HISTORICAL ESSAY 
 
 \RT OF BOOKBINDING 
 
 H. P^T>U BOIS, 
 
 }: Lll'KI:. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 BRADSTREET PRESS 
 1883. 
 
1 according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by 
 
 THE HKADSTREET COMPANY, 
 in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washii.. 
 
 '": 
 

 INDEX 
 
 PREFACE, - 5 
 
 BIBLIOPBGIA, - 7 
 
 THE CATENATI, 13 
 
 OF MOROCCO LEATHER BINDING,' 17 
 
 GROLIERII ET AMICORUM, 21 
 
 JACQUES AUGUSTE DE THOU, 25 
 
 OF BOOKBINDERS, 29 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY, - 41 
 
 255462 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Multum legendum est, non multa ... is the 
 precept of Pliny the Elder, and the invention of the 
 printed book has made it invaluable to the true 
 and worthy bibliophile, whose aim is to obtain pos- 
 session of the best books in the best editions, not the 
 bibliomaniac's purpose to pile Pelion on Ossa. 
 
 Then, as beneath the dome of a great library lies 
 the temple of refuge for the soul that suggested itself 
 to Osymandyas, King of Egypt, the books of the 
 bibliophile should not be artistically as cold as a 
 Carnac dolmen. 
 
 The history of the art of bookbinding is compatible 
 with the history of artistic taste in every country ; it 
 progressed gradually with the art of bookmaking ; it 
 flourished with the Renascence in France ; it fell in 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 the Revolutionary era ; it is at its height in England, 
 in France and in the United States at present. 
 
 To the reader who cares to make a study of it is 
 promised pleasure as well as instruction in the books 
 quoted in the appended bibliography, every one of 
 which has been consulted for the present essay. 
 
 H. P. Du B. 
 
BIBLIOPEGIA. 
 
 NGELUS ROCCHA, whom Morhof accuses 
 of having introduced extraneous and unin- 
 teresting matter in the frequently quoted 
 "Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana " (Rome, 1591), 
 infers from a passage of chapter xxxi of Deutero- 
 nomy that the malady of bibliomania existed in the 
 times before the deluge. It certainly was nearly 
 coeval with the art of writing; and that fascinating 
 department of bibliomania, the art of bookbinding, 
 with the art of making square books (codices), when 
 Phillatius, to whom, says Trotzius, the grateful Athe- 
 nians erected a statue, invented a process by which 
 the sheets of a book were made to adhere together. 
 The covers were originally of wood, ivory or metal, 
 with a view to solidity only. It was a simple process, 
 
8 HISTORICAL ESSAY ON THE 
 
 and yet there were then, as at present, good, 
 bad and indifferent bookbinders, for, in one of his 
 letters to Atticus, Cicero requested the assistance 
 of two slaves, reputed skilled workmen (lignatores 
 librorum). 
 
 At a time when the possession of a book was that 
 of " a treasure for aye " it was natural that the art of 
 its exterior decoration progressed as rapidly as the 
 art of its interior decoration. The founder of the 
 first organized monastic community, Saint Pachomius 
 (fourth century), exacted it in strict rules for the 
 preservation of the books of his monastery ; and the 
 " Notitia Dignitatum Imperii " (about 450) mentions 
 the fact that certain officers of the Oriental Empire 
 carried in public ceremonies large square books of the 
 Emperor's instructions for the administration of his 
 provinces, bound in red, blue or yellow leather, and 
 ornamented with a gilt or painted portrait of the 
 Emperor. 
 
 In the sixth century the art of bookbinding was 
 the art of goldsmiths and enamellers, as the art of 
 bookmaking was the art of calligraphs and illumin- 
 ators. Seneca had criticized the luxurious orna- 
 mentation of books ; it had been censured by Petrus 
 Acotantus; St. Jerome exclaimed, "Your books are 
 
ART OK BOOKBINDING. 9 
 
 covered with precious stones, and Christ died naked 
 before the gate of his temple ; " but the exhortations 
 of profound philosophers and austere monks availed 
 little in the growing passion for superb books. Zo- 
 naras, the Byzantian historian, says in his " Annals " 
 that Belisarius found among the treasures of Gelimer, 
 King of the Vandals, the books of the Scriptures, 
 u glittering with gold and precious stones." A sim- 
 ilar binding, two plates of gold ornamented with 
 colored stones and antique cameos, is of the Greek 
 Scriptures, which Theodelinda, Queen of the Lom- 
 bards, gave, fifty or sixty years after the death of 
 Belisarius, to that cathedral of Monza which possesses 
 the famous Iron Crown, mainly of gold, but with a 
 thin band of iron, said to have been hammered from 
 a nail of the true cross. 
 
