1563 an original manuscript shows him much occupied with finance at over
eighty-four years of age; but his passion for bindings had cooled down,
for few books signed with his name are found the manufacture of which
could descend to the son of Henri II. After great trials, after having
seen Semblançay suffer at Montfaucon, John Lallemand beheaded, and
himself having come nearly to losing life and fortune at one blow,
Grolier passed away quietly in his house, having collected most of the
fine books of the time and many curious medals. Christopher de Thou, his
friend and _confrère_ in the love of books, had saved his reputation
before the Parliament of Paris. After his death his library was
transported to the Hotel de Vic, and from there dispersed in 1675, a
hundred years after.
Thus from Italian art came French binding, still remaining original. The
kings did not fail to follow the movement, and even to anticipate it,
thanks to the means at their disposal. We have seen Francis I. at work
with the energy of an artisan at least; but Geoffroy Tory was his
principal inspirer, and who knows but that he was the chief operative
for the prince, as for the great financier?
[Illustration: Fig. 108.--Binding for Francis I., with the arms of
France and the salamander.]
[Illustration: Fig. 109.--Mark of Guyot Marchant, printer and
bookbinder. He published the _Danse Macabre_ of 1485.]
We have said that Louis XII. knew nothing of fine bindings. During his
travels in Italy he had received presentation copies of magnificently
covered books, and among others that of _Faustus Andrelinus_, that was
bound in calf in honour of the King. He, who was so little expert in
fine arts, purchased the entire library of the Sire de la Gruthuse,
and substituted his own emblems for those of the high and mighty lord.
Francis I., with innate sentiment for masterpieces and the powerful
protection he had given them, did not allow the experiments of Grolier
to pass unnoticed. The King did not desire to be behind the treasurer,
and the workmen were put to the task. He adopted the salamander, which
emblem he used on his castles and furniture and the liveries of his
people; he lavished it also on the sides of his books. On the side the
"F" is often seen crowned, then the emblem of France and the collar of
St. Michael. In the binding of which a facsimile is here given, Geoffroy
Tory has singularly inspired the gilder, if he did not himself make the
design. For it must not be thought that this work is done at a single
blow by means of an engraved plate or a block. On the contrary, every
line is impressed by the hot tool that the workman applies by hand to
the gold laid on in advance, making it, so to speak, enter into the skin
or morocco. There is the art; blocks serve only for commercial bindings,
quickly impressed and intended for ordinary purchasers.
[Illustration: Fig. 110.--Binding for Henri II., with the "H" and
crescents.]
Under the reign of Francis I. the binders were the booksellers, as
Verard and Vostre were. The King was ordinarily served by a publisher
named Pierre Roffet, and he frequently figures in accounts that have
been preserved. Roffet not only bound, but it appears that he rebound
books to patterns which the King desired. Philip Lenoir and Guyot
Marchant were also royal workmen. The latter, whose mark is here
reproduced, frequently added to it the saints Crispin and Crispinian,
patrons of the leather-dressers, who prepared the leather for the
binder.
[Illustration: Fig. 111.--Binding for Henri II. (Mazarine Library)]
The discoveries of Grolier did not allow the binders much time to be
idle. Thousands of volumes were then destroyed to make the boards for
sides. From this many discoveries are made in our days by pulling to
pieces sixteenth century work, unknown playing cards, and early printed
works. To mention only one example, twenty leaves of the "Perspective"
of Viator were discovered in the National Library of Paris. The board
thus formed was covered indifferently with sheepskin, parchment, calf,
morocco, or goatskin; the books were sewn on raised or sunk bands,
according to the owner's taste; the edges were gilt, sometimes
gauffered, and designs often impressed upon them to match those of the
sides. In large folios wooden boards were still used, more solid, and
protected from rubbing by nails in relief. But the inside of the cover
was as yet only covered with paper. Leather linings were very uncommon.
The reign of Henri II. increased yet more the importance of bindings; it
was the time when Grolier collected, and clever artists came from all
parts. Geoffroy Tory had given the best models for letters and
interlacings. The Queen, Catherine, derived from her parents the taste
for decoration in gold and colours, and patronised the artists called by
her from the court of Florence; and the favourite, Diane de Poitiers,
Duchess of Valentinois, rivalled her in luxury and expenditure. Henri
II. in the decoration of his castles, as well as his books, introduced
equivocal emblems, of which the signification may be doubtful, but those
of his mistress may be recognised, not those of the legitimate Queen. He
interlaced two reversed "D's" by an "H," in the form shown in the border
on the preceding page. Strictly speaking, we ought to see there two
"C's" back to back; but as we find the "D" on all the bindings
displaying the arms of Diana, there can be no doubt, and Queen Catherine
doubted less than anybody. Other emblems of Diana are to be found in the
arcs and crescents that are plentifully displayed. The library of Diana
was large, owing to the King not hesitating to take valuable books from
the public collections for her. Two centuries after her death it was
dispersed, and the greater part of the books belonging to the national
collections were restored on the deaths of those who then purchased
them. Hence the largest number of the bindings of Henri II. and Diana of
Poitiers will be found in the National Library of Paris.
[Illustration: Fig. 112.--Italian binding for Catherine de Medicis, with
the initials "C. C."]
Queen Catherine also had special patterns with a monogram identical with
the double "D" mentioned above, but the branches of the "C" were a
little longer than the branches of the "H;" she also used a "K" on the
sides of her books. The specimen which we reproduce is a purely Italian
work.
From kings and queens the fashion passed to the great lords, it having
come to the kings and queens from a private individual. The Constable
Anne de Montmorency adorned his bindings with a cross and spread
eagle. Among the amateurs of binding of the sixteenth, seventeenth,
and eighteenth centuries using distinctive marks, we may mention
Philip Desportes, the poet, who used two [phi] enlaced, as did also
Superintendent Fouquet in the seventeenth century. The brothers Dupuy
adopted the double [delta], arranged as a star. Colbert had a curled
snake (_coluber_ for Colbert!), the Gondis two masses of arms, Madame
de Pompadour three towers, etc. Fouquet beside the [phi] used a
squirrel on some of his bindings.
[Illustration: Fig. 113.--Binding with the arms of Mansfeldt, with
_azure_ scroll work, from the Didot collection.]
In Germany, Count Mansfeldt adopted the ornamental style with arms, of
which a specimen is here given; and Marc Laurin de Watervliet also
decorated and dedicated his books to his friends, using the motto
"Virtus in arduo." Among the lords of the French courts who favoured
polychromatic ornament and bold compositions were the young Valois,
Louis de Sainte Maure, Marquis of Nesle, and Henri de Guise, called
"Le balafré." Charles IX. had his emblems and devices, the double "C"
crowned the legend "Pietate et justitia," but his brother, Henri III.,
loved the decoration of books more than he did. The passion of the King
for miniatures which he cut out of books is known; this passion for
golden things he repeated on bindings, for which he chose special
designs. Henri III. was an amateur of dances of death; he visited
cemeteries, attended funerals, and took a death's-head for his emblem.
This emblem was not his invention; long before him Marot had addressed
an epigram to a lady in which he brought love and death into close
conjunction. However that may be, the King chose skeletons and
penitents' tears to ornament his books. He also tolerated diamonds,
although he absolutely prohibited them in the clothing of ladies or
fixed the number _pro rata_ with the rank of the authorised person.
There was in this prince a singular mixture of taste and artistic
acuteness by the side of a mania or hallucination which was reflected on
the most intimate objects of his apparel or of his furniture. Thus if we
find, at the end of the sixteenth century, a death's-head on the sides
or the back of a volume, the binding is of the period of Henri III.
The binders of his time are known by the mention that is made of them in
the royal accounts; the Eves were the most celebrated among all of them.
