Such English bookbindings of an early date as still exist are, as a rule, bound in dark brown goatskin or brown sheepskin. The earliest notices about bookbindings are to be found in some of the wardrobe accounts of Edward IV., but of the many bindings which were made for that king, the only remaining sign now left is a loose cover in the library of Westminster Abbey; it is ornamented with a panel stamp bearing the king’s arms, with supporters. In Mediæval times, books, mostly religious, were generally written, copied, illuminated, and bound in the monasteries themselves, and were frequently of large size. After the date at which printing was introduced into Europe, about the middle of the f…
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