 The celebrated copy of the Pandects of Justinian, 
 which is to be found in the Laurentian library of 
 Florence, is of the sixth or seventh century. The 
 volume is a folio bound with wooden boards, covered 
 with red velvet and ornamented with silver corners. 
 It was not known to Dibdin, who says in the Eighth 
 Dialogue of his " Bibliographical Decameron " that 
 there are no specimens of binding in velvet before the 
 fourteenth century, at which time it is expressly 
 
10 HISTORICAL ESSAY ON THE 
 
 noticed by Chaucer in the prologue to the Canter- 
 bury Tales : 
 
 " A twenty bokes clothed in black and red, 
 Of Aristotle, " 
 
 Astle tells of a famous "Textus Sancti Cuthberti," 
 written in the seventh century, adorned in the Saxon 
 times by Bilfrith, a monk of Durham, with a silver 
 cover, gilt and precious stones, described by Simeon 
 Dunelmensis : " A booke of Gospelles, garnished and 
 wrought with antique worke of silver and gilte, with 
 an image of the Crucifix, with Mary and John, poiz 
 together, cccxxij oz." 
 
 Several books bound during the reign of Charle- 
 magne, presumably under the supervision of the 
 great Alcuin, are specially noted for the gorgeousness 
 of their exterior decorations ; and they were also 
 masterpieces of calligraphy in letters of glittering 
 gold on purple vellum, by the Emperor's daughters, 
 Gisela and Rothruda; by Alcuin and his pupils at 
 Aix-la-Chapelle. The book of Gospels which Ada, 
 sister of Charlemagne, gave to the abbey of Saint 
 Maximin of Treves was studded with gems encircling 
 an agate five inches in width and four in length, with 
 an engraved representation of Ada, the Emperor, and 
 
ART OF BOOKBINDING. I I 
 
 his two sons. That monument of the bibliogestic 
 art of the eighth century, described by Mabillon in 
 his " Annales Ordinis Benedictini " (1/03-39), is not 
 extant. Nor is the engraved silver gilt case or coffer 
 which originally enclosed the celebrated Book of 
 Hours of Charlemagne. It is, by the way, im- 
 properly called a Book of Hours, as it is composed 
 of extracts from the Gospels applicable to every 
 day in the year. The calligraphist Gottschalk 
 (Godefalcus) labored for twelve years in its execu- 
 tion. It was terminated in 781, and presented by 
 the Emperor to the abbey of St. Sernin, the most 
 ancient monastery of Toulouse. The book is extant 
 in the library of the Louvre. It was presented to 
 Napoleon I. by the city of Toulouse ; but the casket 
 was stolen in 1793 from the abbey of St. Sernin. 
 The custom of enclosing valuable bindings in valuable 
 caskets was a prevailing one, but the caskets have 
 been prizes for pillagers, and assuredly could not 
 have been of greater interest to the book-lover than 
 the " carved oak box (in book form), with Milton's 
 initials on the side, manufactured from the old timber 
 taken from the poet's residence in Barbican when 
 demolished in 1864, with a certificate of authen- 
 ticity, enclosing a work of Frischlini, with John 
 
12 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAY. 
 
 Milton's autograph initials on the title page," of a 
 recent English catalogue. 
 
 A very interesting list might be made of noted 
 manuscripts, the bindings of which have been stolen, 
 and of stolen manuscripts the bindings of which are 
 extant. The precious volumes which were jealously 
 guarded " in the secret jewel-house," with the awe- 
 inspiring relics, were purloined as well as the 
 cathenare, cathenizare or catenati, the chained vol- 
 umes of the monasteries. 
 
THE CATENATI. 
 
 HE precaution to enchain in the plainly 
 furnished library-room of the hospitable 
 monastery a prayer-book, a bible, or such 
 a valuable book of reference as the " Tornafolium," 
 bequeathed in the eleventh century by Archbishop 
 Leger to his cathedral, appears to have been of as 
 little effect as the innumerable papal sentences of 
 excommunication of the time-honored biblioklept. 
 
 Rene Boulange in the " Journal de la Librairie," 
 and he and the Abbe Valentin Dufour in the " Bibli- 
 ophile Frangais," have written some interesting 
 articles on that ancient custom of enchaining books 
 by the way of a description of the Hereford Library. 
 The library of the cathedral of Hereford is extant 
 in its primitive state. It contains 236 manuscripts, 
 
14 HISTORICAL ESSAY ON THE 
 
 the most ancient of which is a copy in Anglo Saxon 
 of the four Evangelists, bequeathed to the cathedral 
 by Athelstan, the last Saxon bishop of that diocese 
 (1012-1056). The 2,000 volumes of the library are 
 well preserved. Among them is Wyckliffe's Bible, 
 luxuriously bound; Gerroni "Opera," 1494; Hart- 
 mani "Chronicon," 1493; Higden's "Polychronicon," 
 with additions by William Caxton, 1495. 
 