Nicholas Eve was charged with the binding of the Statutes of the Order
of St. Esprit, with which the King gratified his friends. Mention of
this work is found in the Clairambault manuscripts, where we read, "To
Nicholas Eve, washer and binder of books and bookseller to the King,
forty-seven and a half escus for washing, gilding, and squaring the
edges of forty-two books of statutes and ordinances of the Order, bound
and covered with orange Levant morocco, enriched on one side with the
arms of the King, fully gilt, and on the other of France and Poland,
with monograms at the four corners, and the rest flames, with orange and
blue ribbons," etc.
[Illustration: Fig. 114.--Sixteenth century binding, called _à la
fanfare_. In the Dutuit collection.]
Louise de Lorraine, wife of Henri III., counted for little in the life
of her husband; nevertheless she had a certain number of books decorated
with their united escutcheons.
The bindings attributed to Eve were decorated all over the sides and
back with interlacing patterns of geometrical character, the spaces
between the parallel lines and in the middle of the figures left at
first quite blank, but afterwards filled in with palm branches and
wreaths of foliage; to these delicate and elaborate yet brilliant
toolings have been given the name of bindings _à la fanfare_. This
designation requires explanation, and is a good example of the grotesque
style adopted by modern amateurs in their appellations.
[Illustration: Fig. 115.--Le Gascon binding.]
The fine work of that time prepared for the coming in the seventeenth
century--about 1620--of the works of Le Gascon, or at least for the
artist with whom in our days are connected the works of the reign of
Louis XIII. Under Henri IV. the fleur-de-lys occupied most of the covers
of the royal books, from vellum to Levant morocco; works in this class
had nothing very remarkable. The first years of Louis XIII. revealed a
new process, inspired by the Eves. Le Gascon embroidered delightfully on
the fanfare ornaments; showing the fibres of the leaves, he made a new
kind of ornament, consisting of minute gold dots elaborated into lines
and curves of singular brilliancy and elegance. Of this style, called
_pointillé_, we give a specimen from the collection of M. Dutuit. The
fashion had arrived all at once; lace, banished from clothing by severe
edicts, found a refuge on the covering of books.
The times were hard then for binders; they were constrained to live in
the university and to employ only its workmen. A binder was never his
own gilder; he employed the _gaufreurs_ of shoe-leather, more expert and
bolder, to gild his leather. Among these artisans was one named
Pigorreau, whom the edict found living in the midst of publishers and
working for them; he was compelled to choose either to remain bootmaker
or become bookseller; he chose the latter, against the syndics of the
trade, against every one, and he made enemies for himself. He revenged
himself by turning the masters into ridicule in a placard.
[Illustration: Fig. 116.--Le Gascon binding for Cardinal Mazarin.]
Le Gascon was probably the assumed name of an artist in this style. The
_Guirlande de Julie_, worked by him for Mademoiselle de Rambouillet,
gave him great honour in the special circle of this little literary
court. It was the fashion then for poor authors to put a fine covering
on their works and to offer them to the great for their own profit.
Tallement des Reaux notably signalises the poet Laserre, who displayed
his luxury in irreproachable bindings. And then the farmers of the
revenue, successors of Grolier in financial trusts, formed libraries for
pure fashion, never opening the volumes covered for them in sumptuous
attire. If we may believe Sauval, author of the _Antiquités de Paris_,
they went further, and on covers without books inscribed imaginary
titles and fantastic squibs to mislead their visitors. The bookcase
being carefully closed, it was difficult to discover the imposition.
Sauval writes, "In place of books, they are content with covers of
Levant morocco, on the backs of which, in gold letters, are inscribed
the names of the most celebrated authors. A binder of the university
assured me that not long since he and his _confrères_ had made them for
a single financier to the amount of 10,000 crowns!"
The works of Le Gascon will be found more among great personages than
with the so-called collectors, which gives value to their grace and
charm. The King's brother Gaston possessed them, then Mazarin, an
example from whose library is here reproduced. On this binding Le Gascon
worked gilt compartments and elaborate arabesques; in the middle of the
sides are the arms of the Cardinal and his pretentious device: "Arma
Julii ornant Franciam!"--"The arms of Jules the ornament of France!" In
spite of the profusion of subjects, nothing could better please the eye
or indicate a man of taste.
But if Le Gascon be a legendary personage, he had an imitator or rival,
very near to him, named Florimond Badier, whose works had at least the
advantage of being signed. At the bottom of the inside cover of an
inlaid morocco binding in the National Library at Paris is the
inscription "Florimond Badier fec., inv." The analogy between this work
and those known as Le Gascon's is palpable; inside and outside, the
cover is stippled with small tools (_au petit fer_) in the same manner.
Florimond Badier was not appointed bookseller until 1645, and so could
not have composed earlier bindings attributed to Le Gascon, but this
resemblance of style evidences the existence of a Parisian school, the
adepts of which copied one another, as they do nowadays.
The work was soon simplified; pallets and wheel-shaped tools were
invented to produce that which was improperly called _dentelle_; this
mechanical work was done by a wheel-shaped tool, previously heated, on
gold in sized leaves, on which it impressed its projections.
With Louis XIV. the passion for gilding increased. Charming festoons
were designed, but they were soon abused, and inundated the libraries.
On the sides were seen rising suns, arms, and golden garlands. Cramoisy
directed the royal bindings, the King having devoted large sums to the
purchase of Levant leathers. In 1666 the Director of Works ordered red
moroccos; in 1667 he received twenty-two dozen skins, amounting, with
the expenses of transport, to 1,020 livres tournois. Successive supplies
were made, and were used for the royal library, sixty-nine dozen in
1667, forty-six dozen in 1668, and three hundred and thirty-three dozen
in 1670, costing the King more than 12,000 livres. On these admirably
dressed skins, which, in spite of incessant use, still remain now as in
their first days, the King caused to be applied, according to the size,
tools of borders, having in the middle the arms of France, with the
collar of St. Esprit.
Among the binders mentioned in the very useful work of M. J. J. Guiffrey
on the expenditure of Louis XIV., we find Gilles Dubois, who died before
1670; Levasseur, binder of Huet, Bishop of Avranches; La Tour, Mérins or
Mérius, who died before 1676; and also Ruette, the reputed inventor of
marbled paper for fly-leaves of books: to him the bindings of the
Chancellor de Séguier, with their ornament of the golden fleece, and of
Madame de Séguier, are attributed. It was probably these men who
decorated the books of the brothers Dupuy, Fouquet, and Colbert,
marvellous works of solidity, if not always of elegance, which have
resisted all assaults. Unhappily, in many instances the mechanical
_dentelle_ overburdened the work, and gave it a commonplace regularity.
In the Condé, Colbert, and perhaps even Madame de Longueville's
collections, there are many specimens of this kind with two or three
filleted borders.
We have come to an epoch when the difficulties resulting from confusion
between the booksellers' and binders' trades began to be understood. The
revocation of the Edict of Nantes had implicitly prepared a crowd of
measures and rules in all branches of national industry. It was a good
occasion to prevent the artisans of binding unduly parading themselves
as booksellers and selling merchandise of which they understood nothing;
Louis XIV. interfered, and separated the two communities. The binders
then became the _relieurs-doreurs_ of books; they had their own
organisation, but remained subject to the university; the heads of the
fraternity were called the "guards." The principal arrangements of the
regulation of 1749 were: the members of the corporation had the sole
right to bind books, from the elegant volume to registers of blank
paper. Five years of apprenticeship and three of companionship were
necessary to obtain the brevet of freedom and to hold a shop. Moreover,
it was indispensable to read and write. One regulation ordained that
the workman should be "able to bind and ornament ordinary books or
others, to render them perfect and entire, to sew the sheets at most two
together with thread and real bands, with joints of parchment, and not
paper, and in case of infraction the said books were to be remade at the
expense of the offender, who was besides condemned to a penalty of
thirty livres for each volume." Their establishment was confined to the
quarter from the Rue St. André des Arts to the Place Maubert; they
regulated the sale of calfskin and of tools; in a word, they were
surrounded by precautions by which the production remained always under
the supervision of the masters and completely satisfied the client. This
calculating policy was, in fact, a close imitation of the royal
ordinance of 1686.
