An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled
Bindings by Herbert P. Horne
London 1894
bookbinding, which began with the reign of Charles IX. Preceded by the Italianate period of
Francois I. and Henri II. ; it appears almost an age of decadence, when compared with the age
of Le Gascon and Florimond Badier, which followed it.
With the commencement of the seventeenth century, the number of binders, styles, and
collectors, rapidly increases; but the work, which is truly excellent, grows, at the same time,
more clearly distinguishable amid the mass of what is mediocre, or commonplace. The qualities
of stationer, and bookbinder, become gradually disassociated, and recognized as two distinct
callings: while binders of repute work for a greater number of clients. A knowledge of the arms
and cyphers, which occur upon the bindings of collectors, is in itself a difficult antiquarian study;
and one, that I do not here touch upon, except in so far as it illustrates the history of the
binders and their art. In the absence of a more complete work, the Nouvel Armorial du
Bibliophile, Paris, 1890, by Joannes Guigard, contains much information upon this subject. While
the elaborate bindings 'a la fanfare' were being executed for the celebrated Jacques Auguste de
Thou, others of a very simple character, which formed the greater part of his library, were, also,
being finished for him. His arms, in an oval, or surrounded by laurel branches with the addition of
a few border-lines in gold, compose the entire decoration of their boards; and his cypher, with
the title of the work, that of their backs. At first his own arms occur, with his initials, I. A. D. T.;
and these may be seen on his copy of Joattnis Grammatici Phz'loponi Commentaria in L~'bros de
Atzz'ma Aristotelzs, etc., Venice, 1535, in the British Museum [672. i. 7.]. Upon his marriage with
Marie Barbanc;on, in 1587, he impaled his arms with those of his wife; and took a new cypher,
composed of the initials of their Christian names, I. A.M.: as on a copy of Appollonz'i Alexandrini
de Syntaxi lz"bri iV., Frankfort, 1590, in the Museum [671. g. 10.]. After his second marriage with
Gasparde de la .Chastre, the arms and initial of Gasparde replace those of Marie Barb anon; as
upon a copy of Phaedri Fabulae, Paris, 1617, in the same collection [C. 19. c. 21.].
These severe, but pleasing, bindings are among the first indications of the simpler, but more
effective, modes of decoration, which began with the seventeenth century, and by which the art
of the :French binder, untrammeled by any Italian traditions, at length found its finest and most
original expression, in the so-called styles of Le Gascon. About the year 1622, the first
characteristic style, of the new manner, came into vogue. It consists in relieving either board
with a simple panel, formed by a fiUet of thre'e, or four, lines, which cross one another at the
angles. The panel is further enriched with arms, and the outer angles of the fiUet by C fleurons,'
or flowered corner-pieces;