Before we start examining the fascinating subject of 17c decorated bookbinding's, I want to point out an issue which is very similar to a problem encountered in Comparative Implementology (the study of tools). An Archaeologist may find, while excavating an ancient deposit, an intact stone tool. He may know or have a good idea of the relative age of the deposit and so assumes that the tool he has found is typical of that period. However the stone tool may in fact be some sort of heirloom or ceremonial object that had been conserved for generations and thus not necessarily related to the period in question. Similarly, a book may be bound or rebound long after it was published, and the decorative style of the binding might not be representative of the period when the book was first printed. The book shown above was published in 1647, is the decorative style of binding typical of that period? This was one of the first of many unknowns encountered in the study of this extraordinary piece of decorative bookbinding. By a comparative study of gold tooling, I was hoping that I might eventually be able to identify the actual binder of this book and so launched into researching French 17c bookbinding.
Fortunately while searching the internet for clues in this matter I discovered the website aboutbookbinding.com
where we find "An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled Bindings" by Herbert P. Horne London 1894, here we learn an important fact
"In France, alone, has bookbinding been continuously practiced, and
encouraged, as a fine art, since the Revival of Learning: and in that country, alone, does there
exist any considerable literature upon its history and methods. In this sense, bookbinding is an
art almost peculiar to France: and yet not to France, but to Italy, must be conceded, both the
introduction of gold-tooling into Europe, and the origin of the taste, which determined the
nature of the designs used upon European tooled bindings, for nearly a century. Indeed, it
might be questioned, whether early Italian bindings have yet been surpassed in beauty and
decoration, by those of other times or countries."
and from another interesting web site everything2.com we learn....
"The first European state to learn of gold tooling was Venice, in the middle of the sixteenth century. The technique caught on like wildfire. Within a quarter century of the first examples of gold tooling, virtually every Venetian-bound book was all or partly decorated with gold. Within fifty years, the art of gold tooling was ubiquitous throughout Italy. That's as close to revolutionary as it gets in the conservative world of bookbinding.
"Although European gold tooling started in Italy, the art reached its technical pinnacle in seventeenth century France. The binders of the guild of Saint John Lateran (which also included printers) perfected all stages of the process, from the selection of tools to the best recipe for glaire. The bindings from that period sparkle and glitter with intricate golden designs, sometimes so finely interlaced that the leather is barely visible."
It seems then that while the Italian styles dominated most of the sixteenth century in the seventeenth century French Binders were leading the way and this period seems to be dominated by two stylistic trends, the first called "fanfare" which actually emerged in the sixteenth century but was then much elaborated upon in the seventeenth century and the second "pointille".
Here is a description of these two terms from another excellent web site....
An elaborate style of decoration consisting generally of geometrically formed compartments of varying sizes, each bounded by a ribbon consisting of a single fillet on one side and a double fillet on the other, each of which, with the exception of the center compartment (which is larger or otherwise distinguished), being filled with leafy spirals, branches of laurel, and other sprays, floral tools..... Fanfare was a rich and luxurious style and called for the greatest skill on the part of the bookbinder. It was imitated, with varying degrees of fidelity, throughout Europe from about 1570 until well into the 17th century, although its elements were largely imitative of previous styles of embellishment. Originally, the style was attributed exclusively to Nicholas and Clovis Ève, but it is more likely that a number of Parisian finishers executed many of these binding. The name "fanfare," which originated long after the style was first executed, derives from a binding of the 19th century binder, JOSEPH THOUVENIN , who revived the style on a volume he bound in 1829, Les Fanfares et Corvees abbadesques.
A "fanfare style" binding in the manner of the Ève brothers on a copy of Horae beatissimae Virginis Mariae. Note the gauffered edge. Printed by Christopher Plantin, Antwerp, 1570. Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress. (21.2 cm. by 13.2 cm. by 4.5 cm.)
1. A luxurious style of finishing consisting of dotted lines and curves impressed on the covers of a book. In the first half of the 17th century, pointillé was used by numerous French bookbinders and/or gilders, including Florimond Badier and Macé Ruette, although in terms of sheer magnificence of execution, it reached its pinnacle earlier in the bindings associated with the name (LE) GASCON
pointillé tooling used by Le Gascon
Classic Fanfare style with pointillé tooling by Antoine Ruette
The name associated with a luxurious style of finishing introduced in France in the early 17th century. The "Le Gascon" style, known as "pointillé" , is made up of interlaced bands, enclosing geometrical compartments which are filled with innumerable gold dots, frequently elaborated into lines and curves of remarkable luster and elegance.
Over the years many stories have arisen concerning "Le Gascon." One is that he worked as a bookbinder, or, more likely, as a gilder in the Eve's bindery, from which he took the style later to be called FANFARE STYLE (with its complicated geometrical framework) as the basis of his designs, but worked out all of the scrolls in fine dots instead of solid lines. While finishing tools had begun to become more finely cut with the Eves, they reached th pinnacle of delicacy and perfection with the work of this gilder or group of gilders. It has also been suggested that "Le Gascon" was the pseudonym of a famous binder, and it has been argued that the possibility exists that "Le Gascon" was employed by Gaston, Duke of Orleans.
Despite the speculation, there are no records to indicate just who "the man" may have been. There are documents indicating that someone going by the pseudonym "Le Gascon" was, as early as 1622, producing the most splendid bindings of that time. It is perhaps only natural that attempts should be made to link this name with the finest of the early pointillé bindings, but to date no binding can be said to he the work of anyone by that name. Three very intricate pointillé bindings, signed by FLORIMOND BADIER , do exist, but since Badier did not even begin his apprenticeship until 1630, he cannot have been "Le Gascon."
