It is bound in deep brown calf, and tooled in gold with some lines in blind. In the centre, within an upright panel of gold and blind lines with small fleurs-de-lys at the corners, is the royal coat of arms of Henry VIII., cleverly outlined with reversed curves, crowned, and flanked with the letters H R, repeated twice. Directly above and below the central panel are two broad rectangular cartouches made in gold lines, and small arabesques with “anvil” handles. In each of these cartouches is a legend; those on the upper cover contain the words, “VERO DEFENSORI FIDEI | ERRORVMQVE PROFLIGATORI OPTIMO”; those on the lower cover, “MAXIMO HENRICO OCTAVO | REGI ANGLORVM FRANC. HIBERNIEQVE, P. M. P. P. D. G.” No one has yet elucidated the signification of these last letters. The centre panel is flanked on
PLATE XVI.
WHITE LEATHER BINDING OF “D. AURELII AUGUSTINI HIPPONENSIS EP. TAM IN VETUS QUAM IN NOVUM TEST. COMMENTARII. BAS., 1542.” MADE FOR QUEEN MARY.
See page [90.]
one side by two impressions of a portrait stamp of Plato, and on the other two of Dido, the remaining spaces being sparsely filled with leaf stamps. An outer border of Italian design, with fleurons at each outer corner, encloses the whole. The small medallion stamps containing portraits of Dido and Plato, which are found on this volume, were often used by Berthelet as the chief ornamentation on small books bound by him. They usually occur singly as a centre ornament within a gold line panel, with small fleurons at the outer corners.
1547. Xenophon. La Cyropedie. Paris 1547.