[Illustration: Fig. 117.--Mosaic binding of the eighteenth century for
the _Spaccio de la Bestia Trionfante_.]
The mosaic bindings used from the end of the reign of Louis XIV. were an
application of pared leathers of colours different from the background,
pasted on to the side. The binders of the regency composed a great
number, attributed now to Pasdeloup, as all the crayons of the sixteenth
century are called Clouets, and all the panels on wood Holbeins. It is
not that there was great originality in these works, or a particular
art; more often the workman did no more than transcribe Le Gascon or Eve
or the older binders, and accommodated the processes of these artists to
the fashion of his time. In this style we may cite the _Spaccio de la
Bestia Trionfante_, printed at Paris 1584, for which the binder designed
a cover of doubtful taste and, above all, an undeniable want of
proportion. The tendency was then to flowers occupying three-fourths
of the page, to compartments too large, to open pomegranates, like the
_Spaccio_ here reproduced. If Pasdeloup had discovered these mediocre
combinations, he could not be proclaimed the regenerator of a fallen
art. The bastard style of these works may be compared to their mosaics,
constructed of pieces; it is a little of everything, and together it is
nothing. However, in the midst of the quantity of mediocre things, some
pleasing decoration is from time to time met with; the design of a
volume with the arms of the Regent and his wife, Mademoiselle de Blois,
wants neither elegance nor taste; without being perfection, it has
better proportion and balance.
[Illustration: Fig. 118.--Mosaic binding of the eighteenth century, with
the arms of the Regent. M. Morgand's collection.]
We should, however, hesitate to give names to all these works. Besides
Pasdeloup, there were the Deromes, abandoning a little the mosaics,
devising flowers and _dentelles_ in combination, and no longer the
simple products of the fillet. They formed a dynasty; and if the
Pasdeloups were at least twelve, there were fourteen Deromes all
booksellers and binders from the reign of Louis XIV. The most celebrated
was James Anthony, who died in 1761.
Peter Paul Dubuisson was not only a binder; he was a designer. He
invented heraldic ornaments, and composed models of gilding tools, in
which his contemporaries emulated him. He was intimate with the delicate
vignettist Eisen, and the counsels of an artist of this value could not
but be useful to him. It is an extraordinary thing that in this world of
celebrated printers, amateur financiers, and notable painters and
engravers, not a single man can be met to give a real impulse to the
art of which we speak, and to prevent the dull continuance of
experiments on the whole so poor. Doubtless the _dentelles_ of Derome
had a certain air of gaiety, to which the books of the eighteenth
century accommodated themselves perfectly; the tools of Dubuisson
produce most pleasing designs; but the old, the great binders, had
altogether disappeared.
Besides, Derome massacred without pity the rarest works. He loved edges
very regularly cut, and he did not fail to hew down margins opposed to
his taste. He sawed books as well; that is to say, in place of sewing
the sheets on to projecting bands, he made a groove in the back, in
which the cord was embedded. The books have no resistance.
To these celebrated names of French binders of the eighteenth century we
may add Le Monnier, who worked for the Orleans princes; Tessier, his
successor; Laferté, who decorated the small volumes of the Duc de la
Vallière as Chamot covered the large ones; in 1766 Chamot was royal
binder. There was also Pierre Engerrand, then Biziaux, an original, who
worked for Madame de Pompadour and Beaumarchais. Boyet, or Boyer, worked
(1670-80) in the style of Le Gascon, with the same minute tooling, but
simpler in character. Duseuil put very elaborate and delicate tooling on
his covers from about 1710 to 1720.
The Revolution effaced many of the fine works which displayed the
symbols "of a royalty justly detested," and Mercier wrote certain wicked
little poems against binding. Lesné was the poet of bookbinding, and he
invented the process of plain calf without boards. Certainly from
Grolier to Lesné there were numerous changes, so numerous that, in
spite of the nude calf, it may be said that the art was nearly dead. In
our days it has a little recovered. Amateurs have found new names, and
often artists, to patronise: Trautz-Bauzonnet, Capé, Duru, Lortic,
Marius Michel, in France; Bedford, Rivière, Zaehnsdorf, Pratt, in
England; Matthews, Bradstreet, Smith, in the United States; and many
others. Unhappily, fortune does not permit every one to furnish his
library luxuriously; the true connoisseur searches rather for Groliers,
Eves, and Le Gascons, than concerns himself about modern workmanship.
Whatever may be its value, it is only fit to clothe the works of the
time. A book published by Lemerre and bound by Petit is in true
character, but a fifteenth or sixteenth century book passed under the
hands of Trautz-Bauzonnet himself will be very much like an ancient
enamel in a modern frame newly gilt.
Bookbinding in England has, with very few exceptions, never attained the
artistic excellence reached in France. From the earliest times to the
present day servile imitations of foreign work only are seen. The one
purely original English binder is Roger Payne, who from about 1770
worked for thirty or forty years in London, performing with his own
hands every stage of the work, even to cutting his own tools. The result
was good, solid work, with perfectly original and often very beautiful
decoration, appropriate to the character of the work itself. His
favourite style was drooping lines of leaf ornaments in the borders and
geometrical patterns in small tools. After him came Charles Lewis, who
was an artist in the true sense of the word, and, coming down to our own
time, Francis Bedford, who, never pretending to originality, copied the
best designs of the old French and Italian binders. His full calf books,
with handsomely tooled backs, are models of solidity and taste; and his
decorations on the sides of morocco-bound books are always in good
taste, and often of great elegance. The binders of the present day,
perhaps for lack of patronage, seem to have abandoned originality; and
although much excellent work is done, it is no more than a copy of the
Eves, Le Gascon, Derome, and the older artists.
Parallel with the luxurious bindings with which we have been exclusively
occupied, there has always been the commercial work, prepared in
advance. Liturgical works, above all, are sold in this form. Books in
the Grolier style or other grand personages were worked from a pattern
engraved in relief, leaving nothing to the caprice of the artist, by
being applied to the side by a press. This process is termed blocking.
Germany made use of this process principally; also Vostre, Verard, and
Tory employed the same means. Even the interlacings and the capricious
arabesques of Grolier were imitated by means of a fixed plate, parts of
which were finished by hand to make it appear a complete work of
imagination and handicraft.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER IX.
LIBRARIES.
Art, science, and literature took refuge in convents before the
invention of Printing, and libraries did not count many books. According
to daily wants, the monastery scribes copied the treatises lent by
neighbouring houses, and the collection was thus painfully made during
many centuries. Two or three hundred works constituted ordinary
collections; the powerful abbeys found in their staff the means of
enriching their libraries, as we have said, but they were the privileged
ones.
Excepting kings and some princes, few people possessed a library. The
great expense of transcription, the want of facility for procuring
originals, and the enormous price of manuscripts left no hope to
bibliophiles of moderate fortune. Typography, on the contrary, having
multiplied books and put at relatively modest prices reproductions
formerly inaccessible, private collections commenced. We have had
occasion to speak before of Grolier and Maioli; they were the most
illustrious, but not the only ones.
At first a public library was an unknown thing. The richest and the most
easily got together, that of the King of France, was private. Since
John the Good in France the acquisitions were numerous, and Gutenberg's
invention contributed to augment the stock of volumes everywhere.
Charles VIII. and Louis XII. found or took in their expeditions in
Italy, and were able to add to the original nucleus, many rare editions,
especially from the Sforzas at Pavia, who had marvels without number.
Brought together at Blois, under the care of John de Labarre, the royal
library did not yet occupy a very large space, in spite of its increase.
Under Charles V. the number of books was about a thousand; about 1500 or
1510 they were nearly doubled, and the printed books did not number more
than two hundred.
