Table of Contents
Introduction
Copper-alloy mounts were often fixed to medieval and post-medieval book covers to decorate and protect the covers. Most are recognised from their convex domed centres, which prevented the leather of the covers from being rubbed and damaged. Surviving domed mounts still in place on books can be in the centre of each cover, at the corners, or both.
Flat mounts, often with down-turned edges, were also used to protect the corners and edges of the cover.
Identification of these mounts has been aided by several recent studies on the archaeology of book fittings (summarised by Howsam 2016, 21-22).
Charlotte Howsam’s recent study (Howsam 2016) covers a relatively small number of book fittings excavated from monastic sites, and the PAS database contains a much greater variety. For this reason we cannot expect all of our examples to fit easily into specific Howsam types.
PAS object type to be used
Use BOOK FITTING, as this is the only option offered in the MDA object type thesaurus.
PAS object classification and sub-classifications to be used
Use mount in the classification field and, if you can, add the Howsam type to the sub-classification field, for example Howsam type B.1.2.
Date
There are many problems in constructing a chronology of book fittings. Books are long-lived objects, but they do get discarded and replaced, and it seems that this increased in the 14th and 15th centuries (Howsam 2016, 354-356). In addition, many books were curated by ecclesiastical institutions and discarded en masse at the Dissolution in the 16th century. The date of deposition of book fittings may therefore be centuries later than their date of manufacture (Howsam 2016, 24-26).
Some book mounts survive in place on books, but a further challenge to dating is that if a book was rebound, the date of the book cannot help date the fittings.
Despite these caveats, we can say a little about dating. Circular domed bosses with tabs (Howsam type B.1.2) are known from 14th- to 16th-century contexts (Howsam 2016, 92). Egan 1998, no. 926 is from a context of c. 1350-1400 AD, and Ottaway and Rogers 2002, 2939, no. 14483 is from Period 7 at Bedern (mid 14th to early 15th century). A similar date-range is suggested for square mounts with bosses (Howsam type B.1.3; Howsam 2016, 95) with examples from 15th-century contexts in London (Egan 1998, nos. 927-8).
Mounts of type B.1.4 and B.1.6 appear to occur from the 12th to 16th centuries (Howsam 2016, 95-98) and there is not enough evidence yet to date mounts of type B.1.5 and B.1.7 more closely than this either (Howsam 2016, 98-99).
Corner-pieces (Howsam type B.4) are known from the 15th and 16th centuries (Howsam 2016, 105-108); one which is often quoted from Norwich (Margeson 1993, 74, no. 456) is likely to have been residual in a later context.
Terms to use in the description
Most book mounts are identified by their domed shape; sometimes the word ‘boss’ is used instead. Mounts can be solid or hollow, cast or worked from sheet. Some have lobes or tabs around the edge, and others have a flat border or flange.
Howsam’s typology
Howsam divides book mounts into those from anywhere on the cover (types B.1 to B.3); those from corners (L-shaped and/or with two down-turned edges, type B.4); and edge bindings (with one down-turned edge, type B.5).
Mounts from anywhere on the cover
Mounts from anywhere on the cover can be of many shapes, but triangular, square and circular are commonest. Tabs and flanges can be pierced to take rivets; alternatively, a single rivet is occasionally found through the centre. Occasionally a central hole has been caused by wear (DENO-42532D), and sometimes a central hole is decorative (SWYOR-A0F432).
Circular mounts are perhaps the most various. A circular dome with a flange is type B.1.1; a circular dome with four tabs is type B.1.2. A circular dome with neither flange nor tabs is type B.2.2, and a flat circular mount is type B.2.1.
No certain examples of type B.1.1 have yet been recorded on the PAS database, despite it being the most common type of mount in Howsam’s catalogue; they may be difficult to distinguish from harness mounts. There are also no examples of type B.2.1 identified as book mounts on the PAS database.
Square mounts also come in flanged and tabbed varieties. The flanged type (B.1.3) can have either a square or a circular dome. The tabbed type (B.1.4) has a square dome.