 Every volume is attached to a chain, of such length 
 that the volume may be placed on a desk near at 
 hand, provided at one extremity with an iron ring 
 for the insertion of a rod, closing with a padlock on 
 either side of the bookcase. It is on the model of all 
 the ancient libraries of chained books ; but the excep- 
 tional preservation of the Hereford library is explained 
 by the rigid rules of its management; and also, as 
 the Abbe Dufour aptly insinuates, by the fact that 
 Richard de Bury, the illustrious author of the "Philo- 
 biblion," was canon of Hereford. The custom is as 
 old as the fifth century, and prevailed until the last 
 century, as there is a record of the gift to All Saints 
 Church of Hereford of Dr. William Brewster's library 
 of catenati in 1715; although that is possibly as excep- 
 tional a case as the modern one of a chained directory 
 or dictionary in a public place. 
 
ART OF BOOKBINDING. 15 
 
 The manuscripts of the Abbey of Saint Victor, in 
 1508, were attached to desks; the books of Notre 
 Dame of Paris, similarly arranged, were designated in 
 numerical order in the first catalogues. The custom 
 was probably abandoned shortly after the invention 
 of printing, as the catcnati of the church of St. Gratien 
 of Tours were a curiosity to Lebrun Desmarettes in 
 the reign of Louis XIV., and scarcer than an uncut 
 Elsevier is in France, a book with the chain-mark of 
 the original catenatus. 
 
 These books were not decorated by goldsmiths and 
 enamellers with precious stones and " flower de luce of 
 dyamounts," nor covered with the enamelled plaques 
 of the town of Limoges, which were of the finest 
 bindings of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, but 
 they were of as great luxury of solidity : thick boards, 
 leather-covered, massive ornaments, heavy metalled 
 corners, and frequently with an excavation in the 
 interior of the binding for the reception of a silver cru- 
 cifix, guarded by a metal door. 
 
 An estimate of the weight of such a binding may 
 be formed without reference to the volume of the 
 Epistles of Cicero, now in the Florence Laurentian 
 library; Petrarch's autograph copy of the work, of 
 such ponderous weight that it severely injured his 
 
i6 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAY. 
 
 left leg, on which it was habitually made to rest, until 
 the threatened necessity of its amputation compelled 
 his relinquishing the constant reading of his favorite 
 author. 
 
OF MOROCCO LEATHER 
 BINDING. 
 
 HE Arabs were assuredly the original artistic 
 bookbinders. Copies of their " Moallakat " 
 were covered with various colored morocco, 
 elaborately tooled and stamped in exquisite patterns, 
 long ere the pillagers of the library of the Caliphs at 
 Cairo transformed horresco referens / into shoes, 
 the most valuable bindings of that library. 
 
 The Crusaders brought from Constantinople, Pales- 
 tine and Egypt many specimens of the admirable 
 bindings in morocco and silken stuffs, which, because 
 of the resemblance of the covers to the gay plumage 
 of a bird's wing, were called ales. '* They were copied 
 by Italian bookbinders, but were not adopted until 
 
1 8 HISTORICAL ESSAY ON THE 
 
 the sixteenth century. The precious books of the 
 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were confided to 
 goldsmiths, enamellers and illuminators, as heretofore. 
 We have many details of their workmanship in the 
 inventories of the libraries of Charles VI. of France 
 ( T 399)> f tne dukes of Burgundy, and of the dukes 
 of Orleans, of Chaucer's royal patron Edward III., 
 whose style of binding may be imagined from the 
 following extracts from the archives of the British 
 Museum : 
 
 "To Alice Claver, for the making of xvi laces and xvi tasshels for 
 the garnyshing of divers of the King's books, ijs. viijV." 
 
 " To Piers Bauduyn, Stacioner, for bynding, gilding and dress- 
 ing of a booke called Titus Liuius, xxs. ; for bynding, gilding and 
 dressing of a booke called Ffrossard, xvjj. ; for bynding, gilding 
 and dressing of a booke called the Bible, xvjj-. ; for bynding, gild- 
 ing and dressing of a booke called le Gouuernement of Kings and 
 Princes, xvjj." 
 
 In the inventory of Charles VI. are missals of 
 silver gilt covers, and of velvet embroidered with 
 the fleur-de-lys, and the arms of France enamelled on 
 the silver clasps. Other bindings were of vellum, 
 silk, or dressed leather, deer skin, fox skin, sheep 
 skin, calf skin, and the lamentable goat skin (whence 
 bougum), and hog* skin, of which the irrepressible 
 book-worm is particularly fond. 
 
