1530 (?). The third volume of a copy of the Works of St. Chrysostom, printed at Basle in 1530, has very kindly been shown to me by Mr. E. Gordon Duff, librarian of the Ryland’s Library, Manchester. It is bound in calf, and one side is almost completely destroyed, but the other is in a fairly good condition. It measures 15 by 10 inches, is tooled with gold and blind lines, and bears as a centre ornament a rectangular panel with the royal coat of arms of Henry VIII. ensigned with a large crown, having as a dexter supporter a greyhound and on the sinister side a dragon. This arrangement of the supporters is wrong, but it is possibly unintentional, and due to the forgetfulness of the engraver when he drew the design on his metal plate. Above the crown are two double roses, and above it are scattered impressions of a ring with a dot in the middle. Below the shield are two portcullises, chained, with a few tufts of grass. This handsome coat of arms is enclosed by a border on which are the words, “DIEV ET MON DROIT,” and small stamps of a leaf, a single rose, and a fleur-de-lys; above and below are impressions of a stamp of a large double rose, crowned, flanked by the letters K H. These initials are somewhat of a puzzle. They have been interpreted as simply meaning King Henry, and perhaps this solution is the easiest way out of the difficulty; but it is not altogether satisfactory. Besides “King,” the only other word for which the letter K is likely to stand is the name “Katherine,” and it could only then have stood for either Katharine of Aragon, who was divorced in 1533; Katherine Howard, who was married in 1540 and was beheaded in 1543; or Katharine Parr, who was married in 1543 and survived the king.
A very decided objection to the theory that the initial K belonged to any of these queens is found in the fact that it precedes that of the king himself, which is not at all likely to have occurred under the circumstances. In the volume to be described presently, where the initials H A are presumed to be those of “Henry” and “Anne,” an example is found of the more likely way in which such initials would occur.
The inner panel is enclosed, at a considerable distance, by a broad triple border, and the inner corners of this border are curiously ornamented with ornamental gold-tooling arranged in quarter-circle form. This style of corner ornamentation was common in Italy, but very rare in England, at the time this book was made. The inner angles of each quarter-circle bear triple impressions from a stamp of trefoil shape bearing small scroll-work of Oriental character upon it, the ground gold and the design showing in the leather. The segments of circles beyond this inner angle are ornamented consecutively with a row of fleur-de-lys and single roses alternately; a row of small long-shaped knots, often found on Italian books, and also occurring on one bound for King James V. of Scotland; a row of wavy flames; and beyond all, in the center of the quarter-circle, impressions in gold of a leaf with stalk flanked by two roses.
These corners, as well as the inner rectangular panel and the inner line of the outer panel, are all marked by lines of blind-tooling, which are mitred at the corners.
The outer border consists of an inner line of wavy flames, a broadish line of circles crossed with arabesques, and an outer line of numerous impressions from the small long-shaped knot stamp, and beyond all are a few blind lines.
This binding is in many ways a very remarkable one. The gold-tooling upon it is rough, but among the tools which are evidently Berthelet’s are others which are not found on any other of his bindings. I think it is an early work, and that the existence upon it of the few delicate Italian stamps can be accounted for only by the theory that an Italian workman brought them over with him and taught Berthelet the art of gold-tooling. In the case of this particular volume, it is possible that it was one of those done by Berthelet under the eye of his master, and that he used some of his foreign tools as well as others belonging to himself.
Whatever may be the true explanation of these difficulties, there is no doubt that the binding is a most valuable and interesting one, and I thank Mr. E. Gordon Duff very sincerely for having allowed me to see it and to have it photographed for this monograph. The edges are gilded and ornamented with an arabesque design marked upon them by means of successive impressions from a small ring-shaped stamp.
The decoration of the corners of the boards of a binding with ornamentation arranged as a quarter-circle was very rare in England until the reign of Queen Elizabeth, at which time it was often found; then under the Stuart Kings James I. and Charles I. it probably reached its fullest development, and was especially favoured at Little Gidding. It is found on fifteenth-century Italian bindings, used with great skill, so that its occurrence on one of Berthelet’s early bindings is not to be wondered at, the curious thing being rather that he did not use it more. As it now is, I think this book is the earliest existing English specimen of the use of this kind of ornamentation.
1530 (?). An interesting example in which the decoration of a binding is arranged with some reference to the contents of the book occurs on the cover of a French manuscript on “La Science de Geometrie,” dedicated to King Henry VIII., and bound for him in white deerskin by Thomas Berthelet. This volume should always have been with the rest of the old Royal Library of England now in the British Museum, but by some means it became separated, and was recently purchased by the trustees of that institution from Mr. Cornish of Manchester.
The sides are ornamented with blind lines and gold-tooling; a large rectangular panel is marked out near the edges of the boards with fleurons at each outer corner; inside the panel near the top are the words, “VIVAT REX,” in an ornamental cartouche of architectural elevation; below this, and filling up most of the remaining space, are three narrow elongated pyramids with triangular bases; the ground is dotted irregularly with small stars and dots. In the lower part of the panel is the word “GEOMETRIA” and a decorative scroll. This is the only instance I know in which the lettering outside any of Berthelet’s bindings has any reference to the contents of the book.