Romanesque bindings
A group of bookbindings dating from the 12th and
early 13th centuries. These bindings, of which
more than a hundred examples are recorded, are
always in leather, usually of a dark brown color.
Their decorative patterns were not incised with a
knife or graver, as was common in that time, but
were produced by means of repeated impressions
made with engraved metal stamps. The finest
examples are of French or English origin, but the
style was also prevalent in Germany, although not
in Italy or Spain. Romanesque bindings are the
earliest of the blocked bindings and represent a
fully developed art of book decoration by means of
deeply engraved metal dies, which left excellent
impressions in relief in the leather. These 12th
century stamps are well engraved, and seem to have
no known antecedents. There is evidence indicating
that they were produced by the members of a small
group of monasteries, and within a relatively
short period of time. Most of the extant examples
are bindings of individual books of the Bible,
each usually having a different design on the
upper cover. (69 ,
167 )
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