ART OF BOOKBINDING. 19 
 
 Skelton has given a very poetic description of a 
 missal of Henry VIII. : 
 
 With that of the boke lozende were the claspes, 
 The margin was illumined al with golden railcs, 
 
 And bice empictured with grass-oppes and waspcs, 
 With butterflies, and fresh pecocke tailes, 
 F.nglored with flowers, and slyme snayles, 
 Envyved pictures well touched and quickely, 
 It would have made a man hole that had be right sickely, 
 
 To behold how it was garnished and bound, 
 Encovered over with gold and tissue fine, 
 
 The clasps and bullions were worth a M pouncle, 
 With belassis and carbuncles the border did shine, 
 With aiirum mosaicum every other line. 
 
 Not a satisfactory description in a bibliographical 
 point of view ; possibly the work of Edwards, but the 
 " bibliophile Jacob " is of the opinion that it was 
 similar to the bindings which King Mathias Corvinus 
 of Hungary caused to be executed by Italian artists 
 for the Buda library, composed principally of illum- 
 inated manuscripts bound in colored morocco, orna- 
 mented with silver bosses and clasps, treasures which 
 were destroyed by the Turks under Soliman II., in 
 1526. 
 
 A book-a-bosom, valiant King, Mathias of Hungary, 
 the prince of bibliophiles ! but as there are few, if any, 
 
20 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAY. 
 
 specimens extant of the bindings bearing the symbol 
 suggested by the Roman etymon of his name : a crow 
 with a ring in its mouth ; his mantle has fallen to 
 Jean Grolier. 
 
 
GROLIERII ET AMICORUM. 
 
 EAN GROLIER was born at Lyons in 1479, 
 and died at Paris in 1565. His title to fame 
 rests entirely on his passion for beautiful 
 books, the patient investigations of M. Le Roux de 
 Lincy disclosing only three or four occasions of his 
 emerging from comparative obscurity: In 1544, in a 
 quarrel with the boasting Benvenuto de Cellini, who 
 does not fail to record in his Memoirs his closing of a 
 discussion with- a threat to throw the bibliophile out 
 of the window; in 1558, as director for the Marshal 
 of Montmorency of the Chantilly Art Collections ; in 
 1559, as president of a commission instituted by 
 Henri II. for the recoinage of moneys; in 1561, in a 
 suit for peculation, which resulted in his acquittal.- 
 Portio mea, Domine, sit in terra viventium, is the 
 
22 HISTORICAL ESSAY ON THE 
 
 invocation traced on his books, and it was probably 
 accorded. 
 
 The friendly intimacy that existed between Aldus 
 Manucius and Grolier, while the latter was treasurer 
 for the Duchy of Milan (about 1510), animated, if it 
 did not originally promote, Grolier's appreciation of 
 " the art preservative." 
 
 He was a member of the little academy which held 
 its meetings at the learned printer's house, apparently 
 of a size to contain none but true friends, as a real- 
 ization of the ideal of Socrates.. There he met as 
 colleagues Navagero, Marino Sanudo, the Greek 
 Musurus, Giovanni Giocondo, Erasmus, poets, artists 
 and savants. 
 
 In 1518 Grolier was a celebrated collector of books, 
 and Erasmus prophesied that they would make him 
 great. There were, says La Caille, three thousand 
 volumes in his library, which remained intact for one 
 hundred and ten years in the hotel de Vic. They 
 were sold at auction in 1676, after the death of 
 Dominique de Vic. The original buyers are not 
 known, and three hundred and fifty volumes only 
 have* been found extant by M. Le Roux de Lincy. 
 
 There were many of the finest editions of the Al- 
 dine press, many in duplicate and in triplicate copies, 
 
ART OF BOOKBINDING. 23 
 
 a circumstance which, in the opinion of his biographer, 
 explains and justifies the singular device of his vol- 
 umes: lo Grolicrii ct Amicorum and all were bound 
 in Levant morocco, embellished with varied designs 
 and ornaments of the most exquisite patterns. A 
 distinguishing feature of these was the interlacing 
 with geometrical accuracy of boldly traced gold lines. 
 Grolier undoubtedly led the art of bookbinding, justi- 
 fying the opinionated expression of the Comte de 
 Laborde : " Bookbinding is an art all French." It 
 is a moot point with bibliographers as to the binding 
 of Grolier's volumes, whether they were executed 
 at Paris or at Lyons. The relentless Mr. Fournier, 
 inferring from an allusion in Bonaventure des Perier's 
 "Cymbalum Mundi," that the best bindings were 
 made in Paris, while the no less learned " bibliophile 
 Jacob " (P. Lacroix) gives the palm to Lyons, the 
 birth-place of Grolier, and the favorite city of Bona- 
 venture des Periers. Be that as it may, Grolier had 
 unconsciously founded a school of the art of book- 
 binding, and it would be impossible to enumerate the 
 excellent works with which it enriched the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries. Of these are the elegant 
 bindings of Francis I., stamped with the emblematical 
 salamander ; and of Henry II. and his mistress, Diana 
 
24 HISTORICAL ESSAY. 
 
 of Poitiers, to whom is due the edict providing that a 
 copy on vellum, handsomely bound, of every book 
 printed in France should be deposited in the library 
 of the King. Her books were stamped with mytho- 
 logical emblems and crescents, sometimes united in a 
 monogram with the King's initial and the royal coat- 
 of-arms. 
 
