Sixteenth-Century Gold-Tooled Bookbindings in the Pierpont Morgan Library

New York: The Pierpont Morgan Library, 1971. Paperback. xv, [264], numerous fullpage b&w plates, these show front covers and spines, presswork for the plates and texts all on glazed alkaline paperstock, softbound in 11.5x8.2 inch brown paper covers lettered gilt. Curiously, the cover-stock is too thin for the job, and the gilt titling is worse: so light that one must concentrate to read the several words that are legible. Cover design aside, the spine panel is badly sunned, and upper joint is slightly split at top and tail. The text-block, however, is in near-fine condition. Nixon, of the British Museum, was one of John Carter's assistants in the (truncated) production of "Printing and the Mind of Man". Preface begins with the straight-faced characterization of the 1500s as "the golden age of bookbinding" with France and Italy the best-represented, with England a third. One Mexican casing (1597) is described. (Inventory #: 328363)