Smith, Margit J. — The Medieval Girdle Book

New Castle, Delaware, Oak Knoll Press, 2017. First Edition. Hardcover. Size: Large 8vo 9" - 10. I am proud to consider the author, Margit Smith, a librarian and hand bookbinder who retired in 2010 from the Helen K. and James S. Copley Library at the University of San Diego, a personal friend. I've saved a signed copy of this, my favorite title in my The Art of the Book section. Bound in an Imperial octavo hardcover format, with a brilliant, illustrated dust jacket and that is augmented with nearly 300 color photographs. Brand-new, still in shrink-wrap, neither shelf- nor edge-worn, neither sunned nor marked as a remainder. In Medieval Europe, â€oegirdle”-books were all of that and more. From the looks of their exterior, girdle-books weren’t obviously books, but clergymen and noblemen wore them, aristocrats and commoners, men and women alike. Some looked like little leather-bound ghosts hanging upside-down. Text was written in ink on hand-made paper and illustrated or, following the manufacture of type-font and invention of the printing press, printed finely. Their spines were sewn with thread or twine or sinews into a large piece of soft animal skin so that the surrounding â€oecloak” could be folded over and fastened with buckles or laces or clasped and embellished in â€oehumaniform,” that is, little polished figures etched to resemble humans. Some girdle-books featured brass corner pieces, embroidery, awl punctures, or family crests. Girdle-books were worn folded over a rope or leather belt. They were â€oetied” with a â€oeTurk’s head” knot at top. They hung down so far that, when worn properly, they slapped against the thighs of their wearers. Swung upwards easily, a girdle-book could be opened and read from, say, from a Book of Hours or a New Testament commentary. A copy of Boethius’s De Consolatione Philosophiae (The Consolations of Philosophy) sits in Yale University’s Beineke Library, a sort of Holy Grail of viewing for bibliopoles. Of the 26 exemplars of that title that were ever printed - a sixth-century manuscript printed in the 15th century – that one is the sole survivor in Christendom. Margit Smith’s fascinating survey, The Medieval Girdle Book, dives deeply into the world of Medieval readership and girdle-book display. Girdle-books hanging down the fronts and sides of men and women are depicted in Medieval art, too. For women, a girdle-book enabled hands-free carrying of a precious item thus safe from rain, mud, and grubby thumbs. Girdle-books also revealed social station and literacy, religious faith and fame; Saints George and Jerome were painted wearing them while slaying demons. Printed books and that were bound with leather and other materials spelled the end of the girdle-book. Fewer than two dozen Medieval girdle-books have survived in their original binding. Cheaper printing costs made it easier to replicate instead of copying texts. Because of its physical nature and the moral-philosophical or frankly religious texts they contained, girdle-books mimicked corpses, implied souls and resembled human beings. Girdle-books bound together a â€oetext” that could be read and interpreted almost endlessly. 384 pp. and complete with notes, bibliography and index.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. . . . New/New ,