JACQUES AUGUSTE DE THOU. 
 
 N the annals of bibliophilic fame Grolier is 
 first and De Thou is second. The classic 
 author of the " J. A. Thuani Historiarum 
 sui temporis," "that grand and faithful history," says 
 Bossuet, was destined to greater fame as a collector 
 of books than as an enlightened jurist and historian. 
 
 His predilection for fine books in superb covers 
 was probably incited by his early admiration for the 
 four books which Grolier presented to his father 
 Christophe De Thou perhaps in recognition of valu- 
 able service as president of the commission in the 
 suit for peculation, 'which resulted in Grolier's acquittal 
 and vindication. Of these four books was the famous 
 "Translation of Hippocrates," by Calvus (Rome, 1525), 
 one of the finest Grolier bindings known, bequeathed 
 
26 HISTORICAL ESSAY ON THE 
 
 by Motteley to Napoleon III. in 1850, and burned in 
 1871 in the library of the Louvre. 
 
 It is to De Thou that is due the preservation in 
 France of the collection of manuscripts of Catherine 
 de Medicis, who has been classed among illustrious 
 wholesale biblioklepts for her appropriation of Marshal 
 Strozzi's library. De Thou was at the time the col- 
 lection was offered for sale, in 1594, Librarian of the 
 Royal Library, in place of Jacques Amyot, and he 
 obtained injunctions restraining the Abbe de Belle- 
 branche from disposing of the collection, until after 
 several suits it became, in 1599, part of the royal 
 collections. 
 
 De Thou has shared with Catherine de Medicis the 
 time-honored distinction of a biblioklept, becomingly 
 appreciated by Disraeli the Elder in the expression of 
 an opinion on Bishop More's collection of a library 
 " by plundering those of the clergy of his diocese " 
 (according to Gough), that " this plundering consisted 
 in cajoling others out of what they knew not how to 
 value, an advantage which every skillful lover of books 
 must enjoy over those whose apprenticeship has not 
 yet expired." 
 
 De Thou's collections were like Grolier's, made 
 principally in Italy, and it is estimated that at his 
 
ART OF BOOKBINDING. 2/ 
 
 death his library comprised some eight thousand 
 volumes admirably bound in calf, vellum, and green, 
 orange and red morocco, stamped with the various 
 escutcheons described by Ap. Briquet in the " Bul- 
 letin du Bibliophile" of 1860, and by Joannis Guigard 
 in the " Armorial du Bibliophile." 
 
 To De Thou's folio copy of the " Historia Piscium" 
 of Salvianus, purchased at the Edwards sale for the 
 Fonthill collection, has been accorded the palm of 
 superior merit of all books of that age now extant. 
 De Thou's binders had profited by the example of 
 Grolier's, and in their hands the art of binding in 
 morocco seemed to have attained perfection. 
 
OF BOOKBINDERS. 
 
 HAT monks were anciently the binders as well 
 as the makers of books is proven by docu- 
 mentary evidence. Hearne has published a 
 grant from Rich, de Paston to the Bromholm abbey 
 " of twelve pence a year rent charge on his estates to 
 keep their books in repair;" Charlemagne conferred 
 a diploma unto the abbot of Saint Bertin, a privilege 
 to procure by means of hunting the skins necessary 
 for the binding of the books of his abbey, and Dibdin 
 quotes from a manuscript of the British Museum : 
 " Sacrista curet quod libri bene ligentur et haspentur" 
 etc. The " bibliophile Jacob " also says that two 
 monks, Goderan and Ernesten, of the monastery of 
 Stavelot, in Flanders, completed in 1097 two vol- 
 umes of the Bible, with the following inscription: "In 
 
30 HISTORICAL ESSAY ON THE 
 
 omnia sua procuratione y hoc est Scriptura, illumina- 
 tione, ligatura, uno eodemque anno perfecti stint ambo 
 codices." 
 
 Nor did Tritheim, abbot of Spanheim, in the 
 fifteenth century, omit bookbinding in an enumera- 
 tion of the various employments of the monks of his 
 abbey. 
 
