Bookbinding in England and France / by W.Y. Fletcher.

  • William Younger Fletcher
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bookbinding in England and France / by W.Y. Fletcher. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    purpose of having it burnt or otherwise destroyed, shall be fined ten shillings for the first offence, four pounds for the second, and be im¬ prisoned during the King’s pleasure for the third. Although the more humble bindings in leather equally suffered with those of greater value from the religious intolerance of the age, they were more fortunate in not exciting to the same extent the cupidity of plunderers, and some beautiful examples are still to be found in our great libraries. Surpassing all others in interest is that on the little volume containing the Gospel of St. John, taken from the tomb of St. Cuthbert, and now preserved in the library of Stonyhurst College. The binding is of red leather, and Mr. Gordon Duff, a great authority on early bindings, considers it to be not later than the tenth century. On the upper cover is a raised ornament of Celtic design, having above and below it panels filled with interlaced work, coloured with yellow paint ; and on the lower cover a geometrical pattern picked out in yellow. The researches of Mr. Weale, the learned Keeper of the Art Library at South Kensington Museum, conclusively show that at the end of the twelfth century book¬ binding had nowhere attained to so high a degree of perfection as in England; the best work being done by the professional binders of London and Winchester, and by the monks of Durham and other abbeys. Mr. Weale tells us that ‘the leather and other materials employed, and the binding itself, were excellent ; and that the stamps used for the ornamentation of the covers have never been surpassed for beauty of design and execution.’ This assertion is fully borne out by the binding of the noble volumes of the Bible, written and bound at the Benedictine Monastery, Durham, between 1153 and 1195, for Hugh Pudsey, bishop of that See, and given by him to the Cathedral Library, where they are still preserved. They are covered with brown leather, ornamented with interlaced chain-work — a very favourite style of decoration — and are also tooled with small stamps representing men in various positions,, fabulous animals, and palmated leaves. The beautiful binding of the manuscript belonging to the Society of Antiquaries, known as the Winchester Domesday Book, ‘ Liber de terris regis reddentibus Langa- bulum et Brugium in Winton,’ also of the twelfth century, and executed in a somewhat similar manner to that of the Durham books, is an additional proof of the excellence of English work of that period.
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