Margit Smith: The Medieval Girdle Book: A travelling companion - always with me.

The girdle book is a little known book format that the user could carry by hand, or attach to the belt (Gürtel in German, hence girdle book in English) using the extension from the lower edge of the binding. Today only twenty-five girdle-books are documented in museums, libraries and private collections, four in the United States and twenty-one in Europe. Most of the books include religious texts, but there are four law-related volumes and two are of a philosophical nature. Most are found in Germany, with the Scandinavian countries also well represented. Only one image so far has been found from Italy – namely in the representation of a bandit on horseback!