 There is a show of justice in the modern book col- 
 lector's expression of due praise to the binder of the 
 magnificent folio or shining duodecimo, made to sleep 
 upon an eider-down pillow, but it will not atone for 
 centuries of ingratitude. There was an old law which 
 compelled bookbinders to take oath that they did not 
 know how to read ; and the magnificent books of 
 Grolier and Maioli and De Thou come to us without 
 an indication of the name of the artist, who is ever to 
 remain in obscurity. The Marquis de Lavalette's 
 mistake of the name of Grolier for the name of a 
 bookbinder was not an unnatural one, and should not 
 have been considered by such an ardent bibliophile 
 as Clement de Ris solely in the light of evidence of 
 the distinguished minister's ignorance of the history 
 of bibliomania. 
 
 The publishers of the first printed volumes were 
 bookbinders also, and the names of Johannas Guile- 
 
ART OF BOOKBINDING. 31 
 
 bert, Johan Norris and Ludovis Bloc, impressed by a 
 momentary vanity on the covers of a work, are the 
 earliest of bookbinders of the sixteenth century that 
 are known. A bookbinder by the name of Pigorreau 
 appears to have been the first workman to ply his 
 vocation independently of the publishers, in 1620. 
 The Eve family, invested with the title of " Book- 
 binders to the King," for fifty years, from 1578 to 
 1627, were printers and publishers, and to them has 
 been attributed the bindings of De Thou. 
 
 Nicolas Eve is cited as bookbinder to Henri 
 III.; Clovis Eve to Henri IV. and Louis XIII.; 
 Robert Eve inherited his father's title ; but it cannot 
 be said with absolute certainty that either of them 
 executed the works which have made their name 
 famous. 
 
 The history of modern bookbinding is not therefore 
 to be identified with the name of a bookbinder pre- 
 viously to the year 1641, when flourished Le Gascon, 
 to whom Jerome Pinchon has attributed the bindings 
 of the library of De Thou's sons. Le Gascon is only 
 a surname, and the real name of the artist is as 
 unknown as his history, but his binding of " La 
 Guirlande de Julie" is ever to remain a model. A 
 competent critic, Feydau, has said that as a gilder 
 
32 HISTORICAL ESSAY ON THE 
 
 Le Gascon attained perfection, and that he possessed 
 a secret process of gilding which has not yet been 
 discovered. 
 
 Le Gascon's immediate successors were Boyet or 
 Boyer, and Du Seuil or Duseuil, whose name Lesne, 
 the bookbinder poet, has written Desseuil, as he logi- 
 cally but improperly misspelt Pasdeloup for Padeloup, 
 to the confusion of bibliographers. 
 
 The work of Le Gascon is greatly superior to that 
 of his successors. Louis XIV. was not an amateur 
 of beautiful books, a defect which was not to be reme- 
 died by the edict of 1686, which liberated bookbind- 
 ers from the dictatorship of printers and publishers, 
 nor by the treaties with the Ottoman Empire, which 
 stipulated an indemnity of morocco skins for the cov- 
 ers of the books of the royal library, possibly in emu- 
 lation of Charles V. of Spain's request from Cosmo de 
 Medicis of a superb copy of Titus Livius as a token of 
 conciliation. 
 
 From the time of the Roi Soleil the art of book- 
 binding declined gradually. Derome and Padeloup 
 were great artists assuredly, but at a long distance 
 from their predecessors. 
 
 At the end of the eighteenth century Bozerian is 
 the unworthy representative of the art in 'France, 
 
ART OF BOOKBINDING. 33 
 
 while in England it has progressed steadily from the 
 Harleian era to Roger Payne. Theirs was not a 
 servile imitation of ancient work, although Mr. Roscoe 
 wrote eloquently in commendation of ancient binding 
 in his "Lorenzo de Medici." "A taste for the exte- 
 rior decoration of books has lately arisen in this 
 country, in the'gratification of which no small share 
 of ingenuity has been displayed ; but if we are to 
 judge of the present predilection for learning by the 
 degree of expense thus incurred we must consider it 
 as greatly inferior to that of the Romans during the 
 time of the first emperors or of the Italians at the 
 fifteenth century. And yet it is difficult to discover 
 why a favorite book should not be as proper an 
 object of elegant ornament as the head of a cane, the 
 hilt of a sword or the latchet of a shoe." 
 
 Wisely and truly said, but for the consideration 
 that the invention of printing was of that inferiority 
 the causa causans, the manuscripts that were "all 
 wrought in gold." being 'masterpieces of handicraft in 
 themselves. 
 
