Book cover
16th - 17th century
The arts of the book are central in Persian art. Safavid workshops included not just master calligraphers and painters, but book binders as well. This book cover shows the same garden motif as do many carpets of the period. The Qur'an speaks of the righteous as "gardens with their Lord" (Surah III, verse XV). Whatever the contents of this book once were, the garden that extends across the cover is a diminutive earthly paradise.
Leather, gilding
11 1/8 x 6 3/4 x 3/16 in. (28.26 x 17.15 x 0.48 cm)
Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection
49.172
