I posted before about the amazing Codex Gigas, and from time to time you can always see it on your dash in one form or another. But… I’ve never seen it’s binding before.
!!!
(The side is 22cm thick)
Source: historyofinformation.com
Binding: Germany, ca. 1430, pigskin over heavy wooden red-painted boards , sewn of 5 thongs, brass centre and cornerpieces with bosses, leather clasps with brass catches. Original linen page markers on wooden holder, metal or vellum thumb tags.
Source: schoyencollection.com
NSFW: Binding porn (16th century, but I had to)
Germany, 1549, dark brown leather, over wooden boards, sewn of 5 bands, 15 stamps of roundels with renaissance busts and a large central panel gilt with 3 standing musicians on upper cover, 15 similar roundels and stamps of standing Renaissance warriors on lower cover, 9 brass bosses. Inscription gilt on upper cover: ” Missale renovatum Anno Domini MDXLIX”.
Source: schoyencollection.com
Illustrated by N.C. Wyeth for The Boy’s King Arthur, 1922
Lady of the Lake presenting the Sword
“Then the Lady of the Lake that was alway friendly to King Arthur, she understood by her subtle crafts that King Arthur was like to be destroyed.”
Le Morte D’Arthur
by Sir Thomas Malory
Carved by Jean de la Huerta and Antoine le Moiturier between 1443 and 1456/57, the unique devotional figures, known as “mourners,” were commissioned for the elaborate tomb of the second duke of Burgundy. Crafted with astonishing detail, the alabaster sculptures exemplify some of the most important artistic innovations of the late Middle Ages.
Source: medievalarchives.com
Sir Thomas Phillipps
The history of book collecting is studded with colorful figures. One of the most honored but also most eccentric was Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872).
The illegitimate son of a wealthy textile manufacturer, Phillipps spent his inheritance indulging his passion for medieval manuscripts. His obsession was so great in fact that he referred to himself as a “vellomaniac,” from the word vellum, the material on which early manuscripts were written. It has been estimated that Phillipps acquired more than 100,000 books and manuscripts, spending as much as a quarter million pounds, a colossal sum by nineteenth-century standards.
As proof of just how much material he amassed, his library took more than 100 years to disperse, the last sale catalog being issued in 1977.
P.S. He owned the Rochefoucauld Grail
Norman Rockwell, Boy reading an adventure story
(One of the best feelings in the world… I’m just going to finish this paragraph…Page… Well, only two pages until I finish the chapter… Just to see how the next one begins…No way!… *continues reading*)
Again something for my followers that have kids. :) Or just something from our childhoods.
You don’t want me to get started on this one so here’s a short version: my favorite animated movie of all times. This opening scene always reminds me of my childhood, of all the times I watched this and cried, and laughed. This was my first encounter with fantasy stories. The animation is beautiful, the script, the cast, everything.
Plus, it’s clearly set in a medieval-like world. So, if by any strange accident, you haven’t watched this, please do. And share the thoughts.
A chronological representation of the history of the book
Major historical events are also recorded to place books in their context.
Created by one of my favorite bloggers dijstelberge
Jikji, Selected Teachings of Buddhist Sages and Seon Masters, the earliest known book printed with movable metal type, 1377. Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris.
The entire book can be viewed at http://www.digitaljikji.net/
Ivory plaque set in engraved metal. Flemish and/or German, early to mid 11th century.
The ivory, attributed to Liège in the early 11th century, shows Christ in triumph over personifications of Earth and (damaged) Ocean, with symbols of the four Evangelists; it may be somewhat earlier than the engraved gilt metal plate which fixes it to the thick wooden board of the front cover.
The manuscript inside has been attributed to the German scriptorium of Lorsch towards the mid 11th century. However, the metalwork directly fits it, since the angel engraved at the lower border echoes an illumination within. The four Evangelists in human form are engraved at the corners, and at left and right are a saintly bishop and a young ruler, probably Henry IV (crowned king of Germany 1054, acceded 1056), who receives his crown from above and offers or takes a book, perhaps this one: maybe a coronation book?
Source: bodley30.bodley.ox.ac.uk
“Here begins a treatise how the high Father of Heaven sends Death to summon every creature to come and give account of their lives in this world, and is in the manner of a moral play.”
The Somonyng of Everyman, a late 15th-century English morality play
image: Cover by Jessie M. King
In the fifteenth century, everything changed.
The human mind discovered a means of perpetuating itself which was not only more lasting and resistant than architecture but also simpler and easier. Architecture was dethroned. The lead characters of Gutenberg succeeded the stone characters of Orpheus.
The book was to kill the building.
