There is still another kind of binding used for one of the volumes in the British Museum that was made for Henry VIII., and that is of gold. It is a tiny copy of a metrical version of the penitential and other Psalms in English by John Cheke, Clerk in Chancery, written on vellum early in the sixteenth century (Plate II.) It has at the beginning a miniature portrait of Henry VIII., and is bound in gold, worked in open-leaf tracery, with remains of black enamel on many of the leaves and on the border surrounding them. The panels of the back have each a small pattern cut into the metal, and filled with a black enamel. At the top of each cover is a small ring so that the volume could be attached to the girdle. It is said to have been given by Queen Anne Boleyn when on the scaffold to one of her maids of honour, and it now forms part of the Stowe Collection at the British Museum.
Penitential Psalms, etc., MS., sixteenth century. Gold Binding. Henry VIII.
Novum Testamentum Græce. Lutetiæ, 1550. Gold centres. Queen Elizabeth.
A book curiously decorated and bound in calf for Henry VIII. is a Bible printed at Antwerp in 1534, and in two volumes. These are large books measuring 14½ × 9 inches, and both of them have been restored at the outer edges. The inner panel, rectangular with large corners, encloses on each side sentences in French, above and below which are crowned double roses and the initials H. A., probably standing for “Henry” and “Anna.” The sentence reads on one side, “Ainsi que tous meurent par Adam,” and on the other, “Aussy tous seront vivifies par Christ.” The borders and corners are very rich and decorative, and it is likely that the outer ornamentation, although it is actually modern, has been carefully copied from the original.
A handsome binding in dark brown calf covers an “old royal” manuscript, Jul. Claud Iguini oratio ad Hen. VIII., written probably about 1540. It has blind and gold lines, and the design is an outer border with an arabesque pattern stamped in gold, enclosing the royal coat-of-arms, crowned, and enclosed within a Garter. Round this again are four Greek words, “ΠΛΙΟΣ ΠΑΝΤΑΣ ΑΛΙΕΝΩΝ ΕΞΑΡΚΤΟΝ,” the meaning of which is not clear. On the coat-of-arms it is notable that the three lions of England are crowned. This peculiarity occurs sometimes in other books, but I believe heraldically the lions should not be crowned, and this book is the earliest instance I have met with in which they are so shown.
Fig. 3.—Description of the Holy Land, in French.
By Martin Brion. MS. Henry VIII.