An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled
Bindings by Herbert P. Horne
London 1894
present day, owes its origin and growth, in no slight measure, to the Guild of St. Jean Latran,
which was early established in the city of Paris. An elaborate account of this community has
lately been published by M. Ernest Thoinan, in Les Relz"eurs Franfaz"s ; and the records and
other documents, which this writer here collects in illustration of his subject, contain a
mass of information relative to the early history of bookbinding in France, to which nothing
comparable is to be found in Italy, or in this country. Unlike the other city guilds of Paris, which
arose under the control of the 'prevot,' or mayor of Paris; this of St. Jean Latran had its origin in
the protection, which the University extended, at a very early time, to all those, who were
engaged in the production and sale of books; the scribes, the illuminators~ the binders, the
booksellers. It was from this circumstance, that the Parisian stationers became associated with,
and settled in, the Quartier de l'Universite. A definite guild, or confraternity, seems first to have
been founded by them, in 1401, when Charles VI., by a charter dated 1st June, authorised
'Nicolas de Bose, J. Postie, H. Marescot, escrivains, Jacques Richier, enlumineur, J. Chapon,
libraire, Guillaume Deschamps et Simonet Milon, relieurs, a fonder une confrerie en l'eglise Saint
Andre .des Arcs, sous l'invocation de saint Jean, l'Evangeli~te.' This charter was confirmed by
Louis XL, at Chartres, in the month of June, 1467; and from this act of confirmation, it appears,
that the Guild, in common with other medieval guilds, WCJ.S largely of a religious nature: one of
its chief obligations, being the celebration of three masses; the first for the King, his
predecessors, and the University, the second for the living, and the third for the deceased,
members of the confraternity. When the Guild was originally founded,its members were 'en grant
nombre,'
riches et oppulenz '; but the times had changed: Paris had become impoverished' by great wars,
famines, mortalities and other pestilences' j and the numbers of the Guild were so diminished,
that Louis XL, by this new edict, authorises the annual payment, hitherto made by each member
of the confraternity, to be increased, in order that the expenses of the three masses, and the
other obligations of the confraternity, might be duly defrayed. This edict, at the same time,
requires, that the election of the officers of the Guild should henceforth be made subject to the
confirmation of the mayor of Paris, 'qui sera leur conservateur et gardien. In the year 1582, the
members of the Guild concluded an agreement with the General and Chapter of the Mathurin
Fathers, by which the religious ceremonies of the confraternity, hitherto celebrated in the Church
of St. Andre des Arcs, should in future be held in their church in the Quartier de l'U niversite. The
articles of this agreement are to be found printed in a rare little book, published by Lottin, and
entitled, La Messe du Martyre de S. Jean, ApJtre et EvanglNste, devant fa Porte Latine a Rome,
patron de fa communautl des Libraires, etc., Paris, 1779: which contains many things of value
upon this subject.