Cambridge Bookbindings : A Cambridge roll binding, ca.1540

Aristotle., Erasmus, Desiderius -1536

Cambridge Bookbindings

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>While Spierinck’s bindery introduced a range of new tools in the 1530s, another separate Cambridge workshop was operating through the 1530s and 40s, with its own group of rolls; the outer one here, with the criss-cross fretwork pattern, is one of the most commonly-encountered and distinctive ones. We do not have a name to associate with this bindery, but know that other stationers were operating in Cambridge at that time. The output generally conforms to what had become typical by the 1540s; dark brown calfskin, an increasing tendency to use pasteboard rather than wood (even for large format books), ties not clasps.</p><p>Pasteboards covered with dark brown calfskin, blind-tooled including rolls Oldham SW.b(3) and FP.a(7). Fragments of medieval manuscript are used as pastedowns, with plain paper flyleaves; remains of green cloth ties.</p><p>Dr David Pearson</p></p>