Fascicle

The OED [Oxford English Dictionary] was initially published in a series of 125 slim fascicles between the years 1884 and 1928. The first complete edition in ten volumes was published in 1928.

I was inspired to prepare fascicles like this by the example of Charles Dickens, who issued his novels in serial form; he published a dozen installments of Oliver Twist before having any idea what would become of Bill Sikes!

The printed book appeared in a variety of forms during the course of its history in China. These included, among others, the “whirlwind” binding (xuanfeng zhuang), […] the “thread” binding (xianzhuang), a technical designation that refers to the silken or cotton filaments used to stitch together folded sheets of paper into fascicles.