Picking up where the previous section left off, this section deals with the ways in which the copied manuscript was enhanced, both on a decorative level and with respect to the binding. Decorators and binders have not yet been formally introduced as co-producers of the manuscript. While they were not involved in the production of the book's core, the copied text, their tasks were nevertheless important. The decorator added pen drawings, penwork decoration, or even miniatures to the text copied by the scribe. While these are often pleasing to the eye, their primary function was usually a different one: miniatures and decorated letters acted as signposts and marked important starts and transitions within the text. In other words, the reader's eyes easily fell on these colourful creations and were thus guided to new paragraphs and chapters, or to the beginning of a new text. Because of its function, decoration is yet another way to gauge how the book was used.

The binder, too, had an important role to play in preparing the object that would ultimately end up in the hands of the reader. Bindings held the quires together and turned a pile of leaves into a single entity that could be handled with ease. While it would suffice to have a binding that would merely hold the quires together, additional features were often added, such as protective elements and clasps. Like decoration, such add-ons contribute to our understanding of how the book was used, and even in what kind of environment the user consulted it, such as a private or monastic library, or while out and about. The subtext of this section, then, is to discuss two important stages in a manuscript's production, binding and decoration, while showing how these functional enhancements contribute more broadly to our understanding of medieval book culture.

The first three chapters are devoted to bookbindings and the range of features found on them. Chapter 7 discusses the materials that were used to cover the binding, from leather to cloth, while Chapter 8 focuses on the metalwork encountered on some bindings.