English Girdle Book, c. 1400

This girdle book is authentic to England, c. 1400. It incorporates Latin text for the elevation of Mathilde Bourette to the Order of the Laurel and other texts in both Latin and Middle English that were selected by the recipient.

Materials:

Vellum quires sewn with linen thread onto tawed thongs. Boards are quartersawn oak (supplied by Master Geoffrey Bourette) covered with blind-tooled, vegetable-tanned leather. Peg and hasp are brass; the strap is leather and vellum. Adhesive is wheat paste. Inks are brazilwood (red) and oak gall (black). Dry pigments bound with glair were used for the illumination. Pigments include vine black, burnt umber, alizarin lake, red ochre, yellow ochre, ultramarine (synthetic), terra vert, and titanium dioxide (substitute for lead white). Both shell gold and gold leaf (over hide glue) were used.

Calligraphy and Illumination Sources:

Calligraphy scripts were all modeled on variants of Anglicana, an English script used from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. Manuscripts reproduced in Jane Roberts’ Guide to Scripts Used in English Writings up to 1500 (British Library, 2005) were used as source materials.

The two illuminations are based on a manuscript of Boccaccio’s Of Famous Women (Bibliotheque nationale de France, MS francais 12 420) and a manuscript of Chaucer’s Romaunt de la Rose (Glasgow University Library, MS Hunter 409, fol. 57v).

Binding:

J. A. Szirmai’s classic Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding was the primary reference for bookbinding techniques and materials.