Type B.3 has a lozengiform plate. Although Howsam does not include any lozengiform plates with domes, we have a few on the PAS database. We also have some pointed-oval plates with domes, which perhaps fit best into type B.3.
As with flanged, domed circular mounts, flat lozengiform mounts may be difficult to distinguish from harness mounts.
Triangular and shield-shaped mounts with flanges (type B.1.5) are not common on the PAS database, but we have recorded quite a few circular bosses with three tabs, which also fit best into type B.1.5.
Polygonal and multi-foil mounts are covered by several of Howsam’s types. Polygonal mounts with no flange are type B.1.6; those with a flange are type B.1.7. Cinquefoil and sexfoil mounts are types B.2.3 and B.2.4.
Multi-lobed mounts have been published by Egan and Pritchard (1991, fig. 119) as strap mounts, and occasionally there is evidence for them still in place on straps. Some, on the other hand, may be book mounts; Ottaway and Rogers note the shadows of missing mounts on the cover of a book once in the library of Bordesley Abbey and now in the Bodleian Library (2002, 2907; citing Hirst et al 1983, 201; Bodleian MS Laud Misc 606).
Hundreds of these fairly small and flimsy items have been recorded on the PAS database. We record them simply as MOUNT, unless there is some reason to believe that they are most likely to be from a book.
We have a slightly different problem with type B.1.6 mounts. Howsam includes four in her catalogue, but also cites a number still in place on book covers (Howsam 2016, 96-8). The PAS database has a group of similar-looking items (see search results here) but they are unlike any other book mounts, being large and heavy with integral spikes. Mounts such as these may be hard to distinguish from later mounts from furniture, vehicles etc.
Corner mounts
Corner mounts are Howsam type B.4. They can be divided into square mounts with one or two down-turned edges (type B.4.1) and L-shaped flat mounts (type B.4.2). A third type, L-shaped with down-turned edges (type B.4.3), is not yet represented on the PAS database.
The square type, B.4.1, may have two down-turned edges when it is fixed to the outer corner of a book’s cover and just one when it is fixed to the inner corner, by the spine. They normally have a circular dome, but can occasionally be flat (such as NMS-41B19A).
There is only one example of type B.4.2 recorded on the PAS database, SUR-A94935.
Edge bindings
These are likely to be difficult to distinguish from box or casket mounts. We have no certain examples on the PAS database; possible examples include SOM-E21A05 and NARC-FC8671.
‘Bookmarks’
A group of enigmatic strap fittings have been identified by Howsam as mounts from bookmarks attached to bookbindings, and allocated to her type B.7 (Howsam 2016, 112-115). These are like strap-ends, but with a small notch or hole at the centre of their closed end; on some, a separate wire loop survives within this hole. None is known still in place on a medieval bookbinding, and there is little evidence for the precise function of these items.
Howsam’s examples are long and narrow, and look like 14th-century strap-ends but have the sides and front made in one piece. There is only one good parallel to these on the PAS database, at PUBLIC-312387.
From London there are two objects of similar construction, with turned-down edges and the central hole or notch, but of different (shorter and wider) proportions. They come from contexts of c. 1400-1450 (Egan and Pritchard 1991, nos. 618 and 619, figs. 31 and 87). Parallels to this type on the PAS database include NMS-CF4D62 and SF-420DC0.
There are two slightly later versions excavated in Norwich, made from square sheet bodies decorated with repoussé ornament, folded in half and with a small hole cut at the centre of the fold to take the separate wire loop. Their ornament dates them to the 15th or 16th centuries (Margeson 1993, nos. 245 and 246). Parallels on the PAS database include LON-7B9423, NMS-31E187 and NMS-4454E7.
Other less close parallels might include LON-C31DC4, NMS-0E4CD3, SUR-FD8642 and WILT-672155.
Later post-medieval book mounts
We are short of examples of these! One of the few which seems convincing is HAMP-310DB7. It has been suggested that the move to storing books vertically rather than horizontally discouraged the use of book mounts for all except large bibles and so on which were habitually kept on lecterns.
Search
Search for all examples of book mounts.
Key references
