61478 IMGR26

Ghapter Four

GILDING AND TECHNIQUES OF DECORATION

GlLOINC

Ii has noc bccn posńbłc co dśscowr whcn chc applicauon of metal fbil to the surfacc ofgmtdśmed was firn poctoed. I( is an opon quesdon whcdier the Moors introduccd Jmo Spain che practicc ofgilding leacher wich metal leaf: thac country has a tradition chac che proccss was invcnccd chcre.¹ This cannot be true, buc it might reflect che iotroducdon by the invaders of whac is now inclcgandy cermed *know-how’. The carliesc zcfacnce to gik hangings is in an Invcncoey of Charles V of France daccd 1380,- but no sunmring spęd men appears co pre-date chc mid-fifcecmh cennary.

Research tnio chc carly gold cooling of bookbindings (which involves che useofgold-leaf) appears co hm cscablishcd che existcncc of che sechniquc by 1480 in Naples whcrc, ac has been suggesced, it was incroduced by Spanish- Atabs under Aragoncsc rule-J Henry Thomas, in his important work on Spanish bookbinding, supports the thcoryofa Spanish authority (Miqucl y Planas) chat the tooling of bindings in what is callcd the mwłtjar style was ‘che natura! resuk of the applicacion to bookbindings of mcchods practised by chc pd—ifJwf... It would be most nacural for [theirj mcchods and designs... 10 be copaed by che bookbenders.. . This chcocy most be consadered untcnable; there is no ical nmflarity bccwecn the two mcchods and their aims, oe detaib of the designs and. as che carliesc cxtanc uufdtjar bindings (thirteenth century) prcccdc the carliesc surviving jmitMfdes by over two hundred ycars, it is impossiblc to judge whether or noc earlicr

¹1 abwdr.Coan»Ahx.J. J- ót, himermeiutript#ir TEspgK, 1S09. v, ajr.

* Iov. Charta V, j6u. ‘6 aoaiu de cna anod ouvcć i or’.

> Thaaua. Hmry,Egfr SpmUh BfktmJmp. XI-XV Ceaturkt, 1939. p- x»v« mą.

* Thaaui, Henry, op. dt, p x L

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