An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled
Bindings by Herbert P. Horne
London 1894
King, they were drawn up in thirty-eight articles, approved by the Mayor of Paris, and enrolled
by the Parliament. By these statutes, the affairs of the Guild were to be administered by a
master and four wardens: and the exercise, within the city of Paris, of all trades involved in the
production of books, such as printing, binding and publishing, came under its control. In order to
attain to the freedom of the Guild, without which no one could follow any of these callings in the
quality of a master, it was necessary, that its members should have been bound apprentice, for
a term of five years, to a master-binder, in Paris; that they should have served as journeymen,
for a further term of not less than three years; and that, lastly, before their admission, two
freemen should bear witness to their ability, in the presence of the master and his colleagues.
Amongst other regulations, such as the grant of certain privileges to the sons and widows of
freemen, was one forbidding any master-binder to pursue his calling without the precinct of the
Quartier de l'Universite. In this way the history of the French binders came to be invariably
associated with that quarter of Paris, which still remains one of the most interesting parts of the
city.
From this time, the history of the Guild becomes chiefly a history of the disputes, which exercised
its members. During the sixteenth century, its privileges had been freely extended to the gilders
of books; but as their trade increased in importance, so great a number of gilders applied for
admission, that their claims were stoutly resisted by the stationers, with whom they came into
competition. In one of the law-suits, which arose out of these disputes, an attorney, speaking
for the master and wardens of the Guild, taunted two gilders, Pigoreau and Ballagny, with
having exchanged the gilding of boots, for the gilding of books, as a more lucrative and
honorable employment. This allusion has frequently been held to prove, that during the
sixteenth century, the gilders who worked for the bookbinders, worked also, upon other
leather-work, such as belts or caskets. M. Thoinan, however, points out, that both Pigoreau and
Ballagny had received their freedom as gilders, in strict conformity to the statutes of the Guild, in
regard both to their apprenticeship, and to their other obligations. Any serious meaning cannot,
therefore, in his opinion, be attached to this remark of the attorney, which signifies nothing
more than the sarcasm of a special pleader.
Of the subsequent disputes, which disturbed the Guild, it will not be possible here to speak at
length. The chief of these led to the separation of the printers and stationers, from the binders
and gilders; who and hitherto been associated together under the style of 'Le Communaute des
Libraires Imprimeurs et Relieurs.' The edict, constituting the binders and gilders a distinct
community, is dated 7th September 1686: and the statutes, which are contained in its articles,
agree, for the most part, with those authorised in the year 1618: the privileges, granted to the
sons and widows of freemen, are elaborated; and the precinct of the Quartier de l'Universite in
which its members were alone permitted to follow their professions, is strictly defined.