Читать книгу Thomas Berthelet, Royal Printer and Bookbinder to Henry VIII., King of England онлайн

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The badges found on Berthelet’s bindings are the portcullis, used by all the Tudors in remembrance of the castle of the Beauforts in Anjou, where Henry VII.’s maternal grandfather was born; the double rose, red and white, used first by the Lancastrian Henry VII. on his marriage with Elizabeth of York, as a symbol of the union of the two rival houses; the fleur-de-lys, doubtless taken as one of the bearings from the French coat of arms; and the daisy, borne in remembrance of Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII. All these are found on bindings made by Berthelet, sometimes singly and sometimes in combination on one binding.

Henry VII. was the first English king who attempted to form a library of his own, and besides manuscripts, he possessed a very fine collection of splendid volumes printed by Antoine Verard at Paris. These books are now part of the old Royal Library in the British Museum, and since they have been there they have all been rebound in velvet, which may probably be taken as some sign that they were originally bound in that material; and this is likely enough, as all the bindings still existing that belonged to this king are bound in it. Some of these beautiful bindings are now in the library at Westminster Abbey, but the finest example of any of them is in the British Museum.