A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



duced some highly decorated designs. The 

 British Museum possesses a little volume of 

 Abridgements of the Statutes printed and bound 

 by him in 1499.' The book is bound in 

 wooden boards covered with sheepskin, and 

 shows indications of having been fitted with 

 two clasps of leather. The cover is decorated 

 on the obverse with the monogram R.P. on a 

 shield, supported by two figures and sur- 

 mounted by a helmet with mantling bearing 

 a fillet and crest of a bird ; in the sky are 

 nine stars, and below the shield are a flower 

 and leaf. Surrounding this central design is 

 a handsome floral border, having in each of the 

 two upper corners a bird, and between them 

 a man shooting, probably with a cross-bow. 

 At the base are a figure of the Madonna, and 

 another of a female saint, each crowned and 

 having an aureole, and near the lower right- 

 hand corner is the bust of a king crowned and 

 bearing a sceptre. On the reverse is a similar 

 plan of decoration, the central panel in this 

 case having in the centre a double rose, sur- 

 rounded by a decorative arrangement of vine 

 leaves, grapes, and tendrils. The border is a 

 graceful pattern of flowers and leaves, and has 

 an arabesque at each corner. 



Another early printer and binder was Julian 

 Notary, who worked first at Westminster, and 

 afterwards in the City between theyearsi498 

 and 1520. Many books bound by Notary 

 are decorated with two handsome stamps ; 

 one such volume, not from his own press, but 

 from that of Jean Petit of Paris, is in the 

 British Museum. It is a copy of Cicero's 

 Tusculan Disputations, printed in January 

 1509, which formerly belonged to Henry 

 VIII. It is bound in wooden boards, covered 

 with leather, sewn on leather bands, and has 

 remains of leather clasps with brass fastenings. 

 The front cover has the arms of Henry VIII, 

 the three fleurs de lis of France quartered with 

 the three lions of England, with the dragon 

 and greyhound as supporters. In the upper 

 part the shield of St. George and the arms of 

 the City of London, with the sun, moon, and 

 stars ; the lower part is decorated with plants 

 of elementary design. The back cover has a 

 similar design with the substitution of a large 

 Tudor rose inclosed by two ribands borne by 

 angels for the Royal coat-of-arms. In the 

 base are the initials I.N. of the binder, and his 

 curious device with the initials repeated in the 

 lower part of it. On larger books bound by 

 Julian Notary both these stamps are sometimes 

 found on the same cover divided by a long 

 panel bearing the initials L.R. and R.L. tied 



3 C. J. Davenport, ' Early London Bookbinders,' 

 The Queen, 20 June 1891. 



together respectively by a cord, and the Tudor 

 emblems of the pomegranate, rose, portcullis, 

 and lion. The portcullis was used to signify 

 the descent of the Tudors from the House of 

 Beaufort, and is said to represent the castle of 

 De Beaufort at Anjou. 



Before the time of Elizabeth the only leather 

 used for binding was brown calf and sheep, 

 the only other materials with very rare excep- 

 tions being vellum and velvet. Morocco was 

 not employed until the reign of Elizabeth or 

 that of James I. 



English bindings of the i6th and lyth 

 centuries are classified by Miss Prideaux as 

 follows 4 : i. Those in material other than 

 leather, and often decorated with enamels and 

 gold and silver piercedand engraved; 2. Stamped 

 vellum and calf bindings ; 3. The Venetian- 

 Lyonese work ; 4. Occasional specimens of 

 French Grolier work, very frequent ones of 

 the French semis, and some very good imita- 

 tions of the delicate Le Gascon, done between 

 1660 and 1720, the most frequently imitated 

 of all French work ; 5. The cottage orna- 

 mented bindings, the one distinctively English 

 style belonging to the 171)1 century. 



Although the names of some English bind- 

 ers are known, it is impossible to connect many 

 books with their names. Robert Barker 

 and James Norton were binders to James I, 

 and Eliot and Chapman bound ' in the 

 Harleian style ' for Robert Harley, first Earl 

 of Oxford. 8 Other binders of the period 

 were Thomas Hollis and his successor 

 Thomas Brand. Among the French emigrant 

 binders were the Comte de Caumont, Comte 

 de Clermont de Lodeve, Vicomte Gauthier de 

 Brecy, and Du Lau, the friend and bookseller 

 of Chateaubriand. 6 



The work of Roger Payne in the latter 

 half of the i8th century marks an era in 

 English bookbinding, which had since the 

 beginning of that century fallen to a low ebb. 

 Payne was born at Windsor in 1739, and 

 after a short service with Pote, the Eton book- 

 seller, came to London in 1766, and entered 

 the employment of Thomas Osborne, the 

 bookseller, in Gray's Inn. A few years later 

 he set up in business for himself as a book- 

 binder, near Leicester Square. Here he was 

 joined by his brother Thomas, who attended 

 to the ' forwarding ' part of the business, 

 whilst Roger devoted himself wholly to the 

 'finishing.' His great artistic talents placed 

 him easily at the head of all the binders of 

 his day, and procured him a number of dis- 

 tinguished patrons, among whom were Earl 



4 Hist. Sketch of Bookbinding, 1 10. 



* Prideaux, op. cit. 27. ' Ibid. 128. 



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