Girdle Books

More on girdle books available in these links. Additional examples can be found on Wikimedia Commons and The Medieval Girdle Book Project (see project abstract).

• The Prophet Jeremiah and Christ, c. 1443-1445
• Detail from The Death of Mary from the altarpiece at Kärnten, Austria, c. 1445-1455
• A breviary (New York Public Library, Spencer Collection MS 39), 1454
• A 15th century girdle-book containing astrological and medical material (National Library of Scotland, Borthwick MS Acc. 12059)
• St. Jerome in his Study by Antonello da Messina, c. 1460
• St. John the Evangelist in Crucifixion with the Müller family, 1462
• St. Anthony Tormented by Demons by Martin Schongauer, c. 1470-1475
• A girdle-book (GNM Hs. 17231), 1471
• A girdle-book from Bethmann Museum
At length they chaunst to meet vpon the way
An aged Sire, in long blacke weedes yclad,
His feete all bare, his beard all hoarie gray,
And by his belt his booke he hanging had;
Sober he seemde, and very sagely sad,
And to the ground his eyes were lowly bent,
Simple in shew, and voyde of malice bad,
And all the way he prayed, as he went,
And often knockt his brest, as one that did repent.

The Faerie Queene,
Book I, Canto I

• Detail from The Visitation, c. 1480-1490
• A manual of prayers for the use of a priest (British Library MS Add. 15700), made in Germany in 1485
• The Law of Jutland (Rostgard 6 8º), c. 1490
• Descent from the Cross, c. 1490-1500
• Detail from the Weingartener Altar by Hans Holbein the Elder, 1493
• The Apostles' Farewell from an altarpiece at the Franciscan church at Bozen, c. 1495-1505
• The Apostles' Farewell from an altarpiece at Bamberg, c. 1495-1505
• Detail from St. James the Greater and Hermogenes by Simon von Taisten, c. 1495-1505
• St. James of Compostela on the left outer wing of the Triptych of the Last Judgment by Hieronymus Bosch, c. 1500
• Mural of St. James the Great at Othem kyrka
• Christ and Pilate by Hans Schäufelein, c. 1500-1505
• St. Joachim, c. 1500-1510
• Detail from Virgin and Child with St. Katherine, St. Dorothy, St. Barbara, and St. Mary Magdalene, 1505
• The Apostles' Farewell by Jörg Breu the Elder, 1514
• Crucifixion, c. 1508-1517
• The Passion by Hans Schäufelein, c. 1525-1530
• Detail from an altarpiece with St. Martin, St. Elizabeth of Thuringia, and St. Katherine from St. Florian, c. 1510-1520