Although
the physical is so much better, folk from outside Dunedin can now enjoy the
exhibition, which presents an overview using samples of bindings from our
collection. And a wide selection are on display. They range from early pigskin
and vellum bound books, Cambridge-style examples, and a Louis XIV binding, to
publishers’ bindings, works by the New Zealand binder Eleanor Joachim
(1874-1957),
and a few examples from local Dunedin binders. One highlight is a binding of
the Bible, Vol. III (Venice: Johannes Herbort for J. de Colonia, N.
Jenson, 31 July 1481) executed by the Rood and Hunt Binder, Oxford, circa 1482.
This is the earliest English binding in New Zealand, and has additional
significance in that the sewing guards within are fragments of
indulgences printed by William Caxton in Westminster, c1480, and John Lettou
(London), after 1480. These fragments were discovered by Christopher de Hamel
back in the 1980s.
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