I came across a "the teachings of the catholic church and her divine founder our saviour" book. It's copyright date is 1884 and published by Gay Brothers & Co. The cover is in bad shape but the pages look good. I have looked all over online and can't find any info at all. I want to restore it as a gift for our priest they is going to marry us. Just not sure it is worth the trouble. Any info would be great. Things I am looking to find out is the rarity and right way to have it restored. Also the history on the book and publisher. I bought it at a yard sale for $15. Thanks for any info you can help with. God bless you.

Give this information to the reference librarians at your local public library. They will check the rare book list to see if this book is on it and if it is worth anything.

Also, ask the librarians about getting the book rebound. Most libraries send damaged books to a bindery. That was part of my job. The turnaround time was a month, and sometimes we'd allow a patron to include a personal book with the batch from us. Of you can work with the bindery yourself. It sounds like the book would at least need new covers.

Here's the restoration page of the bindery I used to deal with --
Houchen Bindery Ltd: Restoration (http://www.houchenbindery.com/restoration.htm)

Heckman is the name of another bindery we dealt with. Or there may be a monastery or religious group in your area that rebinds/restores old books.