 The prejudice in favor of ancient binding was dis- 
 played as recently as in the report of the International 
 Bookbinding Exhibition of 1857, wherein the judges 
 Merlin, Cape and Bauzonnet expressed the opinion 
 
34 HISTORICAL ESSAY ON THE 
 
 advanced by Roscoe. They went further than this 
 in their extollation of the masters of the three pre- 
 ceding centuries, especially of those whom, as Dibdin 
 would say, St. Jerome or St. Austin would have 
 lashed for the gorgeous decoration of their volumes. 
 It was of special interest to American bibliophiles 
 that Holland, once famous for its bindings of vellum ; 
 Germany, whose gilders had been constantly em- 
 ployed by the binders of France, Spain and Italy, 
 exhibited nothing but imitations of the declined 
 French art. The rivalry, which should have been 
 universal, existed between France and England only. 
 France excelled in taste and finish, but at some 
 sacrifice of flexibility ; while in England the soft and 
 coaxing manner in which, by the skill of Hering or 
 Mackinlay, "leaf succeeds to leaf," was marred by 
 the tarnishing of the once blazing gilt edges. It was 
 of interest to American bibliophiles, as an evidence 
 of the fact that the decline of the art of bookbinding 
 was due to the apathy of the book collectors. Artists 
 found no occasion for reference to the compilation of. 
 " Messire Francisque, pelegrin de Florence," com- 
 posed of designs of foliage, interlacing ornaments and 
 moresque patterns, nor for innovation or improve- 
 ment in their work, because the book collectors sug- 
 
ART OF BOOKBINDING, 35 
 
 gested nothing. And as the art of bookbinding owed 
 its existence to them, and to them only, they were 
 responsible for its decadence. Obviously, it was not 
 an art to be restricted to one nation or to one family, 
 as tradition would have it in France, and forthwith did 
 Bradstreet's, of New York, undertake to make it 
 American also ; and now, if the rallied book collec- 
 tors of the Old World point with pride to Trautz- 
 Bauzonnet, Lortic, Marius Michel, Hardy, Amand, 
 Bedford, Smeers, Riviere and Zaehnsdorf, the New 
 World may retort with Matthews and Bradstreet's. 
 And deservedly, because there is a solidity, strength 
 and squareness of workmanship about the books of 
 The Bradstreet bindery which seem to convince that 
 they may be "tossed from the summit of Snowdon to 
 that of Cader Idris," without detriment or serious 
 injury. Certainly, none can put a varied colored 
 morocco coat on a book, and gild it with greater 
 perfection in choice of ornament and splendor of 
 gold, and with greater care, taste and success, than 
 Bradstreet's. The experienced book collector will 
 appreciate this de visu ; the uninitiated should be 
 made aware of the qualities that constitute perfection 
 in bookbinding, the combination of solidity with 
 elegance. The volume should open easily, and re- 
 
36 HISTORICAL ESSAY ON THE 
 
 main open at any page, the back flexible and the 
 leaves evenly cut. The gilding and other ornaments 
 may be left to the artist, but the inscription of the 
 title is a very serious matter, as found to his dis- 
 comfiture the owner of a work of Lucian, translated 
 by a M. Belin de Balu, which the great Bozerian 
 lettered: "Lucien T. P. Belin de Balu." T. ?.=traduit 
 par. Not less unfortunate was the bibliophile whose 
 uncut, scarce edition of the works of Brantome, con- 
 fided to an artistic but dreadfully provincial book- 
 binder, was returned with the leaves scrupulously 
 cut, and the volumes inscribed : Bran Tome I., Bran 
 Tome II., Bran Tome III., and so on to the ninth 
 volume. And Dibdin relates, among anecdotes of 
 barbarous titles applied to precious works, the dis- 
 covery by a well-educated bibliomaniac of the first 
 and almost unknown edition of the " Decameron " 
 of Boccaccio, in a volume entitled " Concilium 
 Tridenti." 
 
 As to the expression of the binding of a book, it 
 should be sad or gay, sombre or brilliant, in accord 
 with its spirit, its tone and its epoch, as is suggested 
 by Hartley Coleridge. Didot even insisted upon a 
 refinement in the matter of color, advising chromo 
 bibliotacts, as they are aptly styled by Uzanne, to 
 
ART OF BOOKBINDING. 37 
 
 clothe their works on theology in purple, astronomy 
 in azure, and travels in marine blue, presumably in 
 accordance with the good and very appropriate 
 metaphor of the inscription on a King of Egypt's 
 bookcase : " Treasure of the Remedies of the Soul," 
 books being, like drugs, to be taken with discretion 
 and in various doses, and their outward appearance to 
 denote the nature of the remedy they contain, in 
 order that those that are poison be not mistaken for 
 their antidotes. 
 
 In his attractive little book on "The Home 
 Library," Mr. Arthur Penn says justly that "it 
 is well also not to begrudge money for a fine 
 piece of work ; " but how very few appreciate the 
 fact who are otherwise prodigal in their admiration 
 of the fine arts. It would be interesting to look into 
 the comparative value of fine binding in different 
 centuries. 
 
