The Gentleman’s Calling. Written by the Author of the Whole Duty of Man.

The Gentleman’s Calling. Written by the Author of the Whole Duty of Man.

London:

Printed by R. Norton for Robert Pawlet,

1670.

Bound with The Ladies Calling. [Oxford]: At the Theater in Oxford, 1677.

The strikingly decorated cover of this 17th-century book, owned by a woman named Sarah Crocker, is bound in black goatskin. It features drawer-handle-style ornaments, tooled in gold, along with stylized gilt flowers, stars, dots, and arabesque corner pieces. The motif of round four-petaled flowers, springing from pairs of leaves, is a distinctive pattern associated with the Queen’s Binder B. The six compartments of the spine are tooled in gold with stars and flowers. The covers and spine alike have been decorated in silver paint that has now tarnished.

From the collection of Rare Book School