Happy St. Bartholomew’s Day!
Saint Bartholomew is just one of the patron saints of bookbinders. From what I understand (I’m not Catholic by a long shot) St. Bartholomew is the patron saint of bookbinders because he was flayed alive…hence, he’s associated with leather (and is also the patron saint of tanners)…and guess who uses a lot of leather. Thaaaaaaaaat’s right: bookbinders! He’s also routinely depicted holding his own flayed skin, but sometimes a book…and other times he’s holding both.
The British Library’s blog has a good post about depictions of St. Bartholomew in Medieval manuscripts.
Detail of a column miniature of St Bartholomew holding a book (left) and Saint Louis (right), from the Hours of René d’Anjou, Paris, c. 1410, Egerton MS 1070, f. 99v . Public Domain image from the British Library.
“San Bartolomeo Scorticato” by Latente Flickr – originally posted to Flickr as San Bartolomeo Scorticato. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Bartolomeo_Scorticato.jpg#/media/File:San_Bartolomeo_Scorticato.jpg
