BINDING

The binding of the Glagolitic books did not differ that much from binding of contemporary books in Italy and Germany. The wooden boards were covered with blind-tooled leather, and sometimes embellished with metal bosses or corner protections. The parchment manuscripts were almost inevitably furnished with leather straps or metal clasps to prevent the volume from warping.

Basic liturgical texts, like breviary and missal, are always exposed to heavy wear and tear and almost all of them were rebound multiple times during their lifetime. Preservation of the original bindings of this books is very rare. Only three preserved copies of the 1483 Missal have binding old enough to be considered contemporary to the time of printing. The Zagreb copy of the Missal has wooden boards covered with brown leather, decorated with geometric forms and metal corner guards. The back of the volume is strengthened with the parchment and textile. The clasps on the copy held in the Library of the Franciscan Third Order in Zagreb have engraved image of the lion on the clasps. The Washington copy also includes closing clasps (Krader 1963, p. 98). There is no information available about binding of the copies held in the other depositories.

As with many of the book at that time, especially ones that were printed for some distant market (Glagolitic, Armenian) it is reasonable to consider that at least some of the volumes were shipped unbound and received its final finish from the hand of the local bookbinder. Therefore, individual bindings of incunabula editions could vary considerably even when bindings were contemporary (Fučić 1974)

 

 

Bibliography

Fučić, B. (1974). Uvez glagoljske knjige. Zbornik - Muzej primenjene umetnosti. 18, 5-12.

Krader, B. (1963). The Glagolitic Missal of 1483. The Library of Congress Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions, 20(2), 93-98.