CHAPTER VII
THE BOOK-PLATES OF FRANCE AND OTHER COUNTRIES
France, so far as a generally descriptive account of her book-plates is concerned, is certainly more fortunate than her neighbour Germany. French book-plates received attention, in the shape of a capital work upon them, before those of any other country were similarly honoured. M. Poulet Malassis's Les Ex libris Français made its first appearance in 1874, and bears evident testimony to the fact that the author had for many years previously made an attentive study of his native book-plates.
Since the appearance of M. Poulet Malassis's work, book-plate collecting in France, as well as in other countries, has been vigorously carried on, and earlier examples of dated French book-plates than those then known have come to light. The most ancient of these is one dated 1574 (the same year, it will be noted, as that of the plate of Sir Nicholas Bacon), but it is simply typographical, having no kind of design whatever. It reads: 'Ex bibliotheca Caroli Albosii E. Eduensis. Ex labore quies.' No Armorial book-plate bearing an engraved date appears in France until thirty-seven years later, when we, at last, meet with that of Alexandre Bouchart, Vicomte de Blosséville, engraved by Léonard Gaultier, and, in the copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale, dated 1611. A variety of this book-plate, undated, unsigned, and probably not by the same hand, exists in the collection of Sir Wollaston Franks. The field in the Bouchart arms is gules, though the lines shown in the engraving of the undated plate would, according to the present system, represent it as azure (see remarks on this point at [p. 22]). After the Bouchart book-plate, we have, in 1613, that of Melchior de la Vallée, Canon of Nancy, given by M. Poulet Malassis as dated in 1611, and then, in 1644, a roughly-executed anonymous book-plate signed 'Raigniauld Riomi, 1644.' The arms are untinctured, and leaflike mantling falling from the helmet surrounds the shield; there is no crest. Raigniauld—or, as the modern spelling of the name is, Regnault—is not a known engraver. Riomi is an old-fashioned town of Auvergne.
Other French book-plates of the seventeenth century, both dated and undated, exist; but France is undeniably behind Germany both in the number of her early book-plates and in their beauty; for instance, we do not in France find those numerous book-plates of ecclesiastical corporations which so much swell the list of early German examples. The subject of French ecclesiastical book-plates has, indeed, received special treatment from Father Ingold, himself a French ecclesiastic; and he is compelled to admit that such book-plates are not numerous and not ancient. The old way seems to have been for the monastic official in charge of the convent library to inscribe each volume with some appropriate inscription. These are in themselves interesting; but book-plate lovers must regret the existence of the fashion. The earliest French ecclesiastical book-plates belong to the middle of the eighteenth century, and, like the 1574 example already noticed, they are mere typographical labels, possessing little more artistic merit than is usually displayed in a post-mark.
With regard, however, to the book-plates of ecclesiastical individuals, the case is different; some of them engraved during the seventeenth century are ambitious and interesting. A particularly quaint example is found in the book-plate which an Annecy engraver, named Sinton, executed for Charles de Sales, the energetic labourer in the cause of religion, brother of St. Francis de Sales, and his successor in the Bishopric of Annecy. Lord De Tabley thus describes the book-plate:—'The family arms are shown in a shield, which appears very gigantic, in a frame of heavy curves, which is set in the centre of a huge sideboard-like monumental structure. On the top ledges of this, two full-grown, long-skirted angels, seated right and left, uphold the episcopal hat (with its usual knotted ropes and tassels) in air above the escutcheon.
'At the base of the structure, to the right, appears a figure of St. Francis de Sales, seated, holding an olive branch in one hand, while beneath his other arm is a profuse cluster of fruit. To the left, also seated, is a portrait of St. Jane Frances De Chantal, holding a palm-branch, also with fruit beneath her other arm. Each portrait is realistic, and not in the least flattered. Between them is a medallion bearing the crossed papal keys.'
The probable date of this very curious book-plate is 1642. It appears earlier, but this may be accounted for by the fact that the work is provincial. Students will do well to remember that provincially executed book-plates, English or foreign, are often misleading in this respect.