An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled
Bindings by Herbert P. Horne
London 1894
and reproduced by MM. Marius-Michel in La Re/t'ure Fra11faise [PI. v.], with the copy of the third
and fourth books of Serlio's work on Architecture, Venice, 1540,
and some writers have found in it the cypher of Katherine de Medicis. But there is a passage in a
letter of Giovanni Capello, the Venetian Ambassador to the Court of France, describing the first
audience given to him by Henri II., which expressly states, that the king had publicly assumed
this cypher, in which both the crescent moon and the double D could be traced, in honour of his
mistress, Diane [Armand Baschet, La Diplomatie Vln#ienne, Paris, 1862, p. 443.]. This, I think, is
evidence enough to decide the controversy, were not the device .of Katherine de Medicis as
distinct as it is, from that of Henri and Diane. In the Queen's cypher, which is always royally
crowned, the serifs of the reversed C's extend beyond the strokes of the H ; in the disputed
cypher, which is never crowned, the strokes of the D's coincide with the strokes of the H.
The hand of more than one gilder may be traced upon the books of Henri II., and yet another on
those of Diane de Poitiers. But attempts of this kind, to ascribe certain bindings to individual
gilders, are very empirical: especially when, as in the present case, no documents have hitherto
been discovered concerning the authors of these celebrated bindings. Edouard Fournier, on
what authority it does not appear, states, that Jehan Foucault and Jehan Louvet were the two
most celebrated gilders of leather, during the reign of Henri II. We know, that the former gilder
was employed by Katherine de Medicis at the CM.teau de Monceaux: but there is no evidence to
show, that either of these artists yorked upon the decoration of books.
Passing over these details, the bindings of Henri II. and Diane de Poitiers appear, in a general
view, as various examples of a common manner, and the finest and most characteristic
productions of the finisher's art in that age. Fine, no doubt, as this new manner is, it shows less
reticence, simplicity, and mastery of effect, than are found in the older manner, which preceded
it, and from which it is entirely distinct One cause of this inferiority is to be attributed to an
excessive use .of curves; and to a consequent neglect of those incomparable decorative effects,
which are alone to be produced by a proper contrast of curved, with angular, forms, and right
lines. An instance of this tendency is to be seen in the magnificent binding, executed for the
king, which M. Gruel reproduces in his Manuel, as an example of a painted binding: Philonis
Judaei in It'bros Most's de 1ltundi opiftcio htstoricos de legibus eiusdem libri singulares, Paris,
1552, in which the slight border lines are the only right forms, in the whole of the composition.
Again, not only are too many elements introduced into the designs of these bindings, but, also,
these elements are, themselves, not always in due relation to one another.