Item NLW MS 17110iiE [RESTRICTED ACCESS]. - Liber Landavensis old covers

Oak covers, formerly covered with a thin layer of silver-plate, of which only two small pieces remain. The lower cover is the only remaining part of the pre-1696 binding, and is probably original; cut into it is a sunken panel 283 x 187 mm., with a chamfered edge stopped on the inside by a bead; in the centre of the panel, originally attached by three rivets, is a gilt-bronze (copper-alloy) image of Christ in Majesty 171 x 114 x 300 mm., which was made in England, 13 cent.; it has replaced an earlier ornament, probably also a Christ in Majesty, and has been associated with the volume since at least 1659, and probably since the late medieval period. The upper cover was replaced by Robert Davies when he had the volume re-bound in 1696 (an inscription in the sunken panel reads 'Librum hunc temporis injurias passum novantiquo tegmine muniri curavit / R.D. / Ao 1696'); the marks of use suggest that it is of considerably older origin. The manuscript was re-bound, 15 or 16 cent., and again at the British Museum in 1892. It was unbound again at NLW in 2006, and the old covers were then considered unsuitable for re-housing the manuscript. For exhibition purposes, the 1892 case-binding with its oak boards has been placed on a false book-block of paper, coloured to replicate the original.