

PROPERTY OF A LADY
The early printed binding waste contains extracts in Spanish from an illustrated life of Christ or a commentary on the Gospels, perhaps Montesino's Epistolas y Evangelios (Seville: Cromberger, editions printed in 1537, 1540, 1549). The woodcuts are close to those used by Cromberger for his Retablo de la vida de cristo by Juan de Padilla (1518), though Padilla's text is in verse. The sewing guards (also binder's waste) are from a different text with a different typeface, also illustrated, and on one fragment the (printing?) date 1508 can be seen.
For very similar bindings, see Encuadernaciones Españolas (Madrid, 1934), plate 25, dated Granada, 1567 (with the deer and shell tools), and Davis Gift 400, dated Granada, c. 1570 (with the deer, bird-on-a-branch, corner fleurons and vase tools).