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Leathers and parchments could be dyed so as to add colour to their external covers; they could also be painted. This third edition of the works of Olympia Morata, humanist, poet and linguist, of Italian origin, is an example of a parchment that has…

This first example is that of what is termed an “armorial binding”, where the coat of arms of an aristocratic family will serve to indicate ownership on a book’s binding. Such bindings are executed with exquisite care and a family’s arms are tooled…

This exquisite example of a mark of ownership is not even that of a book owner but that of a bookseller in Glasgow, Scotland, who had this item for sale in their shop. This practice ensured that this item could be traced back to its original point of…