Bindings by Florimond Badier
Returning now to "An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled Bindings" by Herbert P. Horne London 1894...
Further, and of this there can be no doubt, the style of Le Gascon, so-called, was in vogue
between the years 1640, and 1665: whereas it appears, from the records of the Guild of St.
Jean, that Le Gascon was a binder of acknowledged accomplishment in 1622, that is, some
twenty years before the style ascribed to him came into use.
Florimond Badier, who is thought to have come to Paris from Gascony, was apprenticed to Jean
Thomas, gilder, on the 30th November, 1630. The term of his apprenticeship having expired in
1636, he married the daughter of Jean Gillede, binder, on the 6th July, 1645, and was made free
of the Guild of St. Jean, that same year. The date of his death, like that of Le Gascon's, remains
unknown.
The copy of the Imitation, in the Bibliotheque Nationale, which bears the signature of Badier, is
bound in red morocco, inlaid with various coloured leathers, in compartments formed by an
interlaced fillet. The doublure is of citron morocco, also, inlaid with differently coloured
compartments of the same leather, but designed in a style different from that of the exterior, the
fillet being omitted. The signature of the binder is stamped on the upper board, above the tail
edge of the doublure: and the whole of the figured work is richly tooled "au pointille", that is, not
in solid, but in dotted, lines; by which device, an effect of great brilliance and delicacy is
produced [Vue, Gruel's Manuel, s.n.]. The execution of the gilding, M. Thoinan contends in
opposition to the opinion of MM. Marius-Michel, is unquestionably skilful; although it does not
show that solidity and certainty of handling characteristic of the later bindings, which this writer
seeks to attribute to Badier: but it is, without doubt an early production, having probably been
executed before Badier was made free of the Guild of St. Jean; and as such, it is an
extraordinary production, being superior in workmanship to much contemporary gilding.
Tooled upon this binding, and equally remarkable with the signature of Badier, is a couped head,
worked "au pointille" like the rest of the figured tools, which is repeated no less than fifty-two
times. This head, which is well known from its occurrence upon other bindings, has passed,
according to a vague tradition, not only for the mark, but, also, for the portrait, of Le Gascon.
Dismissing this tradition as an invention worthy of the predecessors of Edouard Fournier, in the
history of bookbinding, M. Thoinan argues, that this head is the mark of Florimond Badier, and
that all the bindings, which are tooled with it, were executed by him: and he adds not a little to
the force of this argument, when he points out, that the tools used upon the signed binding of
the Imitation, occur, also, upon other bindings, both with and without the couped head. In short,
not only the bindings, which have been popularly ascribed to Le Gascon, but also Badier's
binding of the Imitation, were the production of the same workshop, and were finished with a
common set of tools.
The most probable solution of this difficult question would seem to be found in the assumption,
that Le Gascon was none other than Jean Gillede, whose daughter Badier married, and to
whose trade he succeeded. But having concisely stated this vexed question, it will be more
profitable, I think, to discuss the bindings themselves, than to attempt to disentangle the
discrepancies of this history.
The designs upon these bindings are principally of two kinds. In the more original, the designer,
recurring to, and refining upon, the style, which was in vogue at the end of the sixteenth
century, and which is popularly associated with name of the Eves, breaks up the field of the
boards, by means of an interlaced fillet of three lines, into a series of compartments: and these
compartments, he fills with figured work of a conventional character elaborated upon an
arrangement of spiral forms, and tooled wholly 'au pointille,' in place of the former laurel
branches, and other ornaments. In some examples, this scroll-work covers the whole field of the
compartment; as in the copy of the Paradisus Animae Christianae, Cologne, 16#, bound for the
brothers Dupuy and stamped with the couped head, which is figured in MM. Marius-Michel's La
Reliure Francaise [PI. XII.]. The British Museum possesses a very splendid example of this
kind, in a copy of Alonso Chacon's Historia vtriusque belli Dacici a Traiano Cesare gesti, Rome, 1616 [C. 14- c.
12.],
Detail from the binding of Alonso Chacon's, Historia vtriusque......, Rome 1616
bound in red morocco, inlaid with compartments of citron, olive green, and brown morocco
marbled with black; the colours employed by Badier in his binding of the Imitation. The panels of
the back are inlaid and tooled in a manner similar to that of the boards. Among the Egerton
manuscripts in the same collection, is a Pontificate, bound in red morocco, and finished with
similar ornaments [Eg. MS. 1067.]. This binding, which bears the arms, and cypher, of
Domenique Seguier, Bishop of Meaux, from 1637 to 1658, is figured in PI. IX.
In other examples, the scroll-work but partially covers the field of the compartments: as in the
binding of a manuscript, executed by Jarry in 1658, of Adonis, a poem by La Fontaine, which is
figured in MM. Marius-Michel's La Reliure Francaise [PI. XIV.J; and, again, on the binding of a
Book of Hours executed for Francois I., now in the British Museum [Ad. MS. 18, 853.J. The edges
of this volume, which is bound in red morocco, bear a design painted in colours, upon a gold
field, and outlined by a series of tooled dots, or points. This method of decorating the edges is
characteristic of the richer volumes attributed to Le Gascon: and the edges of the copy of
Chacon's History are ornamented in the same way.
Binding by Le Gascon, Officium Beatae Mariae Virginis, Anvers, Plantin, 1622, (24 x 18 cm)
