Binding- Book of Hours Use of Rome, Northern France
The blind tooling features several animals, including what appear to be dragons, as well as a fleur-de-lis border.
The book’s spine has the Latin word, MISSALE (upper part of spine) and the initials M S (lower part of spine) both in gold lettering.
A Note from John Windle, Antiquarian Book Seller (March 24, 2014):
Binding. Probably contemporary leather (calf?) over wooden boards, richly tooled in the French manner. On the back cover the blind-tooled name I.A. Gontier (or perhaps Goutier) occurs twice. The name does not appear in Denise Gid’s exhaustive Catalogue des reliures françaises estampées à froid (XVe-XVIe siècle) de la Bibli. Mazarine, Paris cnrs, 1984. According to a communication received from Mme Fabienne Le Bars of the Reserve des Livres Rares in the Bibliothèque Nationale (August 30th, 1994), no such binder’s name is in the card indexes kept in the Reserve des Imprimés, nor in the Dept. des Manuscrits.
A most unusual feature are the gilt edges, gauffered with an intricate design of floral entrelacs in green and pink.
Rebacked (prob. in the late 18th century, perhaps in Boswell’s time), front cover almost loose; the covers excellently preserved, with sharp impressions of the toolings.
Front Cover
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Back Cover
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Blind Tooling
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Spine
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