An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled
Bindings by Herbert P. Horne
London 1894
son remboursement de semblable somme qu'il a desboursee de ses deniers a ung libraire de
Paris nomme Ie Faucheux, pour avoir de l'ordonnance et commandement du dit Seigneur, rabille,
relie et dore plusieurs livres de sa librairie en la forme et maniere d'ungevangelier ja relie et dore
par icelluy Ie Faucheux, escript de lettres d'or et d'autres.'
Contemporaneous with these bindings of Francois I. and those of Grolier, are the stamped
bindings of Geofroy Tory, the most remarkable stamped work in gold, which has been produced
by any stationer. This extraordinary artist was born about the year 1485, and having received
his education in Italy, returned to France, and settled at Paris, in the quality of a printer,
bookseller, and binder. He did not, in all probability, do more than to direct the execution of
these bindings; and give the designs for their stamps, in the same way as he gave the designs
for the celebrated cuts, which adorn the books of his impression. These stamps, for the most
part, form. panels of arabesque work, which are used as the principal decoration of the boards;
although borders and other ornaments are sometimes added. The forms of these elegant
arabesques are imitated from those of contemporary Italian work; but the manner in which they
are designed, is wholly peculiar to this designer, and the same, which marks the ornaments of
his Hours, and other cuts. For the first time in the history of bookbinding, we are able to
recognize, in a piece of gilding, the unmistakable personality of an original artist, a trait, which
we are apt entirely to associate with the work of modern binders. In the British Museum, is a
volume of Petrarck, Venice, 1525, bound by Geofroy Tory [Co 47. g.]. Books were, at this time,
still issued by the printer in sheets, and copies were bound by the bookseller, according to the
demand for them: it was in this way, that a book printed at Venice came to be bound by Tory;
while a copy of his own book of Hours, in the Museum, has a contemporary painted binding,
which appears to be of English workmanship. In the lower part of the panel of the Petral"ch,
which is figured in Plate VI., Tory's sign of the' pot casse' forms a part of the arabesques. On
other examples, one of which is reproduced by M. Henri Bouchot in Les Reliures d'Art a la
Bibliotht'que Natz'onale [PI. XXXIII.], the broken vase i!:? pierced by a 'toret,' or wimble. This
sign of the' pot casse' first occurs in a cut, at the foot of a Latin poem, written by Tory on the
death of his little daughter Agnes, and published on the 15th February, 1523. Here the vase,
pierced by the wimble, stands, chained upon a closed book. This device, which is here designed
in obvious allusion to the death of his daughter, was afterwards somewhat modified; some
flowers being placed in the vase, and a little winged figure omitted: and in this form was
afterwards used by him, as the mark of his press. In his Champjleury, he gives the following
explanation of this mark, expressed with all the imagery characteristic of that phase of the
Renaissance, which produced the Christiad of Vida, and in which Tory moved and had his being. ,
Premierement en icelle yaung vase antique qui est casse, par lequel passe ung toret. Ce dict
vase et pot casse signifie nostre corps, qui est ung pot de terre.