PUBLISHER'S Di:rARTMENT. 



THE ART OF BOOK-BINDING. 



BY HENRI p£:NE DUBOIS." 



A VERY curious essay might be written on 

 the history of book-binding, the fascinating 

 department of the bibliomania which immor- 

 talized Grollier. . 



At the beginning, it was the art of goldsmiths 

 and enamcUers ; and books were adorned with 

 a silver cover, gilt, and precious stones. In 

 Chaucer's time the fashionable binding was 

 various-colored velvet, as in the Prologue to 

 the ■' Canterbury Tales : " — 



" A twenty bokes. clothed in black or red. 

 Of Aristotle." 



And it was not initil the close of the fifteenth 

 centur}- that the usual ornaments of silver, and 

 massive clasps, and thick metalled corners, 

 were discarded. 



They were destined to render a book imper- 

 vious to external injur}' ; but in the wooden 

 covers the worm was secretl}- engendered, and 

 its ravages attest the defectiveness of ancient 

 binding. Mr. Roscoe wrote eloquentlj- in 

 commendation of it, however, in his " Lorenzo 

 de Medici : " "A taste for the exterior decora- 

 tion of books has latelj- arisen in this country, 

 in the gratification of which no small share of 

 ingenuity has been displaj-ed ; but, if we are to 

 judge of the present predilection for learning 

 b}- the degree of expense thus incurred, we 

 must consider it as greatl}' inferior to that of 

 the Romans during the time of the first em- 

 perors, or of the It.alians at the fifteenth cen- 

 tury'. And yet it is dillicult to discover why 

 a favorite book should not be as proper an 

 object of elegant ornament as the head of a 

 cane, the hilt of a sword, or the latchet of a 

 shoe." 



The prejudice in favor of ancient binding 

 was displayed as recently as in the report of 

 the international book-binding exhibition of 

 1857, wherein the judges, Merlin. Cap*-, and 

 Bauzounet, expressed the opinion advanced 

 by Roscoe. They went farther than this in 

 their exfoliation of the masters of the three 

 preceding centuries, especially of those whom, 

 as Dibdin would say, St, Jerome or St. Austin 

 would have lashed for the gorgeous decorations 

 of their volumes. But there was a feature in 

 that exhibition of special interest to Ameri- 

 can bibliophiles. 



Holland (once famous for its bindings of 

 vellum), Germany (whose gilders had been 

 constantly employed by the binders of France) , 

 Spain, and Italy exhibited nothing but copies 

 of the declining Frencli art. 



The rivalry existed between France and 

 England. P' ranee excelled in taste and finish, 

 but at some sacrifice of flexibility ; while in 

 England the soft and coaxing manner in which, 

 by the skill of Herring orMackinl.iy. '-leaf suc- 

 ceeds to leaf," was spoiled by the tarnishing 

 of the once blazing gilt edges. 



It became evident to an impartial observer 

 that the decline of the art of book-binding was 

 due to the apathy of the book-collectors. 



It owed its existence to them, and to them 

 only ; and they, too, were responsible for its 

 decadence. Therefore I presumed little in 

 my estimation of the value of that exhibition 

 to American bibliophiles : it Inspired Brad- 

 streets of New York with the thought that the 

 art of book-binding was not to be restricted to 

 one nation, or to one family, as tradition wonld 

 have it in France, but that it would flourish 



' ThiB monograph on the art of book-binding U prnclically a partial reprint of a neat, small pamphlet Uaued by The Bradalreet Coin 

 pany. A copy of the pamphlet can be had free by nddreiuing The Bradalreet Company at it« main offices, No. 279 Broadway, 

 New York, or any of ita branch offices throughout the world. 



