8
HISTORICAL ESSAY ON THE
and yet there were then, as at present, good, bad and indifferent bookbinders, for, in one of his letters to Atticus, Cicero requested the assistance of two slaves, reputed skilled workmen (lignatores librorum).
At a time when the possession of a book was that of “a treasure for aye” it was natural that the art of its exterior decoration progressed as rapidly as the art of its interior decoration. The founder of the first organized monastic community, Saint Pachomius (fourth century), exacted it in strict rules for the preservation of the books of his monastery; and the “Notitia Dignitatum Imperii” (about 450) mentions the fact that certain officers of the Oriental Empire carried in public ceremonies large square books of the Emperor’s instructions for the administration of his provinces, bound in red, blue or yellow leather, and ornamented with a gilt or painted portrait of the Emperor.
In the sixth century the art of bookbinding was the art of goldsmiths and enamellers, as the art of bookmaking was the art of calligraphs and illuminators. Seneca had criticized the luxurious ornamentation of books; it had been censured by Petrus Acotantus; St. Jerome exclaimed, “Your books are