Sender: Rare book and manuscripts <EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU>
I believe this means "half bound" as in "half leather." A search of the term
in Google Books produces a reference, interestingly also involving 17th
century breviaries, to a catalog describing two such works, one of which is
"en media camara (en demi-reliure)", the other "en camara entere (en reliure
pleine)." The reference is Histoire de la religion chrétienne au Japon
depuis 1598 jusqu'à 1651: comprenant les faits... - Page 180. The French
references are to "half bound" and "full bound."
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken Ward" <kcward@ALUMNI.REED.EDU>
To: <EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, December 22, 2006 4:45 PM
Subject: [EXLIBRIS-L] "Media Camara"
I'm looking over a bookstore inventory from 1687
in Mexico and have come across something that has
me stumped, so I'm appealing to the collective
wisdom.
The inventory includes a number of breviaries,
some of them with the qualifier "media camara".
Looking through various lexicons, I haven't found
anything to clear up what "media camara" might
mean. The Corpus Diacrónico del Español at the
RAE includes only one document using the phrase,
also a book list, from 1617, which includes the
following three entries:
Yten, otro brebario de media camara de Plantino, en pergamino.
Yten, otro brebario de Plantino en dos cuerpos de año 74.
Yten, un brebario de camara entera, nuevo del año
1606 de Joan Querejio forrado en cabrita colorado.
I'm sure someone has the answer for me, any help would be appreciated.