Machiavelli's "The Prince"

I love books.  I love to read 'em, and I love to make 'em.  I'm not much of a writer, but happily the internet and the large number of texts in the public domain allow me to get on with what I'm good at, which is making bindings for other people's books.  This one is The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli.



Front cover of The Prince

 Binding a copy of The Prince was a great opportunity to include one of my all-time favourite design elements, the transi, or partially decayed corpse. (If you aren't familiar with the concept of the transi, do click that link. Go on; I'll wait. Seriously, if you're enjoying this blog you'll want to see the photos on the end of that link.)

Here's a close up of the transi wearing a crown and holding a sword:

The back cover features a skull and acanthus leaves.  Why acanthus leaves?  No special reason, they're just fun to make.

And here's the book's spine:

This is a Coptic binding just like the Ars Goetia binding I showed you back in June, and like the Ars, I used my handy-dandy skull mould to form the skulls on the cover.  The rest of the cover is sculpted freehand.