Fernando Pinheiro dos Santos bound this book in dark red goat leather and gold leaf to commemorate the 50th anniversary of António Nobre’s death. The spine was tooled with classic geometrical patterns, blocked with gold leaf like the title on the front cover. Fernando greatly admires the poetry of António Nobre (1867-1900), and when he found a copy of the book printed in 1950, which was coincidentally the year he was born, he seized the opportunity to give it a special binding.

Oliveira Martins was an important historian who studied the political and social realities of Portugal. Fernando decided to use a classic binding in dark blue chagrin leather, with geometric designs blocked in gold leaf on the covers and spine.

Fernando bound this book of collected stories, published in 1945, in full green leather. He decided that the cover should create a gateway to the interior, giving a glimpse of its content. To do so, he transferred a design to the front cover using Japanese paper. The spine and back were tooled, with labels added to the spine for the title and author, and decoration in gold leaf.

Andreia used goat leather for the binding and enhanced it with netting and fragments of coloured leather using the lacunose technique of painting with leather. A phrase in the book: “The sea works like a craftsman” inspired Andreia to try and communicate the inner beauty of objects returned from the sea. The inside pages are wrapped in string, forcing the readers to interact physically with it every time they want to explore the contents.

Andreia believes that Florbela Espanca (1894–1930) is one of Portugal’s most intense poets. Her verses reflected her life, her restlessness, her sadness as well as her exaltations. She committed suicide when she was 36. Andreia’s emotional connection with Espanca’s work was the driving force for this binding, rugged, patched, pitted and worn, expressing the poet’s suffering. The spine was fully worked with raised bands.