Cambridge Bookbindings : The Unicorn Binder, ca.1485-90

Henricus de Zoemeren 1420?-1472, William of Ockham approximately 1285-approximately 1349

Cambridge Bookbindings

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>A well-preserved example of a binding from the workshop of the “Unicorn binder”, the late fifteenth-century Cambridge bindery from which more examples have survived than any other (we know of over 100, today). Here, the nickname comes from the small lozenge-shaped stamp depicting a unicorn looking over its shoulder. The simple decoration on the spine includes blind vertical lines (a common practice of this workshop, and also of the Demon Binder); at head and foot, leather tailcaps are folded over the endbands and sewn through, another technique which was standard until about 1530/40.</p><p>Wooden boards with slightly tapered/cushioned edges are covered with mid-brown calfskin, blind-tooled to a common pattern using several small stamps. The head and tailcaps are folded over the endbands and sewn through, the split sewing supports are of tawed skin; plain parchment endleaves; remains of clasps.</p><p>Dr David Pearson</p></p>