So restricted, the royal library travelled with the other treasures of
the Crown; Francis I. transported it from Blois to Fontainebleau, and
even parts of it to the Italian wars, as related above. In its new
quarters the royal collection, in spite of the successive accessions of
the books of John d'Angoulême, grandfather of the King, and of those of
the dukes of Orleans, counted but 1,781 manuscripts and a hundred and
nine printed books on the shelves. The King, ambitious in literature no
less than in arts, nominated an illustrious _savant_, Guillaume Budé, to
the office of master of his library; and this qualification was
maintained by his successors until the fall of the royal power.
With Budé commenced the system of continuous acquisitions. The treasury
was liberally opened to vendors of rarities. At this time the books,
placed upon their sides, one upon another, gave no idea of a modern
library, with its volumes ranged on end, having their titles between
the bands of the back. In speaking of Grolier, we remarked that the
sides of a binding alone had importance on account of their place on the
shelves; it was the same with Francis I.
Under Henri II. the Fontainebleau collection was somewhat pillaged for
Diana of Poitiers, but, as a corrective for this dilapidation, the King
adopted a measure, since preserved, which substituted for acquisitions a
regular and uninterrupted supply; this was the contribution by
publishers to the library of one bound copy on vellum of all the works
printed under privilege. The ordinance was made in 1556; the successors
of Henri II. had only this means of increasing the number of their
volumes, with the exception that Charles IX. expended a large sum in the
purchase of Grolier's collection of medals.
Such was the working of the royal library for about a half-century, but
the idea of making it public had not come. Diffused as was then the
passion for books, it had not yet been democratised to the point of
being understood by the people. Amateurs and lovers of reading formed
special collections in their houses, at times rivalling that of the
King. Then the fashion was no more to lay the books on their sides, but
they were now ranged to allow room for new acquisitions. Henri IV., who
had not his great-uncle's predilection for Fontainebleau, commanded the
removal to Paris of the books buried in the castle. He added to them
those of Catherine de Medicis coming from Marshal Strozzi; and as the
college of Clermont had become vacant by the dispersion of the Jesuits,
he lodged the library in 1599 in one of the rooms of that
establishment, under the care of James Augustus de Thou, master of the
library.
We now see the royal collection brought to Paris, which it has never
quitted; but before its definitive installation, before it was made
public, it passed through a century, during which additions were made,
purchases increased, and the number of manuscripts and printed books
augmented in enormous proportions. Henri IV. desired to place it near
the court, to avoid pillage and to have the chief librarian near to him.
The return of the Jesuits in 1604 upset the first establishment a
little; the college of Clermont was evacuated; the books were
transported to the Cordeliers and distributed in rooms on the ground and
first floors, whence the names of upper and lower libraries. There was a
mass of volumes very little used, for the public did not enjoy them, and
the King held them as his own; but the time was near when the collection
was to take a very serious step under the influence of the brothers
Dupuy in 1645, and afterwards of Jerome Bignon. Always shut up in the
incommodious chambers of the Cordeliers, the library contained 5,259
volumes, manuscript and printed, perhaps less than some private
libraries; after the Dupuys it had at least 10,329 printed books.
Mazarin was the first to comprehend the natural use of collections of
books: publicity. His private library, placed before 1651 in his
magnificent house in the Rue Richelieu, where later was definitively
lodged the royal library, was opened to readers every Tuesday, from
eight to eleven and two to five. Dispersed in 1651, at the fall of the
Cardinal, it was later reconstituted, and in less than ten years
afterwards the former minister was able to open it in its new quarters,
the College of the Four Nations, where it is still.
While the Mazarin library was administering liberally to the wants of
the public, that of the King remained closely shut up in the rooms of
the Cordeliers. Colbert, influenced by this state of things, offered two
houses in the Rue Vivienne to the King, where the books could find a
more convenient lodging, and allow room for increase. The removal was
made in 1666. The royal collection for fifty-five years was lodged only
a few steps from its final resting-place, the Hotel de Nevers. So was
called at the end of the seventeenth century the splendid mansion of
Mazarin, situated near the Porte de Richelieu, in the street of the same
name, whence his books had been previously torn and sold to all the
dealers. Divided into two parts at the death of the Cardinal in 1661,
the palace fell, one part to the Duc de Mazarin, the other to the Duc de
Nevers, his nephews. At first the King dreamed, under the advice of
Louvais, of acquiring the land in the neighbourhood of the Rue Vivienne
and of elevating a monument for his library, for the thought of putting
the Hotel de Nevers to this use had not then occurred to him; but the
Duc de Mazarin having alienated his part of the palace in favour of the
Company of the Indies, Abbé Bignon, then royal librarian, perceived the
part he could play from that fact.
Thanks to the administration of Colbert and the liberalities of the
King, the collection had been augmented threefold. At the time of the
removal to the Rue Vivienne, Nicolas Clément worked at the classifying
and cataloguing of 35,000 volumes. He distributed them into methodical
classes, and devoted nine years--1675 to 1684--to his work. But this
first unravelling was soon insufficient. Less than four years after, he
commenced a new inventory in twenty-one volumes, which occupied thirty
years, having been finished in the course of March, 1714. This time the
numbers amounted to 43,000 printed volumes; his twenty-three principal
divisions, containing all the letters of the alphabet, are very nearly
preserved up to our day. In 1697 the question of publishing this
enormous work was agitated, and on this point Clément had a curious
correspondence with a learned Dane named Frederick Bostgaard; he also,
in a celebrated pamphlet, _Idée d'une Nouvelle Manière de dresser le
Catalogue d'une Bibliothèque_, indicated practical observations; he
resolved this arduous question for important collections by difference
of sizes; but his project was not executed, although favoured from the
first by Abbé Bignon.
As the collection was not available for workers, the work of Clément had
only a relative importance. A councillor of the Prince of Waldeck, a
German of the name of Nemeitz, who travelled in France in the beginning
of the eighteenth century, having seen it in the houses of the Rue
Vivienne, says that the library occupied then twenty-six rooms and
contained 75,000 volumes in all; it was shown voluntarily to strangers,
but not to the public. Nemeitz gives some other curious particulars as
to the libraries of Paris (_Séjour à Paris:_ Leyde, 1727, 8vo).
The bank of Law, that had been lodged for some time in the Hotel de
Nevers, alienated by the heirs of Mazarin, soon disappeared with the
ruin of his system. As we have said above, Bignon appreciated the
importance of the neglected palace for commodiously lodging the royal
collections. This was in 1721. The collection was about to be subdivided
into four sections, or, as they were then called in the administrative
style, four distinct departments: manuscripts, printed books, titles,
and engraved plates. The master of the library pressed the Regent to
profit by the occasion, to which he agreed. In the month of September
the removal commenced, and from the Rue Vivienne, the royal library, the
first in the world and the most valuable, as Naudé says, entered the
former palace of the Cardinal, which it was never to quit again.
We approach the epoch when this great scientific establishment was to
quit its private character and to open its doors to the learned of all
countries. In 1735 it was decided to print the catalogue of some
divisions only: theology, canonical law, public law, and _belles
lettres_. This resolution coincided precisely with the opening of the
doors which took place in 1737, in which year appeared the first volume
of the catalogue comprising the sacred Scriptures. At the end of the
eighteenth century the royal library was finally established; the
printed books then comprised about 200,000 volumes, and access was had
by a staircase leading to six grand saloons, which were surrounded by
galleries. From this moment the rooms became too small. At the
Revolution the number of books had increased to 300,000, and projects of
enlargement commenced, to be continued to our time; but, in spite of
these proposals, the surface occupied by the library has remained the
same since the time of Louis XV. Enlargements and alterations have been
made year after year on the same ground without much new construction.
But how the treasures have been augmented to this time! If the printed
books at the Revolution represented a little more than 300,000 volumes,
to-day they exceed two millions; the prints number two and a half
millions; the medals, 100,000; the manuscripts, something over 90,000.
