Host Volume

Colchester: University of Essex Library, Harsnett H.b.24

Publication Details

Type of host: 
printed book retaining early binding
Author of volume: 
Jean Gerson
Title of volume: 

Opera, tertia pars

Publication: 

Strassburg: Martinus Flaccus, iunior (ex officina), 1494

Bibliographical reference for printing: 
ISTC ig00189000; GW 10717

Binding Information

Binding style: 
blind-stamped, diaper design
Binding detail: 

Leather on boards, rebacked, sewn on four thongs. The same pattern on both boards: a rectangle formed by a repeated thin stamp of vegetation (Gibson, stamp 88), within which diagonal double fillets form a diaper pattern, in which sit two repeated ornaments: one a rectangle placed as a diamond, apparently an enthroned and nimbed Christ Child the crucifix resting on his left shoulder (Gibson, stamp 89); the other a triangle of flowing leaves (Gibson, stamp 90). Ker, Pastedowns, no. 29 and 30, identified these stamps; thus this binding is localisable to Oxford. Moreover, thanks to the work of Graham Pollard, 'The Names of Some English Fifteenth-Century Binders', The Library, 5th ser., xxv (1970), pp. 193-218 at p. 211, the binder can be identified as George Chastelaine, who died in 1513 (Pearson, Oxford, p. 129). Evidence of two fore-edge clasps; both catch-plates in situ on lower board, same design as on H.b.22.

Place of binding: 
Oxford
Date range for binding: 
1502--1513

Hosting Information

Number of manuscripts represented: 
1
Number of fragments: 
1

Further information

Provenance: 
  • Samuel Harsnett (1561–1631), archbishop of York, 1629–31.
Bibliography: 

Ker, Pastedowns, no. 30.

Date last updated: 
Sunday, December 6, 2015 - 08:51