BOOK IV.

Chapter IV

gether until 1675, when it was dispersed by public sale. Bookbinding. Many fine specimens are to be seen in the Cracherode and Grenville collections in the British Museum. The Italian example of nearly similar date, which is figured on Plate IV of this Chapter, is also borrowed from the Cracherode collection.

Binding executed for

Diana of

Poitiers.

It was, doubtless, owing to the influence of Grollier's Henry II. and example, if not to his direct superintendence, that the bindings of many of the books of Henry II. as well as those of Diana of Poitiers, partake of like beauty, although they are often somewhat overladen with embellishments. In the Public Library at Caen, for example, there is preserved a remarkable copy of the very popular Cosmography' of Sebastian Munster, in its French version and of the edition of 1556. Dibdin has thus described it: "It contains two portraits of Henry II. (Henricus II. Galliarum Rex. Invictiss. PP.) and four of Holofernes (Olofarne') on each side of the binding. In the centre of the sides we recognise the lunar ornaments of Diane de Poitiers; on the back are five portraits of her, in gilt, each within the bands,—and, like all the other ornaments, much rubbed. ... On the sides are two medallions of a winged figure (sic) blowing a trumpet, and standing upon a chariot drawn by four horses; there are also small fleurs-de-lis scattered between the ornaments of the sides." For Henry III, many books were bound in a peculiar style. The backs are smooth; a small compartment, at the head, contains the title of the book; another, at the tail, the motto

1 Dibdin, Bibliographical Tour in France and Germany, i, 215.