"All I have to do is to observe, that this book (which the more I have look'd upon the more I have always admired) hath two thick boards, each about an inch in thickness, for its covers, and that they were joined with the book by large leather thongs, which boards are now by length of time become very loose. Tho' I have seen a vast number of old books and oftentimes examined their covers, yet I do not remember I ever saw boards upon any of them of so great thickness as these. This was the manner of Binding, it seems, of those times, especially if the books were books of extraordinary value, as this is. 'Twas usual to cut Letters in the Covers, and such letters were the better preserv'd by having them placed in some hollow part, which might easily be made if the boards were pretty thick. I suppose, therefore, that even the copies of Gregory's Pastoral that were given to Cathedral Churches by King Alfred had such thick covers also, that these by the Æstals might be fix'd the better. What makes me think so is, that the outside of one of the covers of this book is made hollow, and there is a rude sort of figure upon a brass plate that is fastened within the hollow part, which figure I take to have been designed for the Virgin Mary, to whom the Abbey was dedicated. Over it there was once fastened another much larger plate, as is plain from the Nails that fixed it and from some other small indications now extant,—and this 'tis likely was of silver, and perhaps there was an anathema against the Person that should presume to alienate it, engraved upon it—together with the Name of the Person (who it may be was Roger Poure) that was the Donor of the Book. This will make it to have been nothing else but an Æstal, such a one (tho' not so valuable) as was fastened upon Gregory's Pastoral. But this I leave to every man's judgment."[†]
At a later period we find on the binding of books gold and silver ornaments of very beautiful design, enclosing precious stones of great variety; carved ivory tablets let into framework of carved oak; rich-coloured velvets, edged with morocco, with bosses, clasps, and corners of solid gold; white vellum stamped in gold and blind tooling; and morocco and calf covers inlaid with various colours and adorned in every conceivable way. This was at the end of the fourteenth and in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when the love of Art was universal, in the land where Michael Angelo, and Raffaelle, and Da Vinci produced their great works, and where, under the auspices of the Medici, the Art of Bookbinding as well as all other arts was encouraged.
Mr. Dibdin, in his "Bibliographical Decameron," to which we are much indebted, has given an account of the library of Corvinus, King of Hungary, who died at Buda about the year 1490. This library consisted of about thirty thousand volumes, mostly manuscripts of the Greek and Latin poets and historians, and was contained in large vaulted galleries, in which, among other works of art, were two fountains, one of marble and the other of silver. The binding of the books were mostly of brocade, protected with bosses and clasps of gold and silver; and these, alas! were the subsequent cause of the almost entire destruction of the library; for, when the city of Buda was taken by assault, in 1526, the Turkish soldiers tore the precious volumes from their covers for the sake of the ornaments that were upon them.
The general use of calf and morocco binding seems to have followed the invention of printing. There are many printed books, still in good preservation, that were bound in calf with oaken boards at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries. These are mostly stamped with gold or blind tools. The earliest of these tools generally represent figures, such as Christ, St. Paul, the Virgin, coats of arms, legends, and monograms, according to the contents of the book. Afterward attempts were made to produce pictures, but these were necessarily bad.
In England, the earliest binding with ornament was about the time of Henry VII., when we find the royal arms supported by two angels; the heraldic badge of the double rose and pomegranate, the fleur-de-lys, the portcullis, the emblems of the evangelists, and small ornaments of grotesque animals. There are in the British Museum and in the Record Office many English bindings which undoubtedly were executed in the time of Henry VII.
In the reign of Henry VIII., about 1538, Grafton, the printer, undertook to print the great Bible. Not finding sufficient men or types in England, he went to Paris and there commenced it. He had not, however, proceeded far, before he was stopped in the progress of this heretical book; and he then took over to England the presses, type, printers, and bookbinders, and finished the work in 1539. The edition consisted of 2500 copies, one of which was set up in every church in England, secured to a desk by a chain. Within three years there were seven distinct editions of this work; which, supposing each edition to consist of the same number of copies as the first, would amount to 17,500 folio volumes. The binding, therefore, of so great a number of this book would alone give some importance to the Art of Bookbinding at that period. We know that Henry VIII. had many splendid volumes bound in velvet with gold bosses and ornaments. In his reign the stamping of tools in gold appears to have been first introduced in England; and some beautiful rolls, probably from Holbein's designs, were used as well on the sides as on the gilded edges of books still in existence.
In the reign of Elizabeth some exquisite bindings were done in embroidery. The queen herself used to work covers with gold and silver thread, spangles, and coloured silk, for Bibles and other devotional books which she presented to her maids of honour and her friends. From these brilliant external decorations, many of them entirely inappropriate for a book, we turn to a purer taste, the exercise of which will be found to reside within the peculiar limits of the Bookbinder's Art.
We return to Continental binding, and pass to the time of the ever-famous Jean Grolier. This nobleman was the first to introduce lettering upon the back; and he seems to have taken especial delight in having the sides of his books ornamented with very beautiful and elaborate patterns, said to have been drawn by his own hand. Many of them exist at the present day, either original Groliers or copies. Books from his library are eagerly sought for. All Grolier's books were bound in smooth morocco or calf, the pattern being formed of intersected line-work, finished by hand with a fine one-line fillet and gouges to correspond, with the occasional introduction of a conventional flower. Sometimes also the patterns were inlaid with morocco of different colours; and it is our opinion that no style of book-ornamentation has been since introduced that is worthy of entirely superseding the Grolier, a specimen of which will be given when treating on style. Very many of the Chevalier's volumes have the Latin inscription "Johanni Grolierii et amicorum" at the bottom, signifying that Grolier wished his books to be used by his friends as well as by himself. Connoisseurs rejoice when they meet with a work from the library of Maioli, a disciple of Grolier, or those of Diana of Poictiers, the mistress of Henry II., and whose books, in consequence of her influence and taste, are elegantly bound. It is supposed that the bindings for Diana of Poictiers were designed by Petit Bernard. They were bound in morocco of all colours, and usually ornamented with the emblems of the crescent and bow and quiver.
Among the earliest French binders must be mentioned Padeloup, Derome, and De Seuil. Pope celebrates De Seuil in one of his poems. Derome's plain morocco bindings are excellent; they are sewn on raised bands, are firm and compact, and the solid gilding upon the edges is worthy of commendation; his dentelle borders are fine, but unfortunately he was not careful of the trenchant steel. Padeloup's tooling or ornaments consist chiefly of small dots, and the forms he invented are elegant. When met with in good state, they look like gold lace upon the sides and backs of the books.