Soon after the introduction of vellum, it came into general use (circa 1460), almost ousting velvet, except for livres de lua:e. Very soon we find the sides of such vellum books covered with an elaborate stamping of various designs-sometimes crowded and without merit; at others, so sharp, clear and well defined, that they have never been excelled, and scarcely rivaled, by any modern workmen. When we consider that these early binders could not have the aid of the powerful arming presses of to-day, we may well wonder how they managed to impress the large and elaborate blocks with the success to which they attained.

James I. appears to have been an ardent bibliophile both before and after assuming the crown of Great Britain, and many of his bookbinders' bills are extant, showing entries for books bound in leather, vellum, and parchment. Although plain stamping (" blind tooling") is found very early in the history of leather binding, as is evinced by the vellum and "basil" book covers so ornamented, there seems little doubt that gilding the leather had its origin in Italy, probably Venice, and had been derived by the Italian bookbinders from Eastern sources. To these same binders we probably owe the initiative of the burst of the bibliopegistic glory in the fifteenth century.

It was in 1419.that Jean Grolier de Servia, Vicomte d'.Aguisy, the founder of French bookbinding, was born. He was himself of Italian extraction, and was sent by Louis XII. to Milan in a diplomatic capacity. Probably he here imbibed his love for fine bindings, for, on his return, his famous library of finely bound books soon became celebrated. Grolier gave an immense impulse to French bookbinding, and appears to have brought Henry II. and his chere amie, Diana of Poitiers, to the same enthusiasm as himself, for they were both lavish in the bindings of their books. Grolier is supposed to have been the first man whose books were lettered on the back.

By the sixteenth century leather binding had assumed its perfected form as seen at the present day, and its subsequent history showed few changes. Amongst those which have taken place, may be mentioned the substitution of" marbled" edges for gilded and self-colored ones, and the introduction of stamped calico (cloth) in the present century by English binders (by Archibald Leighton, in 1825). The latter, as a cheap medium of binding, is an immense boon, and it is now being slowly adopted in other countries. It is, however, only a temporary vehicle for new books, and can never take any place as a library binding.

Let us now, before proceeding to practical details, say a few words on taste in bookbinding.
Most book lovers, in all ages, have desired to see their treasured volumes fitly, and even splendidly, clad. Chaucer's “Clerke of Oxenford" preferred to see

At his bede's hede,
Twenty bokes clothed in blake and rede,

to any other spectacle which the world could afford; and a magnificent binding so enraptured Skelton, the laureate of our eighth Henry, that he asseverates

It would haue made a man whole that had been right sekely,
To beholde how it was garnisshyd and bound,
Encouerede over with golde of tissew fine;
The claspis and buIIyons were worth a thousand pounde.

Introduction Part 2