Cambridge Bookbindings : A blind-tooled binding by Jonathan Pindar for the University Library, ca.1680

Henten, Johannes 1500?-1566, Aretaeus of Cappadocia

Cambridge Bookbindings

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>The running of the University Library during the second half of the seventeenth century depended significantly on a series of individuals who were all called Jonathan Pindar, who were certainly related but not all in a father to son way; their genealogy is hard to untangle. They were typically appointed Under-Keepers of the Library, with a range of responsibilities which included bookbinding; there are many bills for their supplying of bindings, in the accounts.</p><p>There are many hundreds of bindings very like this one in the Library, supplied by Pindar in the 1670s or 80s. Some were new books, but many were sixteenth- or early seventeenth-century volumes which the Library had rebound. Whether this reflects particular interest in, or use of, those texts, as compared with relative neglect of other early books, is a question which identification of the bindings allows us to explore (there are plenty of sixteenth-century books, acquired early, which were never repaired). We can also observe books like this, rebound by Pindar, whose condition suggests that they have hardly been used since, while other Pindar rebindings have gone on to need later repair.</p><p>Pasteboards, covered with mid-brown calfskin, blind-tooled. Simply blind-tooled spine, with later labelling; narrow blind roll round board edges; red sprinkled leaf edges; plain paper flyleaves and stubs, separate pastedowns of printed waste.</p><p>Dr David Pearson</p></p>