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  • The Henry Davis Gift: A Collection of Bookbindings, vol. III: A Catalogue of South European Bindings
  • Anthony Hobson (bio)
The Henry Davis Gift: A Collection of Bookbindings, vol. III: A Catalogue of South European Bindings. By Mirjam Foot. London: The British Library; New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press. 2010. 527 pp. £75. ISBN 978 0 7123 5054 9 (UK); 978 1 58456 272 6 (USA).

Finis coronat opus. The first two volumes of this catalogue appeared in 1978 and 1983. Mirjam Foot has now completed the work in fine style. Her eye is as sharp as ever in recognizing tools and her mastery of the very extensive literature is highly impressive. Each binding is described, and this time the description includes a fuller account of the structure. 'Provenance' follows, then 'References' to earlier mentions of the binding in print, 'Literature' including more general accounts, 'Same tool on' — self-explanatory and most helpful, 'Compare' — similar bindings but not necessarily by the same shop or even, in the Italian part, from the same town, and, rather infrequently, a 'Note'.

Every binding is illustrated. Gilt bindings are well reproduced, though unfortunately and no doubt inevitably reduced in size, making the identification of tools hazardous. The reproduction of bindings decorated in blind varies from poor to invisible. The oval plaque of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple on nos. 110 and 111, a printed Psalter and Book of Hours respectively of 1582 and 1584, tends towards the lower end of the bracket. Once again, as in the second volume, the British Library photographer has failed to reproduce the spines. This is a serious lacuna as it is often by the treatment of a spine that a binder's work can be recognized. He might experiment with freedom and variety on the covers while remaining conservative on the spines.

The volume contains 222 French bindings, 157 Italian, and 44 others. Dr Foot is the recognized authority on French sixteenth-century bindings and her command of the subject is fully in evidence. All the leading binders are represented. There has been a change since 1983 reflecting later research. The bindings then attributed to Claude (de) Picques are now divided between Jean Picard (until 1547), the atelier de Fontainebleau (until 1552), and the atelier du roi, the last two directed until 1556 (?) by Gommar Estienne and afterwards by Claude Picques. The distinction between the two 'ateliers' seems to me an artificial one. It was a change of place, from Fontainebleau to Paris, but not, so far as we know, of tools or personnel.

Besides the atelier du roi, Étienne Roffet, the Pecking Crow Binder, the Fleur-de-lis Binder, Jean Picard, the Salel Binder, Wotton Binders A, B, and C, the Cupid's Bow Binder, the Mansfeld Binder, and Mahieu's Aesop Binder are all represented. Of [End Page 60] the major figures only 'Grolier's Last Binder' is absent. There are two French and two Italian bindings for Grolier, one (or possibly two) for Mahieu, two for Francis I, one for Mansfeld, two for Claude III de Laubespine, and ten for Thomas Wotton.

Dr Foot accepts the bindings with Wotton's name or arms or the date 1552, but doubts whether he owned those without mark of ownership. This seems unduly scrupulous. They are by the same binders as those with arms and have the same presumed line of descent through Wotton's great-granddaughter to the Earl of Carnarvon, who sold them in 1919. No. 39, Agricola, De inventione dialectica (Paris: Simon de Colines, 1542), has an awkward composition and no tools in common with the French groups. Was it perhaps bound in England as a homely imitation? The bindings blocked in gilt with a closely packed floral panel on a five-volume 16mo Hebrew Bible (apparently imperfect), printed in Paris by Robert Estienne in 1544 (no. 35), do not look French, and no other example of the panel seems to be recorded. Might they be Swiss?

While the Parisian fine bindings of the sixteenth century have been closely studied, the same attention has not been paid to Lyons and no search for binders has been made in its archives. In 1989...

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