In England during the fifteenth century the printing, binding, and publishing of printed books generally vested in the same individual, but by degrees these processes became specialized, and towards the end of the sixteenth century they were carried out by different persons. Now and then, among the earlier specimens of Berthelet’s work, designs of a similar kind occur on the outside of the binding in gold, and inside the book printed in black. The occurrence of such a peculiarity would point strongly to the probability of the printer having also been the binder, or at all events that the control of both processes was in the hands of the same master.
Although no Mediæval English bindings of the richer sort are now left, several of the simpler kind bound in leather still remain. Most of these are ornamented with impressions from small cameo stamps impressed in blind,—that is to say, without gold. Most of such bindings are bound in dark brown leather, either goatskin, corresponding to our morocco, or sheepskin, corresponding to our roan. Each of these old leathers is sound and fine in colour, and always brown; colour dyes for leather, except red, being a later, and probably hurtful, innovation.
The boards of these bindings, like those of the decorated kind, are of wood, sometimes thick, sometimes thin. The thick boards were made heavy, because many of the manuscripts were written on vellum, which is very curly, and the weight of the covers was useful in counteracting this defect. The thin boards were very carefully chosen, and must have been well seasoned, as they are very rarely indeed warped at all. In many instances stamps of the monasteries at which they were made are impressed on these boards, and this is a sign of the careful manner in which even the smallest details concerning books was superintended. Berthelet’s boards are always of cardboard or its equivalent, and although wooden boards are often found at a subsequent time to this, they may as a rule be considered to have gone out of universal use here about the end of the fifteenth century.
The reputed oldest specimen of all the English bookbindings is bound in red leather, possibly deerskin; it is known as “St. Cuthbert’s Gospels,” and was found, A. D. 1105, in the tomb of St. Cuthbert when it was opened. St. Cuthbert died A. D. 687, and the book is supposed to have been buried with him. It contains the Gospel of St. John, written on vellum, and is now treasured at Stonyhurst College. The volume is in such a remarkable state of preservation, both outside and inside, that a certain amount of discredit attaches to the legend of its great antiquity. It is bound in thin boards of limewood, covered with red leather, curiously worked and coloured. The upper cover bears a decorative rectangular panel, the central portion of which, nearly square, has a symmetrical foliated curve of double-S form, repoussé, and showing slight traces of colour; above and below this are two long panels in which are drawn free-hand scrolls of Anglo-Saxon character, deeply lined. These scrolls are painted blue and yellow. The under side is simply ornamented with fillets. The design of this binding is unquestionably very old, and may fittingly be referred to about the date of St. Cuthbert’s death. Mr. E. Gordon Duff, however, inclines to the view that it is not actually the original binding, but is a copy of about the twelfth or thirteenth century. Even if it were made at the latest date attributed to it, it is still the earliest existing English book bound in red leather, as well as the only one decorated in the true style of Anglo-Saxon art.
Another early English book of great interest is a Latin Psalter of the eleventh century, in its original binding of thick oaken boards covered with brown leather. On each side is a sunk panel, and in one of these is a copper gilt figure of our Lord in the attitude of the crucifixion. The corners and clasp are of thin brass stamped with patterns, and are most likely of later date than the rest of the binding. A very interesting point about this book is, that it was used as the official coronation oath-book by all the English sovereigns from Henry I. to Henry VII.; it formerly belonged to the Exchequer, and was subsequently the property of the Marquis of Buckingham, who kept it in his beautiful library at Stowe; it is now in the British Museum.
With the exception of these two instances, all the English books bound in leather before the time of Thomas Berthelet are ornamented, if at all, with blind-stamped work only. In the cutting of stamps for this form of decoration, as well as in the designing of them, English artists in the twelfth century particularly are considered to have been superexcellent. The subject has been most ably and lucidly considered by Mr. James Weale, lately Art Librarian at the South Kensington Museum. He finds that such work was produced especially at Durham, Winchester, Oxford, and London, from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, after which there was such a marked irruption of foreign binders and foreign stamps that the English work became obscured, and on its recovery was of an entirely different character. But it is now generally conceded that these early English blind-tooled leather bindings are indeed the finest of the kind made anywhere.
The Winchester Domesday Book of the twelfth century, now belonging to the Society of Antiquaries of London, is a charming and typical specimen of this work; it is bound in dark brown goatskin, and ornamented with impressions in blind from beautifully cut small cameo stamps. The main scheme of the decoration is two large circles, one above the other, enclosed within a rectangular panel. The circles as well as the lines of the panel are curiously made up of successive impressions of small stamps. Those used in the circles are cut in such a manner that they can be used either separately or in combination. Used together, of course, certain stamps will only combine properly to form a circle of a particular
PLATE IV.