| Velvet. |
Velvet.Bindings of red or violet velvet were also frequently used for manuscripts. Plain red velvet, with elaborate clasps and corner-pieces of chased gold or silver, was perhaps the most usual form of binding for costly manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Fine gems, especially the carbuncle and turquoise, were set in the gold mounts of some of these princely books.
| Dyed vellum. |
Dyed vellum.Vellum dyed with the murex was used to cover the oak boards of manuscripts at a time when purple-stained vellum was no longer used for the pages of manuscripts. A fine green dye and other colours were also used for vellum bindings. The Vatican records of books borrowed (and returned) usually mention how each volume was bound. Among the earliest of these records, dating from the Pontificate of Leo X. (1513 to 1522) the commonest descriptions of bindings are in tabulis, in rubio, in albo, in nigro, and in gilbo, indicating the colour of the skin or velvet in which the manuscript was bound.
| Later bindings. Gold mounts. |
Later bindings.In the sixteenth century, when private luxury and pomp were taking the place of the earlier religious feelings and beliefs which had so greatly fostered the decorative arts, bindings as costly as those of the Altar-textus of the great Cathedral and Abbey churches were again made at the command of wealthy patrons. Thus, for example, Cardinal Grimani had his famous Breviary[[299]] bound in crimson velvet, the greater part of which is concealed by the most elaborate Gold mounts.mounts, clasps, corner-pieces and borders of solid gold, of the most exquisite workmanship, decorated with a medallion portrait head of the Cardinal himself.
So also the very similar Horae of Albert of Brandenburg[[300]] is decorated with clasps and other mounts of pure gold; and an immense number of other sumptuous bindings, rich with embossed and chased gold, studded with precious gems, were made to enshrine the costly manuscripts of Giulio Clovio and other famous miniaturists of the sixteenth century period of decadence.
| Bindings of needlework. |
Bindings of needlework.At the close of the fifteenth century or rather earlier, the custom became popular of having Horae and other manuscripts owned by wealthy secular personages bound in velvet, richly decorated with embroidery in gold and silver thread and silk mixed with a great number of seed pearls. The arms, badges and initials of the owner are the commonest designs for these embroideries.
Some of the German examples of this class of binding are especially elaborate and magnificent; but on the whole this method of decoration is not at all suited for covering books.