crowning subsidiary cores (Q1104)

Subsidiary cores which sit on top of the main cores. Crowning cores were a common feature of Italian bindings of the renaissance, hence their sometimes being known as 'renaissance endbands'. At that date the crowning cores were attached by means of the secondary sewing, but from the early seventeenth century, from which date they become a common feature of more expensive bindings across Europe, they were incorporated into the primary sewing.