We are not supposed to judge the books by their covers, but we cannot help admiring their beauty and the skills and quality of the workmanship of the book binders who created them hundreds of years ago. Book covers are an intrinsic part of the readers’ experience that can be used by the book producers or book owners to enhance the appeal or the importance of their contents, to market the book to a specific category of readers, or to produce a desired impression on visitors browsing the contents of a private library. These are some stunning examples from the Law Library’s rare books collections:

Corpus juris civilis (1612) in wooden boards, brown embossed calf leather, with fragments of clasps and metal corner-pieces.

Collection of 16^th century pamphlets bound in vellum manuscript waste

Volumen parvum (Corpus juris civilis) (1588) in embossed pigskin

Manuscript Institutions au droit françois (1715) in 18th century marbled paper

Trois livres du domaine de la Couronne de France (1613) in brown calf with gold ornaments

Praxis criminalis (1678) in limp vellum

Liber qvintvs receptarvm sententiarvm integer (1604) in contemporary vellum with embossed ornaments and red leather label on the spine

Les six livres de la republique de I. Bodin, soft leather covers embossed with fleurs-de-lys, coats of arms of France, Polland, and Henry III

Controversiarum juris libri tredecim (1678) in contemporary vellum with embossed ornaments

Enchiridion: ov Brief recveil du droict escript, gardé et observé ov abrogé en France (1606) in brown calf with gold ornaments