Gothic bookbinding of Master of Incunabula photo 1

Gothic bookbinding, Master of Incunabula, Königsberg, early 16th c. Johannes Beckenhaub (ca. 1440–ca. 1491), Tabula super libros Sententiarum cum Bonaventura, Nürnberg, Ant. Koberger, [ca. 1500]. University Library in Toruń, sign. Inc. III.38.
In the binding produced by the Königsberg Master of Incunabula (Ger. Inkunabel Meister), the pomegranate pattern as an ornament filling in the centrepiece has undergone a significant transformation. In other words, through the extreme simplification of the so-called rue-sprig scroll and the reduction in pomegranate fruit motifs (often replaced by fleurons or bouquets of flowers in the decoration of the frames) or small rosettes, this ornament was transformed into a kind of net. The reduction of the form of the centrepiece decoration contrasts with the increasingly rich decoration of its two-zone frame and the lower cover. On the first of them, special attention is drawn to the carefully developed motif of a medallion with the Mandylion, pressed four times from using a stamp die in the corners of the lower cover. Equally characteristic are two rectangular die impressions in the geometric fields of the lower cover: a griffin and a hunting scene with Christological symbolism (a dog chasing a deer). It is also worth mentioning the two die-stamped images of an eagle as a symbol of St. John: the first has the more common form of a round medallion, while the other has an impressive, four-leaf medallion with a detailed motif of a bird holding a ribbon (not recorded in the fundamental Schunke catalogue of 1979).

View of the whole upper cover board