Designed for travel

The leather cover of this fifteenth-century English book terminates in a loop through which it might be hung from a belt or girdle. The folded leaves of parchment hang upside down so as to be opened out and viewed by the reader/wearer while still attached. The texts in the surviving girdle books of this kind include medical and prognostic writings, calendrical material, and planetary and zodiacal tables, suggesting use by preachers, doctors, and farmers.

Dimensions
Manuscript: 164 x 71 x 41 mm

Weight
Manuscript: 140 g

Bequeathed to the University of Oxford by Elias Ashmole, 1692; transferred to the Bodleian, 1860