He mentions a Psalter "covered with crimosyn satyne," and we possess a collection of tracts bound in this manner, with a delicate tracery of gold cord, and on the edges is written in gold the words "REX IN AETERNUM VIVE NEEZ." This is probably what Berthelet, in an entry a little further on, calls "drawyng in gold on the transfile." There are several mentions of books "gorgiously gilded on the leather," and also others where he says books are bound "backe to backe," none of which seem to have survived, but there are plenty of instances of the "white leather gilt," so often used.

"Purple velvet" was used to cover "ij Primers," which are now lost; but we possess a splendid volume covered in this way with embroidery upon it, and again he says .he has bound books after the "venecian fascion" and "Italian fascion.” Truly the Italian work of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries is extremely fine, and Berthelet may have seen some specimens of it, and, admiring them, have endeavored to imitate their peculiar and beautiful gilded tooling.

To Berthelet must be conceded the honor of being the first English binder to use gold stamped work on leather, and he does so with admirable effect. Many of his bindings gilded on white leather, sometimes deer-skin, sometimes vellum, are most charming; indeed, the taste for vellum has never died out in England from Berthelet's time to the present day, when we have William Morris's dainty volumes with their green ties. Berthelet's books also generally had ties, but they are now all worn off.
A fine instance of this white leather and gold occurs on Sir Thomas Elyot's Image of Governance, printed by Berthelet in 1541.

It bears the same design on each side. A panel, enclosed by an ornamental fillet, contains a very graceful arrangement of curves forming a central space in which are the words" Dieu et mon Droit"; and at each side of this the royal initials contained in two semicircles left for them. At each of the inner corners is a large set stamp, and the ground is dotted over with small circles and the daisy-a badge used by the Tudors probably as a compliment to their ancestress Margaret de Beaufort. On the edges are painted in gold the words" REX in AEternum Vive.”

Some of the same stamps are used on another book which is probably Berthelet's work. It is a manuscript Latin commentary on the campaign of the Emperor Charles V. against the French in 1544, addressed by Anthonius de Musica to Henry VIII. It is bound in brown calf, and bears within a broad outer fillet a panel containing in the centre the royal coat-of-arms and initials enclosed in an inner rectangular panel ; above and below this are two rectangular cartouches, with titles of the king and various initials which have not yet been interpreted. Flanking the long central panel are medallions of Plato and Dido, favorite stamps afterwards with English binders, but occurring here for the first time.

A design which was probably a favorite one of Berthelet's is found on a copy of Opus eximium de vera differentia Regit:C Potesta tis et Ecclesiastict:C, printed by him in 1534 (Fig. 2). There is an instance of the same binding in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The arms of the king, with the supporters of the dragon and the greyhound, occupy the centre of each board. This is enclosed in an oval ribbon bearing the words" Rex Henricus VIII. Dieu et mon Droit," and the whole is surrounded by an ornamental fillet with decorative corners. Above and below the shield are crowned double roses and the initials K. H.

A collection of sixteenth-century tracts is covered with crimson satin, and ornamented with an arabesque design outlined in gold cord. This is the earliest English book remaining that is bound in satin, but no doubt many more existed, as they are so often mentioned in accounts of the time. The satin is always crimson, and, curiously enough, long afterwards under the Stuarts the use of satin was revived, but of a white color. This collection of tracts was certainly enough bound for the king, as it has the peculiarity of the motto painted on its edges in gold, " Rex IN AETERNUM VIVE NEEZ," which seems to have been a favorite form of decoration of Berthelet's, so very likely this is one of his books.