If we have thus brought the summary history of the National Library of
Paris to our days, it was to avoid mixing it with other matters. We have
entered into such detail regarding it as is fitting for the most
important library in the world. We now return to the seventeenth
century.
At the time when Henri IV. carried from Fontainebleau to Paris the
nucleus of volumes that was to have so brilliant a destiny, the passion
for books had singularly spread itself in France. We have already spoken
of Mazarin; after him Cardinal Richelieu designed to open his private
collection to the public, and in his will he manifested his clearly held
intention. He went further in his last wishes: he prescribed the daily
sweeping and dusting of the precious collection, and its augmentation by
a thousand livres tournois each year. The great personages of the time
were not behind; and Sauval says that in the seventeenth century there
were 1,000 or 1,200 private libraries in Paris, numbering 1,700,000
volumes.
In the provinces there were few public libraries. The communities and
learned Societies, the Jesuits and other religious houses, and the
universities had collections At Orleans a library was opened for
Germans, and the students of that country were able to work at their
ease under the supervision of two librarians.
At the end of the eighteenth century the number of libraries had
increased in large proportions; the amateurs had made their influence
felt. The Book was not sought only for what it contained, but also for
its exterior clothing. Only the great libraries open to everybody
remained eclectic, and provided a little of everything. Besides the
royal library, there were in Paris a great number of other collections,
which the revolutionary storm upset and often destroyed. That of St.
Germain des Près was burnt in 1794. That of St. Geneviève, founded in
1625, had benefited by celebrated donations, among others those of the
cardinals De Berulle and De la Rochefoucauld; the Arsenal, created by
the Marquis de Paulmy, was successively enriched by important
acquisitions, among which was the collection of the Duc de la Vallière.
These collections still exist, and are open to the public, as also are
the National Library, the Mazarine, the Sorbonne, the Museum, the School
of Fine Arts, the City of Paris, the Institute, the Louvre, and the
several scientific faculties.
The provinces have not been behind in the movement. Many of the great
cities contain a considerable number of books easily accessible, among
them the libraries of Bordeaux and Rouen, amounting to 150,000 volumes;
Troyes and Besançon, 100,000, etc. Few important centres have less than
20,000. These collections have been generally composed of those of the
religious establishments, closed by the Revolution.
In our time public libraries are augmented by the legal deposit, gifts
of the State, legacies of private persons, and purchases. The legal
deposit in France relates almost exclusively to the National Library,
and proceeds from the measures taken by Henri II. in 1556. Each French
printer has now to deposit a certain number of copies of the works that
he issues, and these volumes go to swell the number of books in the Rue
de Richelieu. At the rate of 30,000 a year, the time is easily
anticipated and very near when the space will be found insufficient.
Some measures will have to be taken.
Germany, the cradle of printing, was not favoured in the beginning. It
had, however, in the seventeenth century, in Wolfenbüttel, a little town
in the duchy of Brunswick, a curious collection of books, in a detached
building, of which the engraver Merian has preserved for us the
physiognomy; it contained nearly 200,000 volumes, an enormous number for
the time. The rather low rooms were shelved all round; in the middle
were cases of the height of a man, also filled with books; the readers
helped themselves, and were seated for working. The exterior of the
building, without being sumptuous, was isolated and detached. In our
time this collection includes the Bible, glass, and inkstand of Luther
and his portrait by Lucas Cranach.
Another curious library, dating from the beginning of the seventeenth
century, is that of the city of Leyden. An engraving by Woudan shows its
state in 1610, with its classifications and divisions. The books were
ranged in cases provided with breast-high desks. The books were placed
with the edges in front, and not as now, and were so attached that they
could only be consulted in their place. Each body of shelving contained
a series of authors: theology, philosophy, mathematics, history,
medicine, law, and literature. The room, of square shape, was lighted by
windows right and left. Between the bays were portraits, views of
cities, and maps. On the right, in a shrine, was enclosed the legacy of
Joseph Scaliger. Communication was less liberal than at Wolfenbüttel;
the readers were obliged to take the books from the shelves themselves
and read them standing before the desks.
In England, the celebrated Oxford Library should be mentioned, augmented
and restored in 1597 by Sir Thomas Bodley, ambassador of Queen
Elizabeth. The generous overtures of this rich gentleman met with
unanimous approbation. He offered to the library of the university the
volumes collected by him during his travels on the Continent, whose
value exceeded £10,000. The first stone of a new building was laid in
1610, but from 1602 the collection was open to readers in a provisional
locality. David Loggan, the engraver, has preserved for us interior
views of the Bodleian of the seventeenth century. The rooms are disposed
in the form of the letter H, with pavilions to east and west, united by
a gallery. The books were and are still in the body of the library,
placed against the walls, with tables and immovable seats. The volumes
were not displaced; they were consulted in their own place. Each room
had two floors, with access to the second by stairs.
In London it was Hans Sloane who had the idea of founding a great
collection by offering to the State for £20,000 his collection of
books, which was valued at £50,000. Created in 1753 by an Act of
Parliament, the British Museum, as it was named, was quickly augmented
by many private libraries, among which was the library of printed books
and manuscripts collected by the kings of England from Henry VII. to
William III., which was added in the reign of George II. The very
extensive and valuable library of George III., 250,000 volumes, was
added by George IV. The Harleian collection added 7,500 volumes, and
Robert Cotton his manuscripts. To-day the printed books amount to
1,300,000, and are only surpassed by the National Library of France as
well in number of books as in number of readers. This immense collection
increases at a great rate, one source being the compulsory deposit of a
copy of every new book in order to secure copyright. Donations and
legacies are constantly being made, and an annual sum for purchases is
voted by Parliament. Besides the copy deposited by publishers in the
British Museum, the law of copyright compels the deposit of four other
copies, which go to augment the collections of the Bodleian Library of
Oxford, the University Library of Cambridge, and the libraries of
Edinburgh and Dublin.
If we search among the cities of Europe where establishments of this
kind are most honoured, Berlin will take the third place with 900,000
printed books and 20,000 manuscripts, preserved in the Imperial Library.
The building, constructed between 1775 and 1780, owes its special form
to Frederick II., who desired that it should take the form of a chest of
drawers. On the façade an inscription in the Latin tongue, but
conceived in German spirit, indicates that here is a spiritual
refectory--_nutrimentum spiritus_. Following come Munich, with 800,000
printed books; Vienna 400,000; Dresden, 300,000; then the universities:
Leipzig, whose library, founded in 1409 and reorganised in 1830,
contains 150,000 books and 2,000 manuscripts; Heidelberg; Göttingen,
etc.
In Italy, Florence keeps, in the National Library, 300,000 volumes,
proceeding from various amateurs, and formed since 1860. The collection
of the goldsmith Magliabecchi, that was open to readers since 1747, has
been transported there. Besides this library, Florence possesses the
celebrated Laurentian, created by Cosmo de Medicis in the middle of the
fifteenth century, where are united more than 8,000 manuscripts of an
incalculable value. Milan has at the Brera a collection of 200,000
printed books and 50,000 medals, and at the Ambrosian, due to Cardinal
Frederick Borromeo, 160,000 printed books and 8,000 manuscripts.
Rome possesses a dozen collections and celebrated deposits. The Vatican,
not numerous, is most choice; the importance of its manuscripts is known
to the entire world, but only a part of the 50,000 printed books are
catalogued. The Library of Victor Emmanuel, formerly of the Jesuits,
amounts to about 66,000 volumes. At Venice the splendid monument called
the Antiqua Libraria di St. Marco has changed its destination;
constructed in the sixteenth century and commenced by Sansovino for a
library, it is now a royal palace. This city has lost that which had
made its glory, and its collections are very modest in our days.
