Late Gothic Bookbinding in Tallinn

Abstract

The central issue of this study is establishing the corpus of lateGothic bookbindings produced in Tallinn by a few consecutive andinterrelated binders in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.The survey of decorative tools and bookbinding designs allows theattribution of twenty-eight currently known surviving bindings tothese binders. The designs of the tools used in Tallinn’s workshopreveal the northern German, primarily Lübeck area, connectionsof the earlier generation of late Gothic binders in Tallinn. In thesecond phase, more diversified tooling appears that could hint at theimport of tools from different areas or production of the tools locally,imitating the stamps on imported bindings of various origins. Thestyle and techniques of both stages remain conservative, preservingthe medieval symbolic and decorative imagery. Since most of thesurviving bindings have been preserved in Tallinn, and manyoriginate from the Dominican friary, it is reasonable to conclude thatthe bindery was also closely connected to the friary. The Dominicanmanuscript waste reused in the bindings adds corroboration to thisassumption