is 9-9/16″ tall, 6-7/16″ deep, and 5-1/8″ across, and glossy
-Dust jackets are also glossy, and the cover image is the same on the front and back:
-Binding shows no signs of stitching and does not lay open and flat at the beginning or end of the text, so it’s a glued binding
-Black head and tail bands
-Black pastedown paper liner at the front and back
Pages, Typesetting, and Layout
- Normal book page thickness (not “Bible paper”), and minimal ghosting as expected from any standard book
- Paper is matte, no sheen
- Text is not line-matched
- Specific verse numbers are presented in the left and right margins next to the text
- Top left and right corners show verse number range from the first verse on the left page to the last verse on the right page
- Page numbers are in the bottom center of each page
- Outer margins are 13/16″
- Text does fall into the inner gutter
- Printed in the United States of America
The glued binding is really unfortunate for such an otherwise beautiful commentary set. Then again, my IVP Bible Background Commentary volumes are also glued, so this is not just a Catholic publisher thing. It seems more like an American publisher thing oftentimes, unless the specific publisher makes a concerted effort to go sewn. Oh well, the binding does not diminish the quality of the contents which look quite solid. I hope they do the other volumes in due time.