The magnificent educational establishments in the form of public
libraries provided in the United States deserve special mention. Nearly
every city has its public library, supported by a small tax; and many
large libraries are wholly supported by private munificence. The first
to be established was founded in 1732 by Benjamin Franklin in
Philadelphia, and still exists as the Library Company; many important
bequests have been made to it, the latest being £200,000 by Dr. Richard
Rush. The library now numbers 150,000 volumes. The Congressional Library
of Washington, besides its annual income from Government, receives by
deposit for copyright a copy of every work published in the United
States; it now has 565,000 volumes.
The Astor Library and the Lenox Library of New York were both founded
and endowed by the families whose name they bear; the former has 223,284
volumes, the latter 25,000. The city of Chicago recently fell heir to
the magnificent sum of over one million sterling for the establishment
of a library of reference, and New York was benefited by the late Mr.
Tilden to the extent of £800,000 for a public library.
When we have named the libraries of St. Petersburg and Moscow for
Russia, Stockholm for Sweden, and the Escurial for Spain, we shall have
mentioned very hastily the most important establishments in the world.
For more than four centuries the love of books has preserved and
fortified itself, and increases each day. If we were to endeavour to
approximately imagine the number of printed books diffused, we should
be frightened at it. It is by miles that to-day are counted the shelves
of the National Library or of the British Museum; and each year the
production is accelerated, as is also the number of readers.
THE END.
INDEX.
Albi, first printer at, 47.
Alciati, books of emblems, 126.
Alding, Henry, printer in Sicily, 35.
Aldus Manutius, son-in-law of Torresani, 51;
printer in Venice, 99, 103, 128;
books for Grolier, 260.
America, North, printing in, 216.
Antwerp, early printing at, 67;
Plantin, 140.
_Ars Memorandi_, block book, 10.
_Ars Moriendi_, block book, 8.
Asola, Andrew d', successor of Jenson, 50.
Audran, C., engraver, 158.
Augsburg, _Formschneiders_ at, 58.
Badier, Florimond, bookbinder, 280.
Badius, Jodocus, printer in Paris, 122, 246.
Baldini, designs for early Italian books, 54.
Ballard, printer for music, 186.
Bamberg, early printing at, 25, 29.
Barcelona, first printer, 36.
Bartolozzi, engraver, 209.
Baskerville, printer of Birmingham, 208.
Basle, first printer, 36;
school of engraving, 125.
Beaujoyeux, Balthasar de, _Ballet Comique_, 136.
Bechtermuncze, Henry, pupil of Gutenberg, 25, 36.
Bedford, Francis, bookbinder, 288.
Belfort, Andrew, printer at Ferrara, 35.
Berlin, Imperial Library of, 301.
Bernard, _le petit_, designer, 128.
Bewick, Thomas, engraver, 209, 213, 225, 234.
Bible, Gutenberg's, 15, 20;
of 1462, the Mayence, 27;
first English, 146;
Authorised Version, 182;
the Polyglot, Plantin's, 141;
Richelieu's, 173.
_Biblia Pauperum_, block book, 8.
Bignon, Jerome, royal librarian, 293.
Binding, early, 253.
Biziaux, bookbinder, 287.
Blind Asylum, printers in 1786, 216.
Bocard, Andrew, printer in Paris, 88.
Bodleian Library, 300.
Bohn, H. G., publisher, 223.
Bologna, Francisco da, engraver of type, 100.
Bonhomme, printer in Lyons, 128.
Book, the, earliest forms of, 1, 6.
Books of Hours, 70, 112;
for English use, 147.
Booksellers of Paris, 170, 186, 190, 196.
Bosse, Abraham, engraver, 170.
Botticelli, plates to Dante, 55.
Boucher, designer, 188.
Bourdichon, John, artist, 69.
Boydell, Alderman, publisher, 210.
Boyet, bookbinder, 287.
Brandt's "Ship of Fools," 65.
British Museum, library, 301.
Brothers of Common Life, printers, 1468, 36.
Browne, H. K., book illustrator, 235.
Bruges, early printing at, 37, 67.
Buckinck, Arnold, printer at
Rome, printed the first atlas, 55.
Budé, Guillaume, royal librarian, 291.
Cæsaris, Peter, and John Stol, second Paris printers, 68.
Callot, engraver, 167.
Cambridge, first printing at, 149.
Cars, Laurent, engraver, 189.
Cases for type, 243.
Caslon, William, type-founder, 208.
Catherine de Medicis, bindings for, 270.
"Catholicon," the, of 1460, printed by Gutenberg, 23.
Caxton, William, first English printer, 37, 92, 240.
Cazin, publisher, 200.
Cerceau, _Bastiments de France_, 1576, 135.
Chaillot, Robin, publisher in Paris, 82.
Challeux, James le, wood engraver, 137.
Chamot, bookbinder, 287.
_Champfleury_, Geoffroy Tory's, 116, 261.
Characters, variety of, 243.
Charles VII. sends Jenson to Mayence, 38.
Charles VIII., royal library, 291.
Charles IX., bindings for, 274.
Charles of Angoulême, books specially printed for him, 78.
Chauveau, Francis, engraver, 179.
Chess, Caxton's book on, 92.
Chodowiecki, engraver, 208.
Choffard, engraver, 198, 211.
Clement V., _Constitutiones_, 1460, printed by Schoeffer, 26.
Clément, Nicholas, royal librarian, 294.
Clennell, Luke, wood engraver, 215, 225, 234.
Cochin the younger, engraver, 191.
Colbert, bindings for, 272, 282.
Collines, Simon de, type-founder, 241.
Cologne, first printer, 36.
"Cologne Chronicle," 58.
Colonna, Francis, Poliphilus of, 1499, 56;
in French, 1545, 123.
Colophons, use of, by early printers, 88.
Commin, Vincent, bookseller in Paris, 82.
Companies of printers in France, 165.
Copper plate engraving, 135;
in England, 149.
Coster, Laurent, alleged inventor of printing, 6, 30.
Cousin, John, designs for books, 132.
Cramoisy, Sebastian, printer of Paris, 155, 165;
director of bindings for Louis XIV., 281.
Cranach, Lucas, his _Passional Christi_, 106.
Cranmer's Catechism, 1548, 148.
Cruikshank, George, book illustrator, 235.
Curmer, publisher of Paris, 230.
Dances of death, 58, 72, 85, 124.
Dante, 1481, with engraved plates, 54;
1491, with Botticelli plates, 55;
1487, printed by Bonnini, 58.
Day, John, printer, 146.
Della Bella, engraver, 168.
Deromes, bookbinders, 286.
Desportes, Philip, bindings for, 272.
Devéria, engraver, 227.
Dibdin, T. F., bibliographical works, 223.
Didot, François, printer of Paris, 194.
Didot, Pierre F., printer of Paris, 216, 219.
Didot family, 218, 242.
Dijon, first printer at, 47.
Diodorus Siculus, Geoffroy Tory's edition, 118.
Donatus, the Latin syntax of, 4, 30.
Doré, Gustave, influence on illustration, 234.
Doyle, Richard, book illustrator, 235.
Dritzehen, Andrew, associate of Gutenberg, 13.
Dubois, Gilles, bookbinder, 281.
Dubuisson, Peter Paul, bookbinder, 286.
Duchesne on wood engraving, 225.
Duplat, relief engraving on stone, 213.
Duplessis-Bertaux, engraver, 206.
Du Pré, John, printer of Books of Hours, 80.
Dupuy brothers, bindings for, 272, 282;
royal librarians, 293.
Durand's _Rationale_, 1459, printed by Schoeffer, 26.
Dürer, Albert, pupil of Wohlgemuth, 60;
"Apocalypse," 62, 104;
influence on Geoffroy Tory, 116.
Duseuil, bookbinder, 287.
Eisen, engraver, 196.
Eltvil, first printer, 36.
Elzevirs, printers at Leyden, 162.
Emblems, books of, 126, 135.
England, bookbinding in, 288;
public libraries, 300.
English books, in the fifteenth century, 92;
in the sixteenth century, 144;
seventeenth century, 181;
eighteenth century, 208;
nineteenth century, 222, 234;
school of engraving eighteenth century, 209.
