[Contemporary binding of 'Anglicae historiae libri vigintisex,' depicting St. Gertrude and Philippe de Hosdain]

Contemporary Flemish blind-stamped calf over bevelled wooden boards, outer roll border of floral and foliate ornament on covers. This binding from the Augustinian abbey of St. Gertrude in Louvain, founded in 1204. The panel on the upper cover shows the medieval Benedictine nun St. Gertrude with a mouse at her feet, and another running up and down her abbatial crozier. This is a familiar representation since she was widely invoked against the plague. Gertrude is positioned in an architectural frame with text ‘Sum Bibliotechae Coenobii S. Gertrudis apud Lovanienses.’ The panel on the lower cover bears the date 1557, the motto ‘Inter Spinas Calceatus’, and the coat-of-arms and initials of the abbot Philippe de Hosdain (or Hosden, d. 1569), who was a notable benefactor of the library. The imprint it binds, the second edition of Vergil's much revised 'English History,' is not included, as it is not relevant to the Women of the Book Collection