An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled
Bindings by Herbert P. Horne
London 1894
in common with his authenticated binding of the Statuts de l'ordre du Sainet Esprit. A fillet
divides the field of the boards into compartments, which are of a similar character to those on
the bindings of Henri III., which I have just described: but they are gen~rally better contrived,
and more delicately tooled. In some examples, this fillet forms the only decoration of the book j
as on a copy of the New Testament, in Greek and Latin, Paris, 1565, in the Museum j the device
of Colbert having been added at a later date [676. i. 16.]. The occurrence of these simple
bindings may, perhaps, be due to an article in a sumptuary edict issued by Henri III., in 1577,
which forbade the use of gilding upon books, except 'un filet d'or seulement sur la couverture,
avec une marque au milieu de la grandeur d'un franc au plus': the bindings of princely and
ecclesiastical personages were alone excepted from this rule.
In other examples, the compartments thus formed, are elaborately filled with branches of palm
and laurel, with floriated spirals, and with other ornaments. The total effect of such bindings is
rich and harmonious; the masses of the various parts being equally distributed: but upon a
nearer view, a large number of elements are found to have been introduced, without proper
reference to one another, or to the spaces, which they decorate. One compartment is arbitrarily
filled with laurel, the next with some conventional form, the third with the figure of a bird, or
flower: that logical sequence of ideas, which forms the basis of all the finest works of art, is here
absent. Their workmanship, however, is more accomplished, than that of the books, which
preceded them: they are more solidly forwarded; and their gilding is singularly delicate and
skilful. In the British Museum are two books bound in this manner, and stamped with the arms of
the President, Jacques Auguste de Thou, Poetae Graed, Paris, 1566 [C. 47. b.]; and Valerius
Maximus, Antwerp, 1574 [684- c.]; together with a Breviary in folio, Paris, 1588, which bears the
arms of the Abbey of Marmoutiers [CO 24. d. I.]. An inquiry into the tradition, which attributes
these elaborate bindings to Nicolas Eve, establishes little else, than the fact, that their style was
in vogue, while he was holding the distinguished office of 'Relieur du Roy': his authenticated
bindings are in a wholly different manner from that of these rich bindings 'a la fanfare,' as they
were fantastically called by Nodier, at the beginning of this century. M. Thoinan is of opinion, that
this style was common to t4e times; and he recalls the names of the many binders then living,
Michel Clopejau, Nicolas Des fosses, Jean de Bordeaux, Francois du Mays, Michel Gadoulleau,
Gilles Gilles, and Jean de Heuqueville, who may have employed it, on their bindings.