Engraved plates, first book with, 52;
in France, 134, 190.
Engravers, employed by Plantin, 142;
in relief, the first, 3.
Engraving, introduction of metal plates for, 32;
the process, 52;
in the Books of Hours, 71.
Erasmus, visit to Aldus, 101.
Estienne, Robert, printer in Paris, 121, 242.
Etching, process of, 189.
Eustache, William, printer of Books of Hours, 82.
Eve, Nicholas, bookbinder, 274.
Ferrara, first printer, 35.
Fichet, William, ascribes invention of printing to Gutenberg, 31.
Flemish, illustration, 66;
printers, early, 36, 106.
Florence, National Library of, 302.
Foligno, first printer, 35.
Fontainebleau school of engraving, 128.
Fornazeris, J. de, engraver, 158.
Foucquet, John, artist, 69.
Fount of type, 243.
Fouquet, Superintendent, bindings for, 272, 282.
Fournier, type-engraver, 242.
France, early printing in, 47.
Francis I., father of letters, 120;
bindings for, 266;
royal library, 291.
Frankfort, books of the seventeenth century, 159.
Franklin, Benjamin, printer at Philadelphia, 217;
founded first American public library, 303.
French book illustration, 68, 76, 106, 166, 203;
provinces, public libraries of, 298.
Fresne, Trichet du, corrector of Royal Printing House, 166.
Furne, publisher of Paris, 232.
Fust, John, 12 _et seq_.;
in partnership with Gutenberg, 15.
Garamond, Claude, type-founder, 121, 166, 241.
Gaultier, Leonard, engraver, 142, 154.
Gavarni, designer, 233.
Ged, William, inventor of stereotype, 220.
Gering, Freyburger, and Crantz, first printers in Paris, 41.
German books, in the seventeenth century, 158;
eighteenth century, 208;
nineteenth century, 224.
German public libraries, 299.
Gigoux, John, vignettist, 228.
Gillot, Claude, engraver, 180, 186.
Giunta, Lucantonio, printer at Venice, 102.
Gondi, bindings for, 272.
Gourmont, John de, wood engraver, 137.
Grandjean, Philip, royal printer, 242.
Grandville, designer, 233.
Gravelot, Hubert Francis, engraver, 196, 213.
Grolier, John, bindings for, 256.
Guadagnino, artist of Venice, 102.
Guise, Henri de, "Le Balafré," bindings for, 274.
Gutenberg, John, 12 _et seq_.;
at Mayence, 15;
death of, 29.
Haarlem, book illustration at, 67.
Hachette, publisher of Paris, 234.
Hagenbach, Peter, printer at Toledo, 36.
Hahn, Ulrich, printer at Rome, 35;
printed first illustrated book in Italy, 48.
Hardouins, printers of Books of Hours, 82.
Haye, Cornelis de la, painter, 130.
Heilmann, Andrew, associate of Gutenberg, 13.
Heinlein and Fichet introduce printing into Paris, 40.
Henri II., _Entrée à Lyon_, 1549, 130;
bindings for, 270;
royal library, 292.
Henri III., bindings for, 274.
Henri IV., royal library, 292.
Hoe printing machines, 249.
Holbein, "Dance of Death," 86, 124;
Cranmer's Catechism, 148.
Holland, artists in the seventeenth century, 160.
Illustrations, first, in books, 47;
in the sixteenth century, 123.
Imposition, process of, 245.
Ink, composition of, 252.
Ipswich, first printer, 149.
Isaac, Jasper, engraver, 156.
Italian, books in the seventeenth century, 159;
influence on French illustration, 125;
on bindings, 256.
Italic type introduced, 100.
Italy, public libraries of, 302.
Jenson, Nicholas, sent to Mayence to learn type-founding, 38;
printer at Venice, 38, 103.
Johannot brothers, engravers, 227.
John of Cologne, master _à la navette_, 67.
Jombert, printer of Paris, 192.
Junius, Hadrian, narrator of the Coster legend, 6, 12.
Kerver, Thielman, printer of Books of Hours, 80, 88.
Knight, Charles, publisher, 223.
Koburger, first printer at Nuremberg, 36, 60.
Koelhof, first printer to use signatures, 36.
Labarre, John de, royal librarian, 291.
Laborde, _Chansons_, 202.
Laferté, bookbinder, 287.
La Fontaine, the _Contes_, 198.
La Marche, Oliver de, his _Chevalier Delibéré_, 67.
Laserre, luxury in bindings for, 278.
La Tour, bookbinder, 281.
Lavoignat, wood engraver, 230.
Lebé, William, type-founder, 140, 242.
Le Brun, painter, 175.
Leclerc, Sébastien, engraver, 176.
Leech, John, book illustrator, 235.
Leeu, Gerard de, printer at Antwerp, 67.
Le Gascon bindings, 276.
Le Jay and the Polyglot Bible, 173.
Le Maire, John, _Illustrations de la Gaule_, 107.
Le Monnier, bookbinder, 287.
Lenoir, Philip, bindings for Francis I., 268.
Lepautre, engraver, 179.
Lesné, poet of bookbinding, 287.
Letters of Indulgence, the first printed, 17.
Lettou, John, early English printer, 95.
Leu, Thomas de, engraver, 142, 154.
Levasseur, bookbinder, 281.
Lewis, Charles, bookbinder, 288.
Leyden, the Elzevirs at, 162;
public library of, 299.
Libraries, 290.
Library, National, of Paris, 291.
Lipsius, Justus, employed by Plantin, 140.
Logography, invention of, 216.
Lorenzo, Nicholas di, printer of _El Monte Santo di Dio_, first book
with engraved plates, 52.
Loslein, Peter, printer at Venice, 35.
Louis XII., ordinance on printing, 108;
bindings for, 256, 264;
royal library, 291.
Louis XIV., bindings for, 281;
regulations for bookbinders, 282.
Louvain, printer in 1474, 37.
Lutzelburger, Hans, engraver of "Dance of Death," 125.
Lyons, first printing at, 47;
in the sixteenth century, 124;
seventeenth century, 158.
Machlinia, William, early English printer, 37, 95.
Macon, first printer at, 47.
_Magasin Pittoresque_, 226.
Mainyal, George, associate of Gering, 47.
Maioli, Thomas, bindings for, 259.
Mansfeldt, Count, bindings for, 272.
Mansion, Colard, printer at Bruges, 1473, 37.
Manuscripts, influence of printing upon, 34.
Manutius. See Aldus.
Marchant, Guyot, his "Dance of Death," 86;
bindings for Francis I., 268.
Marinoni printing press, 249.
Marnef, Geoffroy and Gilbert, French printers, 107.
Mayence, revolution at, in 1462, 27;
printing in the seventeenth century, 158.
Mayer, Henry, printer at Toulouse, 47.
Mazarin, Cardinal, bindings for, 280;
his library, 293.
Meissonier, designer on wood, 230.
Mellan, Claude, engraver, 156.
Menzel, Adolph, book illustrator, 224.
_Mer des Histoires_, 1488, 70, 107.
Mérius, bookbinder, 281.
Meslier, Denis, publisher in Paris, 82.
Metal plates used for illustration, 134.
Metlinger, printer at Dijon, 47.
Milan, printing in the sixteenth
century, 103;
public libraries of, 302.
Montenay, Georgette de, his emblems, 135.
Monteregio, _Calendario_, first book with title-page, 50.
Montmorency, Anne de, bindings for, 272.
Moreau the younger, engraver, 200.
Moretus, printer of Antwerp, 141.
Mosaic bindings, 284.
Motte, Houdart de la, his "Fables," 186.
Necker, Jost, engraver of the _Theuerdanck_, 105.
Neumeister, John, printer at Albi, 47.
Neumeister, John, printer at Foligno, 35.
Nevers, Duc de, book published in 1577, 138.
