LEGEND WRITTEN ON THE EDGES OF A VOLUME OF SIXTEENTH-CENTURY TRACTS. BOUND IN RED SATIN FOR HENRY VIII.
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circumference, as they are designed in short segments of circles, drop shaped, or in lozenge shapes, smaller at the base than at the top. It must be noted that the use of stamps cut in such a manner as to combine easily in circular forms is a characteristic of early English work. This circle, differently produced, however, will presently be seen again in Berthelet’s designs, and it reappeared also in the seventeenth century on much of the remarkable work done on leather as well as on velvet, at the very interesting establishment founded at Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire by Nicholas Ferrar. Parts of circles are sometimes, but not often, found on the bindings made for Jean Grolier during the first half of the sixteenth century, but it is very seldom that the circle itself occurs as an integral part of the design on bookbindings. The circle as originally used in the artistic ornamentation of sculptures, goldsmiths’ work, and the arts generally was probably a sun-sign. I fear bookbinding is not old enough to come under this ancient art influence very strongly; but it is just possible that the artists who designed the ornamentation of the leather covers of several of the splendid bindings made in England in Mediæval times, based largely upon the circle, and who cut their stamps so as easily to produce circles, may have been unconsciously following out the lines of thought inherited by them from artistic ancestors imbued with the ancient traditions. Crosses as well as circles are found sometimes on early leather bindings, but not in English work, and with these two exceptions I do not think any of the ancient symbols are represented in this particular line of art.
On the introduction of printing into England in the fifteenth century, the rich Mediæval bindings very rapidly became things of the past. The gap between them and the simple blind-stamped leather which rapidly superseded them was, however, filled to some extent by the production of very ornamental bindings in velvet and satin. These covers are mounted with bosses and clasps of precious metals and enamels, or embroidered in gold and ornamented with pearls. Several references and notes concerning such bindings occur in contemporary official documents, but no actual specimens now exist earlier than the time of Henry VII., but that king has left us several splendid examples.
Until Henry VIII. had his own royal binders, it is likely that all the early printers bound only their own work; but naturally a printer and binder holding an appointment as royal binder would be sometimes expected to bind other miscellaneous books, and instances of this are not only found in Berthelet’s account, given below, but amongst the books bound by him there are some which were printed abroad and others which are collections of tracts, etc., all of which were bound for King Henry VIII. or his immediate successors.
The royal heraldry at the time Berthelet made his bindings was simple and dignified; first and fourth were the three fleurs-de-lys of France; second and third, the three lions of England. From William the Conqueror until Henry II., the royal coat of England probably consisted of two lions passant guardant in pale. Henry II., however, on his marriage with Eleanor, daughter of William V., Duke of Aquitaine and Guienne, incorporated the coat of that potentate, a single leopard, with his own, but as he probably considered the conjunction of this animal with those already on his coat might not be conducive to peace, he turned the leopard into a similar lion and added it to the others, and from that time the coat of arms of England has been “gules, three lions passant guardant in pale, or.” The coat of France, “azure, semé de fleurs-de-lys, or,” was adopted by Edward III., in the fourteenth year of his reign, together with the title of King of France, asserting his right to the coat and the title by virtue of his mother, Isabel, daughter of Philip IV. At first Edward placed the French coat in the second and third places of his shield, but presently gave it the places of honour, first and fourth, in consequence of a remonstrance from the French king. Edward’s grandson, Richard II., married, as his second wife, Isabel, daughter of Charles VI. of France, who changed his coat, “semé de fleurs-de-lys,” to one having only three fleurs-de-lys. Richard altered the French coat on his shield in accordance with this change, and this became the royal coat of arms of England until the accession of James I. With regard to the supporters which are found on some of Berthelet’s bindings, they are only the dragon and the greyhound. The dragon is the red dragon of the last of the British kings, Cadwallader, from whom Henry VII. claimed descent, and in remembrance of whom he bore it as a supporter, as did all our Tudor sovereigns. This, however, is only one explanation, as it appears that a very similar badge was previously borne by Henry III., Edward I., and Edward III. The greyhound was also one of Henry VII.’s supporters, and is found on several of his bindings; it was used by Henry VIII. until about 1528, when he substituted a lion and changed the sides. This greyhound was borne by Henry VII. by a double right, partly by reason of his own descent from the Earls of Somerset, whose badge it was, and also by right of his wife through the Nevilles.
The badges found on Berthelet’s bindings are the portcullis, used by all the Tudors in remembrance of the castle of the Beauforts in Anjou, where Henry VII.’s maternal grandfather was born; the double rose, red and white, used first by the Lancastrian Henry VII. on his marriage with Elizabeth of York, as a symbol of the union of the two rival houses; the fleur-de-lys, doubtless taken as one of the bearings from the French coat of arms; and the daisy, borne in remembrance of Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII. All these are found on bindings made by Berthelet, sometimes singly and sometimes in combination on one binding.
Henry VII. was the first English king who attempted to form a library of his own, and besides manuscripts, he possessed a very fine collection of splendid volumes printed by Antoine Verard at Paris. These books are now part of the old Royal Library in the British Museum, and since they have been there they have all been rebound in velvet, which may probably be taken as some sign that they were originally bound in that material; and this is likely enough, as all the bindings still existing that belonged to this king are bound in it. Some of these beautiful bindings are now in the library at Westminster Abbey, but the finest example of any of them is in the British Museum.
During the reign of Henry VIII. some large heraldic panel stamps bearing the royal coat of arms were made here, probably by Dutch workmen, as they have characteristics of foreign workmanship. These stamps are often considered royal, but it is doubtful whether they ever were so. Two of them bear the royal coat of arms as used by Henry VII. and Henry VIII. One shows the royal coat, crowned, with supporters, stars, and a few flowers, and at the top the sun in glory and a half-moon with a face in profile, the arms of the City of London, and the cross of St. George; the other, a handsomer design, has likewise the royal coat of arms, crowned, with supporters, but at the top there are two angels carrying scrolls, and having between them a large double rose, while below are two portcullises, depending from the lower edge of the shield by chains. Two other panel stamps belonging to this series show the coats of arms of Queen Katharine of Aragon and Queen Anne Boleyn, and these have large shields, crowned, and supported by angels, with a ground on which are several flower sprays.