For book-covers, the ornaments of which were, during the period of good style, always treated as flat-ornaments, leather used to be employed almost exclusively.  At first the contours of the design were sharply cut into the leather and the space, not covered by it, was deepened.  Later on, however, small metal stamps were used, the patterns of which, when repeated side by side, produced the border framing the cover. In this case the corners were not specially elaborated, the borders meeting at these points by no rule. — Sometimes the book-cover is edged by such borders in several rows, an exceeding tallness of the empty central field being avoided by inserting special travers-borders along the narrow sides.  The latter end was sometimes attained by beating or impressing the stamp-patterns in double rows, symmetrical to each other (Figs. 5 and 35).

The central fields, being for the most part small, are then decorated either with stuff-patterns .or with corner- and middle-pieces (Figs. 9—11, 13, 14, 23—26, 28—32 show patterns of the latter kind). Besides these, however, many book-covers are found with free, often colored arabesques and inter twisted bands (compare Plate 6$, Figs. 6 and 7), these being in the flourishing time of art, framed with borders, whilst later on, instead of these borders, corner pieces very similar to metal-work, used to be added.  The most sumptuous, of course, were covers decorated with real metal-work, especially when precious metals were employed.  In this case the ornament is usually cast in relief or embossed.  Fig. 1 however shows an ornament of silver simply sawn out and afterwards engraved. Finally, maybe mentioned, that in decorating the back of the book, cording in a pretty manner was made use of, this being marked either by leather pads or by deepened horizontal lines, thus producing several compartments which were filled up with simple decorations. Fig. 1.  Silver-eged book-cover (natural size) from the "Sammlung vaterlandischer Altertumer" Stuttgart. 2—36.  Decorations on hog's-leather covers (executed in blind-printing) from the Royal "Hand bibliothek" at Stuttgart. ".