Medieval Bookbindings Blog

A new blog created by Alexandra Gillespie, Associate Professor in English and Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, with contributions by Emeritus Professor Alexandra Barratt, University of Waikato:

http://medievalbookbindings.com/

Recent posts include a description and very clear images of a sixteenth-century binding and its medieval manuscript endleaves from the Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, and Alexandra Barratt's discovery last year of vellum quire guards taken from an early ninth-century Carolingian Bible and sewn into a fifteenth-century binding (also in the Grey collection).

Sixteenth-century binding brass hook-clasp fastening and fore-edge book
marks; New Testament, probably Netherlands, late twelfth or early thirteenth century; Auckland Libraries, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Med. MS G.140

Alexandra G. and Alexandra B. have done great work identifying and expanding upon what is known about early bindings, and the manuscript waste found in them, held in New Zealand collections. The site will cover a variety of bibliocentric topics (not just New Zealand and not just bindings), so I am definitely excited about future posts!

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