MS. Canon. Liturg. 175

Binding

A composite binding, in which a modern structure with new boards preserves earlier elements:

15th century, late, or early 16th century, Flemish: brown cover-leather only (no spine), with a blind panel containing two rows of four ‘animals-in-foliage’ (eagle, stag, wyvern, lion, a common design) stamped twice on each cover; a parchment flyleaf at front (fol. iii) with holes and marks at fore-edge for two lost clasps; gilt edges, with indistinct traces of gauffering.

19th century, second half, before 1897, Bodleian: pasteboards covered with brown leather, underlying the old leather. 195 × c. 129 × c. 40 mm. (book closed). ‘Not certainly a Canonici volume’, according to Summary Catalogue.

For animals-in-foliage panels (no exact match), see J. Basil Oldham, Blind panels of English binders, Cambridge 1958, pp. 15–18; Staffan Fogelmark, Flemish and related panel-stamped bindings: evidence and principles, New York 1990, pp. 33–4.