Gothic bookbinding with goldsmith’s furnishings photo 1

Gothic bookbinding, 1. anonymous bookbinder, northern Germany, late 15th c. 2. anonymous bookbinder, Königsberg, before 1547. Bound: manuscript –Psalter, ca. 1480. University Library in Toruń, sign. Rps 84/I.
A representative example of a small-format prayer codex in a binding that was later given the features of a luxury item. The original leather covering with dietooled decoration was later covered with expensive black velvet and equipped with goldsmith’s furnishings in the intricate form of convex swirling openwork rosettes. The fastenings have an exceptionally original form of three-dimensional heads of angels or putti, in particular hooks that are de facto miniature locks with a key that unlocks the strap hook. Together with the Negroid, three-dimensional heads on the lower cover, which served as anchors for the hook straps, these elements already bear features of Renaissance products. This indicates that the volume could have been rebound after 1526, as this is the date of the wedding of Prince Albert of Hohenzollern to Dorothea, the daughter of the King of Denmark and Norway.

View of the whole upper cover board