Here is a copy of Thomas a Kempis‘s Works printed in Nuremburg in 1494 and bound around the same time.
Not one for the beach but clearly built to last.
The book now lives at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
And for those who revel in the details – the Folger Shakespeare Library’s full catalog description of the binding:
“Bound in a German chained binding, c. 1495, of alum tawed pigskin over wooden boards with blind decoration and adorned with brass corner bosses, title plaque, clasps, and several links of iron chain. Both covers blind tooled with three-line fillet border. Upper cover decorated with a vine-like tool with tendrils (crocketed ogive tool); lower cover central panel divided in 12 lozenges with a fleur-de-lys stamped in the center of each.”
via the blog of the Folger , Wynken de Worde.