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We are researching the atelier of Simon Vostre and particularly the claim by Jacques Guignard that the atelier of Simon Vostre produced all the gold tooled bookbindings previously attributed by Emile Dacier to the atelier of Louis XII-François Ier in the period of 1500 to 1515. On page 397 (shown above) Hobson describes the state of bookbinding in this period. From this we can gather that in the main, Books of Hours, such as those of Simon Vostre would have been decorated with large historiated panels, and not with small stamps. On page 424 (shown below) he states that gold-tooled bindings were very rare in Paris, until after 1520. The Parisian binders were mass producing panel stamped bindings, and probably the atelier of Simon Vostre would have been specializing in these mass produced bindings for their Books of Hours. These facts alone would seem to oppose Guignard's theory, and our search for evidence of bindings from this atelier further proves this to be true as we have only been able to find panel stamped bindings from the atelier of Simon Vostre. It would appear then that the theory of Guignard is very unlikely and it seems very odd that it is now accepted without hesitation by such highly recognized authorities as Anthony Hobson and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. As yet we have not uncovered a single shred of evidence to support such an unlikely theory. Even if we did find a shred of evidence at this point it would still be insufficient to justify this claim. If the atelier of Simon Vostre did produce the Louis XII bindings as Guignard claimed, there should be an abundance of evidence!
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