Bound by Law: Justinianus

The binding of this Digestum Novum is typical of binding done in the fifteenth century. The vellum that covers the wooden boards is blind-tooled, meaning that the damp leather binding was stamped with a heated tool to create a textured decoration. The close-up photo shows the delicate design stamped on the cover. The addition of brass clasps and latches was also typical of the time as a way of preserving the book from moisture and page buckling. The title being written by hand on the page edges was another common trend. As books were shelved horizontally spine-side in, the title being written on the page edges was the only way to quickly browse the titles on a shelf.