Skelton has given a very poetic description of a missal of Henry VIII.:
With that of the boke lozende were the claspes,
The margin was illumined al with golden railes,
And bice empictured with grass-oppes and waspes,
With butterflies, and fresh pecocke tailes,
Englozed with flowers, and slyme snayles,
Envyved pictures well touched and quickely,
It would have made a man hole that had be right sickely,
To behold how it was garnished and bound,
Encovered over with gold and tissue fine,
The clasps and bullions were worth a M pounde,
With belassis and carbuncles the border did shine,
With aurum mosaicum every other line.
Not a satisfactory description in a bibliographical point of view; possibly the work of Edwards, but the “bibliophile Jacob” is of the opinion that it was similar to the bindings which King Mathias Corvinus of Hungary caused to be executed by Italian artists for the Buda library, composed principally of illuminated manuscripts bound in colored morocco, ornamented with silver bosses and clasps, treasures which were destroyed by the Turks under Soliman II., in 1526.
A book-a-bosom, valiant King, Mathias of Hungary, the prince of bibliophiles! but as there are few, if any,
