Renaissance Bindings: Markings that Map the Past
Read More![Recycled vellum wrappings were affordable alternatives to leather bindings. This manuscript leaf comes from the Sarum Rite, a fourteenth-century breviary that fell out of use after the introduction of the Book of Common Prayer in the mid-sixteenth century. This may explain why the leaf was recycled as a temporary wrapper in the seventeenth century. It has been tacketed (loosely stitched to the text block), and is too small to cover the leaves of the book entirely; clearly it was not intended as a permanent binding. However, it appears to have been applied with an appreciation for its beauty, which may explain why it was never replaced.<br>
[Front cover]
<br><br>
<b>Author:</b> Jacques Michelet <br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Discours de geographie contenant les principales pratiques pour les descriptions de la Terre, et de la mer</i> [A geographical discourse, containing practical principles for describing the Earth and sea] (Paris, 1615)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> D.20.21 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21413408810003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Bindings-Gallery/i-DrZkPzX/0/6ce2f3c4/M/D-020-021-047-M.jpg)
Recycled vellum wrappings were affordable alternatives to leather bindings. This manuscript leaf comes from the Sarum Rite, a fourteenth-century breviary that fell out of use after the introduction of the Book of Common Prayer in the mid-sixteenth century. This may explain why the leaf was recycled as a temporary wrapper in the seventeenth century. It has been tacketed (loosely stitched to the text block), and is too small to cover the leaves of the book entirely; clearly it was not intended as a permanent binding. However, it appears to have been applied with an appreciation for its beauty, which may explain why it was never replaced.
[Front cover]
Author: Jacques Michelet
Title: Discours de geographie contenant les principales pratiques pour les descriptions de la Terre, et de la mer [A geographical discourse, containing practical principles for describing the Earth and sea] (Paris, 1615)
Shelfmark: D.20.21 (catalogue record)
14th century16th centuryD.20.21bindingsmanuscript wastemusicvellum wrappings
![Bookbinding was an artisanal process, and even the most skilfully bound books bear unique variations. This volume, donated to the College by a fellow of Queens’, Thomas Yale, illustrates the binder’s reluctance to waste work and materials after omitting a letter. <br>
Glass was costly in the sixteenth century, but cow horn could be soaked in water, rolled into thin strips until translucent and used in place of glass in windowpanes. Here, a horn window of another kind contains a slip of vellum bearing Yale’s donor inscription, while the gold lettering names its prior owner, Simon Heynes, whose library Yale inherited upon marrying his widow.<br>
[Detail of front binding]
<br><br>
<b>Author:</b> Saint Cyprian<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Opera sanctissimi martyris Caecilii Cypriani episcopi </i>[The works of the holy martyr Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage] (Basel, 1525)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> M.9.19 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21408626930003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Bindings-Gallery/i-sJ7w8v5/0/5ebaeab5/Ti/M-009-019-001-Ti.jpg)
![<b>Author:</b> Saint Cyprian<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Opera sanctissimi martyris Caecilii Cypriani episcopi </i>[The works of the holy martyr Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage] (Basel, 1525)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> M.9.19 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21408626930003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Bindings-Gallery/i-v4TSK6n/0/393506bf/Ti/M-009-019-007-Ti.jpg)
![<b>Author:</b> Saint Cyprian<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Opera sanctissimi martyris Caecilii Cypriani episcopi </i>[The works of the holy martyr Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage] (Basel, 1525)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> M.9.19 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21408626930003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Bindings-Gallery/i-zPFBGPN/0/9b07f1f9/Ti/M-009-019-004-Ti.jpg)
![In the 1540s, the trend for gilt stamps grew in Cambridge, with Oxford and London following soon after. A binder would place gold leaf between the heated stamp and the binding, and press it into the leather. <br>
The Crown granted the University of Cambridge its coat of arms in 1573. It consists of a cross of ermine, a book in its centre, between four lions. It is likely that Thomas Thomas, the first University Printer in Cambridge, commissioned this centrepiece in the 1580s. This suggests that the book was rebound several decades after it was first printed, perhaps after a change of ownership.
<br><br>
<b>Author:</b> Ptolemy <br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Geographia Cl. Ptolemaei Alexandrini</i> [The geography of Ptolemy] (Venice, 1562)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> F.20.1 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21394447700003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Bindings-Gallery/i-DWPb94B/0/b783d39b/Ti/F-020-011-007-Ti.jpg)
![Recycled vellum wrappings were affordable alternatives to leather bindings. This manuscript leaf comes from the Sarum Rite, a fourteenth-century breviary that fell out of use after the introduction of the Book of Common Prayer in the mid-sixteenth century. This may explain why the leaf was recycled as a temporary wrapper in the seventeenth century. It has been tacketed (loosely stitched to the text block), and is too small to cover the leaves of the book entirely; clearly it was not intended as a permanent binding. However, it appears to have been applied with an appreciation for its beauty, which may explain why it was never replaced.<br>
[Front cover]
<br><br>
<b>Author:</b> Jacques Michelet <br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Discours de geographie contenant les principales pratiques pour les descriptions de la Terre, et de la mer</i> [A geographical discourse, containing practical principles for describing the Earth and sea] (Paris, 1615)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> D.20.21 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21413408810003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Bindings-Gallery/i-DrZkPzX/0/6ce2f3c4/Ti/D-020-021-047-Ti.jpg)
![[Back cover]
<br><br>
<b>Author:</b> Jacques Michelet <br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Discours de geographie contenant les principales pratiques pour les descriptions de la Terre, et de la mer</i> [A geographical discourse, containing practical principles for describing the Earth and sea] (Paris, 1615)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> D.20.21 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21413408810003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Bindings-Gallery/i-qLmNjQV/0/60ef6e72/Ti/D-020-021-048-Ti.jpg)
![<b>Author:</b> Jacques Michelet <br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Discours de geographie contenant les principales pratiques pour les descriptions de la Terre, et de la mer</i> [A geographical discourse, containing practical principles for describing the Earth and sea] (Paris, 1615)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> D.20.21 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21413408810003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Bindings-Gallery/i-nCX85zm/0/00c69eef/Ti/D-020-021-003-Ti.jpg)
![<b>Author:</b> Jacques Michelet <br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Discours de geographie contenant les principales pratiques pour les descriptions de la Terre, et de la mer</i> [A geographical discourse, containing practical principles for describing the Earth and sea] (Paris, 1615)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> D.20.21 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21413408810003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Bindings-Gallery/i-6ttkXXC/0/4d04bb61/Ti/D-020-021-004-Ti.jpg)
