Girdle books.
Subject
Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
Scope Note: Books having an extra covering of leather allowing the book to be hung from the girdle and read while still attached.
Found in 2 Collections and/or Records:
Folded almanac, 15th century, written in England and containing medical and astrological material., Later 15th century.
Item
Identifier: Acc.12059/3
Scope and Contents
A folded almanac, designed to be worn on the girdle of its owner. It consists of 12 rectangular vellum sheets that are individually folded down to a sixth of their size. Each of them bears a Latin docket title to indicate its contents. It includes a table of movable feasts, a calendar, astrological tables and signs of the zodiac, diagrams of eclipses of the sun and moon from 1387 to 1462, a volvelle, notes and diagrams on bloodletting and information on the planets. ...
Dates:
Later 15th century.
Manuscript known as ‘Neil MacBeath’s Psalter’, containing medical notes in Gaelic and prayers and Psalm 118 in Latin.
Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.72.1.4
Scope and Contents
This remarkably small, chubby manuscript, ‘Neil MacBeath’s Psalter’, is described by David McRoberts in ‘Two Hebridean liturgical items’, page 171, with a plate showing its external appearance. ‘Cleric and physician’, he concludes, ‘he . . . had in his vade-mecum, which he would fasten to his belt, all the literature he required (his substitute for the Divine Office and his medical notes) when he set out to attend to the souls and bodies of his parishioners’. The ‘Divine Office’ is Psalm...
Dates:
15th century-16th century.