Restauration of the binding of AM 421 12mo

Marine Jespersdatter's prayer book consists of 120 leaves separated into 17 gatherings. The leaves are 95 x 65 mm and the binding is 103 x 68 x 47 mm. A codicological study has shown that the book consists of two originally independent parts. Six of the gatherings have quire signatures (numbers to indicate the placement of the gathering in a row) in the bottom margin of the recto side of the first page in a gathering, which are now the 3rd-4th and 6th-9th gatherings (ff. 16-33 and 41-76). The other gatherings don't contain signatures. The initials in the signed gatherings are polychromatic and decorated, while they are monochromatic and undecorated in the unnumbered gatherings. The script is the same throughout, a Gothic hybrida script, but there are small differences in the rendition of the letters, which suggests two different scribes. Finally, the text field in the unnunmbered gatherings is clearly marked with line boundaries.

The book block is fastened with three threads and bound in a contemporary whole leather binding with wooden boards and decorated with embossing (parallel lines, rosettes and a cross). There are traces of metal fastenings for the buckles that closed the book. The spine was repaired in the 1800s by sticking leather pieces onto it. This reparation was removed in 2010 and an entirely new spine was made for it instead.