MS. Canon. Misc. 544

Binding

17th century, Spanish? (as MS.), perhaps in archaizing style for presentation: pasteboards made of waste from an illustrated printed (emblem?) book; reddish-brown leather; faint blind tooling with stamps, a roll?, and triple lines, forming a diamond within a panel; gilt lines and centrepiece of a rampant lion (for León?) on each cover; spine with gilt lines and a small blind rosette in each panel; speckled edges; two clasps with leather straps (partly extant) running from back cover to metal pins at the front cover’s fore-edge; four large domed bosses of gold-coloured metal on each cover. 262–267 × 188–192 × c. 38–39 mm. (book closed).

Fols. 1r (title) and 51r (last page of main text) have glue deposits on their versos to indicate that they were the original paste-downs: possible evidence of an early change of plan to add this more lavish binding.