Persian MS 539 (The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester)

Binding

Unsupported sewing at two stations with heavy s-twist cotton or linen thread. Twined chevron endbands at head and tail in yellow and red silk with what appears to be tarnished silver silk threads. Covered in full smooth maroon goatskin leather ovr pasteboards without a flap (type III binding as per Déroche), with internal doublures of the same goatskin leather as used on the exterior, with the excess width put down as leather hinges on the first and last flyleaves, then covered by a strip of paper with a decorative zig-zag cut adhered over the hinges.

Covers decorated with hand-painted bushed bearing a variety of flowers in different colours, outlined in black and gold inks, with hand=painted sprays in the corners and the perimeters of the boards bounded by a wide ruling in black decorated with a scrollwork vine in gold ink. Spine hand-lettered in yellow ink with the title of the work in Persian: ‘دیوان شمس تبریزی’ ‘Dīvān-i Shams-i Tabrīzī’

347 × 220 × 60 mm.

Handle with caution: hand-painted surfaces exposed and abraded. Boards yawning.