The inner parallelogram has large corners stamped in gold, and is edged with a black fillet, the entire field on the calf being decorated with a semee of triple dots. The book has two gilded clasps, and the edges of the leaves are gilt, gaffed, and painted. A small panel on each of the angle-pieces, which are otherwise ornamented with designs of military trophies, drums, trumpets, shields, swords, and cuirasses, bears the initials" J. D. P." These letters are supposed to mean John Day, Printer. John Day printed books at Lambeth for Archbishop Parker; and these corner-pieces do occur on books printed by him and bound in a very similar way to the volume now described, so there is some show of probability in the interpretation. A field covered with a succession of impressions from the same stamp has no name in English, but in France it is known as a "semee," its use having come into fashion in that country a little earlier than the date of this book.
A smaller example, with centre-piece and angle inlays only, in all other ways exactly resembling the book just described, was printed in London, I 57 I (Fig. 13). It is a copy of the Gospels printed by John Day, and is the dedication copy, as is stated in a MS. note on the title-page-" Presented to the Queen's own hands by Mr. Fox."

A copy, printed in London in 1575, of Grant's Gr£e£ Lingu£ Spiei¬legium is covered in brown calf, and was bound for the queen. It has large corners stamped in gold from set stamps. In the centre it bears a fine stamp of the royal coat-of-arms, crowned, and surrounded by the Garter, and decorated with Elizabethan scrolls. The remainder of the groundwork is covered with a semee of small roses. Among the old royal manuscripts is a curious book, Scholarum Etonensis o'Uatio de ad'Uentu Regin£ Elizabeth£, 1563, covered in white vellum and stamped in gold. It bears in the centre the royal coat-of-arms enclosed m an oval ornamented border, and has large corner-pieces impressed from a set stamp, the field having a semee of small stars. The work upon this binding is of a curiously unfinished character, and it is probably the work of some unskilled local workman. The gilt edges are gauffied in a floral design, with some white color here and there.
Anne Boleyn bore, as one of her many devices, a very decorative one of a crowned falcon holding a sceptre, standing on a pedestal, out of which is growing a rose-bush bearing white and red blossoms (Fig. 14). This badge occurs first in an illuminated initial letter to her patent of the Marquisate of Pembroke, and at her coronation, in a pageant at Whitehall, an image of the falcon played a prominent part. The origin of it is not very clear, but it may have been derived from the crest of Ormond, a white falcon, which is placed under the head of the Earl of Wiltshire, Queen Anne's father, on his tomb. It was in turn adopted by Queen Elizabeth, and was exhibited on the occasion of her visit to Norwich, in 1578, as her own badge; and it occurs also on the iron railing on her tomb in Henry VII.'s chapel. The queen bore it on several of her simpler bindings impressed in the centre of each board, with usually a small acorn spray at each corner. There are several books ornamented like this in the library of Westminster Abbey, and there are examples at Windsor. The British Museum possesses few, the best example being a copy of Justinus' Trogi Pompeii Historiarum Philippicarum epitoma, etc., printed at Paris in 1581. It originally had two ties at the front edge. At Windsor a few bindings of Elizabeth's are still preserved; among them, a copy of Paynell's Conspiracie of Catiline is bound in white leather, and bears the royal arms within a decorative border. It has large corners impressed by a set stamp, and has a semee of small flowers. A copy of Spenser's Faerie Queene, printed in London in 1590, also in the Windsor Library, bears in the centre a crowned double rose, in the centre of which is a portcullis, and E. B. at each side of it. The crowned rose was a favorite design with Elizabethan bookbinders; but unless there be corroborative evidence of royal possession, I do not think that the existence of this stamp is of itself a sufficient proof of such exalted ownership.