ABSTRACT
Very few of the decorated leather bindings that may have been produced in England during the first half of the fifteenth century have survived. The plain bindings that have survived are often difficult to date and locate. The book trade as a whole was not very vigorous and was much influenced by immigrant stationers and imports from the continent of Europe. The binding trade also owed much to immigrant binders and to the importation of binding design and tool design, especially from the Low Countries. Decorative designs familiar on the continent were also used in England and we find both small hand tools and panels with very similar motifs on both sides of the English Channel. During the second half of the fifteenth century, the main centres for the production of decorated bindings were London, Oxford and Cambridge.1
