So if I'm understanding this correctly, it is a way to cleverly package 6 books as one unit so that there are six different ways to open the package, each way giving you access to a different one of the six books.
Is there any advantage in this method for the reader over the usual method of simply printing all 6 books in one normal volume, with something between each adjacent pair so you can quickly open it to the book you are interested in? Or is this just one of those "do it because it is cool" things?
i think the only advantage is that binding books back then was expensive as hell... so maybe this crazy 6-way binding could have cost 2x or 3x and it would still be cheaper then paying the normal 6x.
not to mention you save the weight of extra 10 front and back covers.
now, why they didn't simply make the 6 volumes in the same book and put some tabs protruding from the pages, i will never know. there is a russian book binder faux anecdote there...
Hard to say what the intent of the people that made this was, but even if it's not terribly useful, it's pretty clever. Maybe they would use it to bind 6 volumes of a series together?
Is there any advantage in this method for the reader over the usual method of simply printing all 6 books in one normal volume, with something between each adjacent pair so you can quickly open it to the book you are interested in? Or is this just one of those "do it because it is cool" things?