An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled
Bindings by Herbert P. Horne
London 1894
Chapter of the Book of Job, verse 7, '0 remember my life is wind,' occurs upon two books
described by Le Roux de Lincy; a third out of Virgil, Aen. vi. 743, 'Quisque suos patimur manes,'
upon a copy of the Vulgate, Paris, 1558, Italian than I faIy herself. This refinement was at first
brought about by the use of less heavy tools j and would seem to have been anticipated by the
Italian -binders: for certain of the figured tools used in ornamenting a copy of the Aldine Virgil,
printed in 1527 [C. 19. b. 29.], for example, are relieved by an engraved line repeating the
outline of their forms. The same device may, also, be seen upon another book, bound for Grolier,
in the Museum: the Epitome of Justz'nus' Histories by Trogus Pompeius, printed at the Aldine
press, in 1522 [G. 9056.]. The refinement begun, in this manner, was shortly developed by
azuring the tools j that is, by engraving a series of parallel lines upon their face, similar to those
by which the colour, azure, is represented in heraldry. The use of azured tools, which afterwards
became a characteristic of Lyonese bindings, appears to have been introduced about the year
1530: but there is no proof, that such tools were first employed upon the bindings of Grolier. The
Museum, however, possesses two admirable examples of his bindings, on which azured tools
have been employed: one, a copy of the Commmtaries of Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus, ort the
Epistles of St. Paul, Florence, 1552 [Co 24. f.]j the other, a copy of 11 Principe, etc., of
Machiavelli, Venice, 1540 [Co 27. d. 2.]: both of which are painted bindings. On many of Grolier's
books no flowered tools are used j as on a copy of Glt' Asolani of Bembo, Vinice, 1530 [Co 19. c.]
j the lower board of which is figured in Plate II. The back of this book is without bands, and is
tooled with a kind of fish-scale pattern. In some instances, the design, which is worked entirely
by fillets and gouges, assumes an architectonic character: of this a copy of the prose works of
Pontanus, Venice, 1512, may be cited as an example [G. 10,046.]. The singleline scroll work,
which is ornamented with azured tools, and interwoven with the fillet upon some examples,
gradually becomes, in the later bindings, as important an element in the design, as the
interIacings: while upon one example, Discorso sopra Ie Medagle Antiche, Venice, 1559,
reproduced among M. Henri Bouchot's Facsimiles of Bindings in the Bibliotheque Nationale [PI.
XXIV.], the fillet disappears entirely, and the scroll work forms the entire design. It may be
added, that the legend, 'Let my portion, 0 Lord, be in the land of the living,' is adapted from the
verse of Psalm cxlii., which runs in the Vulgate, 'Clamavi ad te, Domine; dixi: Tu es spes mea,
portio mea in terra viventium.'