Page:Historical essay on the art of bookbinding (IA 0130ARTO).pdf/23

a circumstance which, in the opinion of his biographer, explains and justifies the singular device of his volumes: Io Grolierii et Amicorum—and all were bound in Levant morocco, embellished with varied designs and ornaments of the most exquisite patterns. A distinguishing feature of these was the interlacing with geometrical accuracy of boldly traced gold lines. Grolier undoubtedly led the art of bookbinding, justifying the opinionated expression of the Comte de Laborde: “Bookbinding is an art all French.” It is a moot point with bibliographers as to the binding of Grolier’s volumes, whether they were executed at Paris or at Lyons. The relentless Mr. Fournier, inferring from an allusion in Bonaventure des Périer’s “Cymbalum Mundi,” that the best bindings were made in Paris, while the no less learned “bibliophile Jacob” (P. Lacroix) gives the palm to Lyons, the birth-place of Grolier, and the favorite city of Bonaventure des Périers. Be that as it may, Grolier had unconsciously founded a school of the art of bookbinding, and it would be impossible to enumerate the excellent works with which it enriched the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Of these are the elegant bindings of Francis I., stamped with the emblematical salamander; and of Henry II. and his mistress, Diana