 The work of the ancients was painstaking in the 
 extreme; the time that it took scarcely less than the 
 writing and illuminating of a missal; but their for- 
 warding was not as good as is that of modern book- 
 binders. This desideratum is noticeably appreciated 
 by the artists of the United States, wherefore the 
 American bibliophiles entrust to them the work that 
 
38 HISTORICAL ESSAY ON THE 
 
 they were wont to send to European bookbinders, 
 in spite of the most vexatious delays. Assuredly, 
 fostered and encouraged, American bookbinders are 
 to attain the highest niche in the temple. 
 
 A writer in the " Miscellanees Bibliographiques," 
 Jean Poche, has given a copy of an account of the 
 binder Duseuil, in which twelve volumes of the 
 second tome of the Manuscripts of the Library of 
 the King, bound in morocco, with gold filigree and 
 the royal cbat-of-arms, are quoted at 30 livres each, 
 and the writer of the article adds a note to the effect 
 that the director of the Imprimerie Royale reduced 
 the price to 25 francs. 
 
 The French bibliophiles were slow to appreciate 
 the value of Grolier's bindings. In 1725 the highest 
 price paid for them by the Count d'Hoym was 
 7 livres 10 sous; in 1815, at the MacCarthy Reagh 
 sale, 75 francs was considered an exorbitant price. 
 In England in 1810 the famous London bookseller, 
 James Edwards, found a ready sale for them at 1,000 
 francs, and wrote to Renouard that he would be glad to 
 buy all volumes of the Aldine press, with the binding 
 and the name of Grolier, at I louis a volume. Grolier's 
 copy of the " Philostrati Vita Apollinii Tyanei et 
 Eusebius contra Hierocleni," which at the McCarthy 
 
ART OF BOOKBINDING. 
 
 39 
 
 sale brought 255 francs, and at the Hibbert sale 
 (i^-9) ^i, was bought at the Beckford sale for 
 ^"300 by Quaritch. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 ERU SAL. Cypriani. Programma Selecta. (Cob., 1708. 8vo.) 
 H. GERAUD. Essai sur les livres dans 1'antiquite". (Paris, 1839. 
 
 8vo.) 
 GAB. PEIGNOT. Essai historique et arche"ologique sur la reliure des 
 
 livres et sur l'e"tat de la librairie chez les anciens. (Dijon, 1834. 
 
 8vo.) 
 CAPPERONNIER DE GAUFFECOURT. Traite" de la Reliure des livres. 
 
 (No date. Lyons, 1763.) 
 DUDIN. L'art du relieur-doreur de livres. Nouvelle Edition. 
 
 (Paris, 1819.) 
 LESNE. La Reliure, poeme didactique du six chants. Seconde 
 
 edition. (Paris, 1827.) 
 DIBDIN (T. F.) The Bibliographical Decameron. (London, 1817. 
 
 3 vols., large 8vo.) 
 FOURNIER (Ed.) L' Art de la Reliure en France aux derniers Siecles. 
 
 (Paris, 1864. 8vo.) 
 P. L. JACOB, Bibliophile (Paul Lacroix). Curiosite's de PHistoire 
 
 des Arts. (Paris, 1858.) 
 L. CLEMENT DE Ris. Les Amateurs d'Autrefois. (Paris, 1877. 
 
 8vo.) 
 
42 HISTORICAL ESSAY. 
 
 J. W. 'ZAEHNSDORF. The Art of Bookbinding. (London, 1880.) 
 MARIUS MICHEL. LA Reliure Franchise, depuis 1'invention de 1'im- 
 
 primerie jusqu'a la fin du dix-huitieme siecle. (Paris, 1880.) 
 La Reliure Ancienne et Moderne, Recueil de 116 Planches. Introduc- 
 tion par Gustave Brunei. (Paris, 1878. 2 vols.) 
 OCTAVE UZANNE. Les Caprices d'un Bibliophile. (Paris, 1880.) 
 Bulletin du Bibliophile, Public par J. Techener. Notably: Ch. 
 Nodier, De la Reliure en France au dix-neuvieme siecle. Tome I. 
 (1834.) P. L. Jacob, Essai historique sur la Reliure en France 
 depuis le seizieme siecle. Tome V. (1863.) Ap. Briquet. 
 Notes sur la Bibliotheque et les Armoiries de J. Aug de Thou. 
 Tome II. (186.0.) 
 
 Le Bibliophile Franais. Notably: Ren Boulange', Les Anciennes 
 Bibliotheques Enchaine~es d' Hereford. Tome III. (Paris, 1869.) 
 L'Abbe Valentin Dufour. Recherches Historiques et Biblio- 
 graphiques sur les Livres Enchaines. Tome V. (1870.) 
 North American Review. Bibliopegia, vol. 79. (1854.) 
 Le Livre. Notably : Joannis Guigard. La Reliure Illustre Nouvel 
 Armorial du Bibliophile. Tome I. (1880.) 
 
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