Notary, Julian, early English printer, 96.
Noyers, Sublet de, superintendent of Royal Printing House, 166.
Nuremberg, first printer, 36;
books of the sixteenth century, 104;
Chronicle, 1493, 62;
books of the seventeenth century, 159.
Orleans, public library at, 298.
Os, Peter van, his _Biblia Pauperum_, 67.
Oswen, John, first printer at Ipswich, 149.
Oxford, first printer, 37;
Bodleian Library, 300.
Palermo, first printer, 35.
Palmart, Lambert, printer at Valencia, 1477, 36.
Pannartz, Arnold, printer at Rome, 35.
Paper, manufacture of, 249.
Papillons, wood engravers, 212.
Paris, Fust's visit to, 27;
first book printed at, 42;
public libraries of, 298.
Pasdeloup, bookbinder, 284.
Pasquier-Bonhomme, printer in Paris, 68.
Pass family, engravers, 160.
Pasti, Matteo, designs for Valturius, 49.
Paulin, publisher of Paris, 228.
Payne, Roger, bookbinder, 288.
Perréal, John, artist, 69.
Pfinzfing, _Theuerdanck_, 104.
Pfister, Albert, printer of Bamberg, 25.
Philippe, Laurent, publisher in Paris, 82.
Photography, use in illustration, 233.
Picart, Bernard, engraver, 180.
Picart, John, engraver, 156.
Piccini, engraver, 159.
Pickering, William, publisher, 223.
Pictor, Bernard, printer of Venice, 35.
Pigouchet, Philip, printer of Paris, 68, 70.
Plantin, Christopher, printer of Antwerp, 140.
Pluvinel, _Manège Royal_, 160.
Poitiers, Diane de, bindings for, 270.
Poliphilus, printed by Aldus, 1499, 56;
by Kerver, 1545, 123.
Polytypes, invention of, 216.
Pompadour, Madame de, bindings for, 272.
Portraits as illustrations, 89, 123, 137.
Prault, publisher of Paris, 192.
Prayer-book, Queen Elizabeth's, 146;
Edward VI's., 148.
Presses, printing, 248.
Press work, process of, 246.
Printers' marks, 87.
Prohibitions on printers, 152, 185.
_Promptuaire des Médailles_, printed by Roville, 130.
Psalter of 1457, the first dated book, 23.
Ptolemy, 1478, first printed atlas, 55.
Pynson, Richard, early English printer, 37, 95, 146.
Racine, works, the Louvre edition, 219.
Raffet, wood engraver, 232.
Ratdolt, Erhardt, printer at Venice, 35;
printed first title-page, 50, 103.
Rembold, Berthold, associate of Gering, 47.
Richelieu, Cardinal, his library, 297.
Roffet, Peter, bindings for Francis I., 267.
Rogers, Samuel, his poetical works, 222.
Roman character, 38, 240.
Rome, first printers, 35;
public libraries of, 302.
Rood, Theod., first printer at Oxford, 37.
Roville, printer of Lyons, 128, 130.
Royal Printing House in Paris, 166, 215.
Royer, John le, printer for mathematics, 1560, 132.
Ruette, bookbinder, 282.
Rüppel, Berthold, first printer at Basle, 36.
St. Albans, first printer, 37.
St. Aubin, designer and engraver, 192, 200.
St. Pierre, Bernardin de, and the Didots, 221.
Salomon, Bernard, designer, 128.
Sanlecque, James, type-founder, 242.
Schäufelein, designs for the _Theuerdanck_, 105.
Schiedam, early printing at, 67.
Schoeffer, Peter, associate of Gutenberg and Fust, 16.
Schongauer, Martin, influence on French art, 72.
Schönsperger, printer of Augsburg, 105.
Séguier, bindings for, 282.
Siberch, John, first printer at Cambridge, 149.
Sicily, first printer, 35.
Sizes of books, 147, 189.
Sloane, Sir Hans, founder of the British Museum, 300.
Smirke, Robert, book illustrator, 210.
Southwark, first printer at, 149.
Spain, book illustration in, 106.
_Speculum Humanæ Salvationis_, 7.
Spindeler, Nicholas, printer at Barcelona, 36.
Spire, John and Vendelin of, printers at Venice, 35.
Spyes, Weigand, pupil of Gutenberg, 25.
Stanhope press, 248.
Steel plates for illustrations, 232.
Stereotype, invention of, 220.
Stothard, Thomas, book illustrator, 210, 222, 234.
Strasbourg, Gutenberg's retreat to, 13.
Sweynheim, Conrad, printer at Rome, 35.
_Tailleurs d'images_ of the Middle Ages, 3.
Tauchnitz, Baron, publisher of Leipzig, 224.
Tessier, bookbinder, 287.
Ther-Hoenen, Arnold, first printer using Arabic numerals for pages,
36, 58, 88.
_Theuerdanck_, printed at Nuremberg, 104.
Thevet, books with plates, 135.
Thompson brothers, wood engravers, 225.
Thou, James Augustus de, royal librarian, 293.
Titian, influence on book illustration, 103.
Title-page, the first, 50, 86;
illustrated, 133, 142.
Toledo, first printer, 36.
Tornes, Hans de, printer in Lyons, 128.
Torresani, Andrea, succeeded Jenson, 50.
Tortorel and Perrissin, plates on the religious wars, 137.
Tory, Geoffroy, printer and engraver, 110, 241, 261.
Toulouse, first printer, 47.
Travel, books of, 148, 182.
Treschel, John, printer at Lyons, 88, 124.
Treves, Peter of, first printer at Southwark, 149.
Trithemius, account of Peter Schoeffer, 16.
Turner, J. M. W., designs for Rogers' works, 222.
Type-founding, 239, 243.
United States, printing in, 216;
public libraries in, 302.
Utrecht, early printers at, 36, 67.
Valdarfer, Christopher, printer at Venice, 35.
Valencia, first printer, 36.
Valladier, Andrew, _Métanéologie_, 155.
Valturius, _De Re Militari_, 1472, 49.
Veldener, John, printer at Louvain, 67.
Venice, first printers, 35;
first title-page printed at, 50;
sixteenth century work, 102;
seventeenth century, 159;
libraries of, 302.
Verard, Antony, printer in Paris, 68, 76;
his Books of Hours, 78.
Versailles, printing office of the Minister for War, 215.
Vinci, Leonardo da, influence on book illustration, 103.
Vitré, Antoine, publisher of Paris, 172.
Voragine, "Golden Legend," Venice, 1518, 103.
Vostre, Simon, printer in Paris, 68;
his Books of Hours, 70.
Vyel, Andrew, printer at Palermo, 35.
Walchius, story of Fust's visit to Paris, 28.
Walter, John, printer of the _Times_, 216, 249.
Water marks in paper, 251.
Watervliet, Marc Laurin de, bindings for, 272.
Watteau, engraver, 187.
Wechel, printer in Paris, 128.
Wensler, Michael, printer at Macon, 47.
Westminster, Caxton first printer at, 37.
Westphalia, John of, printer at Louvain, 1474, 37, 67.
Whittingham, Charles, printer, 223.
Woériot, Peter, engraver of emblems, 135.
Wohlgemuth, Michael, designs for the _Schatzbehalter_, 60.
Wolfenbüttel, public library of, 299.
Woodcuts, first book printed with, 48.
Wood engraving, revival of, 209, 213, 230.
Wynken de Worde, early English printer, 37, 95.
Xylographs of the fifteenth century, 8.
Zainer, Gunther, printer at Augsburg, 58.
Zell, Ulrich, pupil of Gutenberg, 25, 30, 36.
Zwoll, book illustration at, 67.
Transcriber's Note
In this text version, symbols and Greek letters in the text are replaced
by their name, enclosed in square brackets, e.g. [phi], [double cross].
In addition, oe ligatures are replaced with the letters oe, and
superscripts are introduced with the caret character, e.g. XVIII^e