An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled
Bindings by Herbert P. Horne
London 1894
the back, forms with the title, and, occasionally, a simple fillet, or roll, the entire decoration of his
books, which are all bound after this common model. The charm of these bindings depends not a
little upon the taste, and judgment, shown in the choice of these simple elements: for more
elaborate gilding, would have detracted from the appearance of the forwarding, in which their
chief beauty consists. They are usually covered with morocco, and have gilt edges and marbled
end-papers. A copy of Longepierre's own translation into French of the Idyls of Bion and
Moscltus, Paris, 1686; bound for him in red morocco, with a green' doublure '; was sold at the
Didot sale in 1878, as the work of Boyet: and in the British Museum is a little CIaudian of
Elzevir's printing, 1650 [673. a. 14..], which is similarly bound. The , doublure' is tooled with a '
dentelle' border, and the device of the Golden Fleece: while the edges are marbled under the
gold. The occurrence of this , doublure,' the singular beauty of the colour and texture of the
leather, the exquisite finish and solidity of the forwarding, all appear to favor the supposition,
that this binding is the work of Boyet. If it be not, it is, certainly, among the most beautiful and
characteristic bindings of his time.
Gilles Dubois, who held the place of Binder to the king, conjointly with Claude Ie Mire, appears
from the accounts of the Royal Household, to have been appointed to that office in 1648. He is
said to have worked for Cardinal Richelieu: and he it was, who gave the Missal to the Guild of
St. Jean, which replaced that bound by Le Gascon. He died in 1671, and was probably
succeeded by Louis Joseph Dubois, who certainly held the office of Binder to the king, before the
year 1707. He, in turn, died and was succeeded by the famous Du Seuil, in 1723, whose name
has been associated, in an unintelligible manner, as I have already observed, with a style,
which was in vogue half a century before the date of his birth. Apart from this .strange
anachronism, his history is of especial interest to Englishmen, for he is the one French binder,
who figures in the classics of our literature. In the fourth of the Moral Epistles;_addressed
by Pope to Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington, and first printed in 1731, under the title of 'False
Taste,' there occurs the following passage, in satire of the affectation, which studies to collect
books, rather than to read and understand them:
In books, not authors, curious is my Lord; To all their dated backs he turns you round; These
Aldus printed, those Du Sueil has bound.