Carved leather bookbinding photo 4

Gothic bookbinding, anonymous leather carver (Lederschneider), Bohemia, ca. 1400. Bound: manuscript – Ioannes de Lignano, Lectura super primo libro Decretalium Gregorii IX, 1390s. University Library in Toruń, sign. Rps 43/III.
The technique for developing the decoration of this binding involved carving the contours of the compositional elements in brown leather with a knife and many repeated stamp strokes in the background, creating a contrast between it and the smooth surface of the decorative motifs. This work is an example of a distinct group of carved leather bindings created between the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th c., most probably in the workshops of Jewish Lederschneider operating in Bohemia. A distinguishing feature of their work is the compositional arrangement of the decorative motifs on the upper and lower covers primarily consisting of round medallions with images of real and fantastic animals taken from the early mediaeval Phisiologus.

View of the whole lower cover board (side view)