Browse Items (420 total)

A typical binding for the geographic region and timeframe whence it was printed, it is likely that this binding was executed with little time lag from the day it left the printer’s studio. Parchment (pigskin) has been laid over wooden boards. The…

Another example of parchment on cardboard, this binding is on exhibit to show the leather ties that were used to keep the book closed when not in use. Due to the fragility of the leather used to make ties, it is rare that they survive the passage of…

The binding consists of parchment on boards, with the parchment having been painted in brown ink to simulate a marbling effect. The spine label is of yellow morocco, with title tooled in gold (partially illegible due to remnants of a former label…

This binding shows a simulated marble effect, which has been styled as “Run or Prusian marble” by 18th century printer and binder James Coghlan in his Memorandum on the bookbinding trade, dating to 1764-65. The effect is generated by black ink and…

This binding of parchment on boards displays stab holes within its covers for ties (now missing). The spine label is in red morocco, with the title “Juvenalis et Persius” tooled on in gold. There is tooling in gold on front and back covers, with the…

A laced-case binding in limp parchment with no support of boards; this was likely a temporary binding. The "laces" that are visible through the cover are actually slips or supports that are sewn into the spine to support the text block. The fact that…

Two hundred and twenty years younger than its display case neighbour Les Ordonnances et édicts du très chrestien roy de France Charles neufiesme du nom […], this item is a good example of the economic measures taken to reduce the costs of…

This book has lost its binding over time, but its current state allows for a wonderful illustration of the elaborate and painstaking process that went into sewing of a text block before an external cover was applied. Interestingly, this particular…

Printed by Sebastian Gryphius in 1547, this item is an example demonstrating a binding repair in which the owner took special care to retain as many elements of the original binding as possible.

This post-incunabulum, an edition of Saint-Jerome’s works printed in Basel, Switzerland, has a binding typical of the first years of the 15th century, with its wooden boards and endpapers of manuscript waste.