When it was first published in 1990, this book was an important study (the first for over sixty years) of north Italian and Parisian bindings by a distinguished authority who has elegantly considered the twin claims of ornament and patronage. The decorative possibilities of book binding were transformed during the third quarter of the fifteenth century through the work of antiquaries and scribes centred in Padua. Gilt-tooled elements taken from Islamic bookbindings and metal work, antique monuments and inscriptions and classical gems were adapted to create a new style. Italian men of letters and collectors enthusiastic for the New Learning carried the Paduan fashion to Central and Northern Europe, and Francis I's respect for learning and the patronage of two successive kings kindled a final blaze of creative brilliance in sixteenth-century France.
Contents
List of illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; 1. The Paduan antiquaries; 2. Italy: the fifteenth century; 3. The humanistic binding: Islamic sources; 4. The humanistic binding: classical sources; 5. Coins, medals and plaquettes: Italy; 6. Medals and plaquettes: northern Europe; 7. Filigree, facades and fortune; 8. The bindings of the Fontainebleau Library Census of historiated plaquette and medallion bindings of the Renaissance; Appendices: 1. The use of pasteboard in binding; 2. Bindings attributed to Felice Feliciano; 3. The Codex Lippomano: Jacopo Tiraboschi, Carmina; 4. Bindings attributed to Masone di Maio; 5. Fortune and Cupid in Padua; 6. Bindings of Greek and oriental manuscripts and printed books in the Fontainebleau Library, classified by type of ornament; 7. Jean Grolier's binders; Bibliography; Indices; Manuscripts; Books printed before 1600; Owners of books printed before 1600; General.
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