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Byzantine cover of an evangelical volume decorated with gold leaves, with filigree crucifix representing the Virgin and Saint John. 13th century. Venice tesoro de San Marco (treasor of Saint Mark)

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LIEBENS-ANSICHTEN DES KATERS MURR [aka THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF TOMCAT MURR] by E.T.A. Hoffman, 1776-1822. (Leipzig: Inset, 1822) Illustrated by Hans van Mueller

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Wikipedia

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MEISTER FLOH [aka MASTER FLEA] by E.T.A. Hofffman (Frankfort am Main: Friedrich Wilmans, 1822)

‘Shortly before its publication, the novel was the target of a major censorship case. In question were two scenes that appeared to mock the court system and its manner of prosecuting nationalists in the wake of the Carlsbad Decrees. The first edition appeared with significant portions of the fourth and fifth adventures missing. The missing sections were first made public by the literary scholar Georg Ellinger in 1906 in the journal Deutsche Rundschau, and appeared in a new version of the novel published in 1908. Because Hoffmann requested and agreed to the cuts, however, his final intentions for the novel remain unclear, and the novel should be regarded as a fragment.’ — Wikipedia

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Green velvet binding with Rococco silver hardware and overlays (c.1760) The fittings were not attached until after 1970.

Held by the Staatsbibliothek, Bramberg, Germany.

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PSALTER (Germany: First half of the 13th Century). Medieval art binding composed of ink and pigments on heavy, darkened parchment bound between on-medieval oak boards covered with green velvet and copper.

Held by The Walters Art Museum.

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BOOK OF HOURS (Bruges: c.1460-1470) Art binding designed by the Flemish artist Willem Vrelant of Frankfurt.

Ink and pigments on parchment bound between boards covered with leather, gilded metal, and ivory.

Held by The Walters Art Museum.

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This gilded calfskin volume painted with lacquer, dating around 1595, depicts Prince-Elector Johann Georg von Brandenburg as well as Fredrich Wilhelm I, Duke of Saxe-Weimar.

Held by the Straatsbibliotek-banberg.de

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Gilded and gauffered edge of a laquer volume crafted in the Weischner bookbinding workshop in Jena. (c.1580)

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Green and yellow foot-band binding made by Adam Metzner of Bamberg. The volume’s edge is colored red and partly gilded with star shapes. (c.1900)

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Late Gothic pigskin binding decorated with blind embossing and pointed oval vines. Early 16th Century.

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THE BAMBERGER PSALTER (1220-1230) Its front and back covers are decorated with opaque paintings on parchment, adorned with gold foil, and kept under transparent horn-plates: the latter are held in place by nailed-on silver bars which are partially engraved.

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PRAYER BOOK DALA’IL AL-KHAYRART OF AL-JAZULI MOROCCO — 19th Century

A gold-embossed, red leather volume with a flap containing an Arabian manuscript, and a matching leather bag made of embroidered velvet. 11.5 x 11.5 cm square. The manuscript in Arabic has eleven lines per page in Maghribi writing with black ink, and red and blue highlights. It is lit with two small frontispieces, and five titles of the different sections inscribed in yellow, in imitation of gold, in polychrome unwân extended by rosettes. It is illustrated with a double page, in polychrome of the Medina mosque on the left inscribed with the two words minbar and mihrab as well as an image of the Prophet’s tomb on the right page. Leather flalp binding with stamped and gold decoration. In its textile pouch.

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ALMANACH GALANT DES COSTUMES FRANÇAIS [aka Galant Almanac of French Costumes] (Paris; Chez la Sr. Boulanger, 1780).

Mother-of-pearl and silver-gilt hinged case binding. Treasure bindings get their name not only for the value of the materials used to make them, but also because they, along with saints’ relics, vestments and plate, one formed part of a church’s treasury. Treasure bindings undoubtably lent prestige to the texts that they envelop — in the medieval period these texts were typically liturgical and devotional manuscripts — as well as to the person or institution that possessed them

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‘Book Front Cover with Christ Pantokrator. Constantinople, late 10th-early 11th century.

This cover, which long contained a fourteenth-century Venetian evangelary, is one of the many objects that presumably reached Venice during the Fourth Crusade as booty from Constantinople. Originally it covered a Byzantine manuscript, most likely a Gospel Book.’

Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Ms. Lat. Cl. 1.100

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Catharine Parr’s copy of Petrarch’s works (1544). Bound in January 1547.

with a commentary by Alessandro Vellutello. [Colors have been restored to show design.]

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THE ARABIAN NIGHTS: THEIR BEST KNOW TALES edited by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Smith. (New York: Scribner’s, 1909) Illustrated by Maxfield Parrish.

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THE ARABIAN NIGHTS (New York: Dodd Mead, 1917). Illustrated by René Bull (1845-1942)