by Gertrude Burford Rawlings
New York D.Appleton and Company 1901
France took lessons in this new and better way of clothing books, it was France who was destined to
bring the art to its highest excellence. Having learned her lesson, she perfected herself in it, and the
workmen of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as Geoffroy Tory, Nicholas, Clovis, and Robert
Eve, and Le Gascon, carried French bookbinding into the very first rank, where it may be considered to
remain to this day.
Some of the finest French examples extant are those which were executed for Henry II. and Diana of
Poitiers, Duchess of Valentinois. Both were ardent bibliophiles, and both indulged in very sumptuous
bindings for their books. Some of the chief treasures in our great libraries to-day are the beautiful
volumes which Henry presented to the duchess, and which are ornamented with the royal lilies of France,
accompanied by the bows and arrows and crescents which were Diana's own badges and the initials of
the king and the duchess.
Catherine de Medicis also was an enthusiastic book collector, which may surprise those who think that a
person who is devoted to books is necessarily harmless. Some of her books she brought to France as
part of her dowry, others she acquired by fair means or foul as was most convenient, and to their
bindings she paid particular attention and kept a staff of bookbinders in her employ.
To such a pitch of extravagance did the bibliophiles of the period go in the binding of their books, that in
1583 Henry Ill. of France decreed that ordinary citizens should not use more than four diamonds to the
decoration of one book, and the nobility not more than five. The king himself, however, was as
extravagant as any of his subjects, at any rate as regards the designs he favoured. Many of his books
are clad in black morocco, bearing representations of skulls, cross-bones, tears, and other melancholy
emblems. He developed his taste for these strange decorations when, as Duke of Anjou, he loved and
lost Mary of CIeves.
The early printers at first executed their own bookbinding, but presently left it to the stationers. It was
generally only the larger works which they thought worth covering, and the small ones were simply
stitched. Antony Koburger, of whom mention has already been made, bound his own books and
ornamented them in a style peculiarly his own. Caxton bound his according to the prevailing fashion, with
leather sides, plain or blind-tooled with diagonal lines, forming diamond shaped compartments in each of
which is stamped a species of dragon.
About the sixteenth century it became fashionable to have one's books
“Full goodly bound in pleasant coverture
Of damask, satin, or else of velvet pure,"
as a writer of the time expresses it, and this style naturally lent itself to the needleworked decoration.
This decoration was especially favoured in England, and the ladies of the period executed some very fine
pieces of embroidery as “pleasant covertures" for their books, using coloured silks and gold and silver
thread on velvet or other material. One of the earliest embroidered bindings covers a description of the
Holy Land, written by Martin Brion, and dedicated to Henry VIII. It is of crimson velvet, with the English
arms enclosed in the Garter, between two H's, and the Tudor rose in each corner, and it is worked in
silks, gold thread and seed pearls.
Queen Elizabeth is said to have preferred embroidered bindings to those of leather, and to have been
very skilful in working them. The copy of De Antiquitate Britannica: Ecclesia:, which the author,
Archbishop Parker, presented to the Queen, has a cover which is very elaborately embroidered indeed. It
is of contemporary English work, and is thus described in the British Museum Guide to the Printed Books
exhibited in the King's Library ;" Green velvet, having as a border a representation of the paling of a deer
park, embroidered in gold and silver thread the border on the upper cover enclosing a rose bush bearing
red and white roses, surrounded by various other flowers, and by deer; the lower cover has a similar
border, but contains deer, snakes, plants and flowers; the whole being executed in gold and silver thread
and coloured silks. On the back are embroidered red and white roses." Embroidered bindings remained in
fashion during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and plain velvet, too, was often used,
sometimes with gold or silver mounts.
The old Royal Library, which was given to the nation by George II, contains a large number of sumptuous
bookbindings; and that our Sovereigns were not unmindful of the welfare of their literary treasures may
also be gathered from various entries in the Wardrobe Books and from other documents. Thus, we read
that Edward IV. paid Alice Clavers, " for the makyng of xvj. laces and xvj. tassels for the garnysshing of
divers of the kinge's bookes ijs. viijd."; and" Piers Bauduyn, stacioner, for bynding gilding and dressing of
a booke called Titus Livius xxs., for binding gilding and dressing of a booke of the The Holy Trinity xvjs.,"
and so on. Again, in the bill delivered to Henry VIII. by Thomas Berthelet, his majesty's printer and
binder, are found such entries as these:
"Item delyvered to the kinge's hyghes for a little Psalter, takyng out of one boqke and settyngin an other
in the same place, and for gorgeous binding of the same booke xijd.; and to the Goldesmythe for taking
off the claspes and corners and for setting on the same ageyne xvjd.