1540. There is a fine specimen of one of Berthelet’s bindings in white doeskin in the library of Trinity College, Oxford. It measures about 9 by 6 inches, and is a copy of “Theophylacti in omnes divi Pauli epistolas enarrationes, etc. Basileae, 1540.” The sides are fully gilt, and ornamented with scroll-work and royal badges. In the centre is the crowned royal coat of arms of Henry VIII., surrounded by four chief decorative points, bearing, respectively, the royal initials, crowned, and crowned badges, double rose, fleur-de-lys, and portcullis. Each of these small designs is contained within a framework of golden scrolls, and the remaining space is rather closely filled with a rich tracery of scrolls and arabesques symmetrically arranged. The broad edges are cream coloured, and on them in large capitals are the words, “REX IN ETERNUM VIVE.”
WHITE LEATHER BINDING OF “JOANNES A LASCO. BREVIS DE SACRAMENTIS ECC. CHRISTI TRACTATIO. LONDON 1552.”
1541. Elyot. The Image of Governance. T. Berthelet, London, 1541. Bound in white deerskin, and tooled in gold with a few blind lines. In the centre is an irregular panel made up with curves and arabesques, within which are the words, “DIEU ET MON DROIT.” The panel is enclosed within an outer line of cleverly arranged scrolls, at the sides of which are the letters H R. An outer rectangular border of small S-shaped stamps, with fleurons at the outer corners, encloses the whole, the inner corners being filled with more scroll-work and arabesques. The ground is dotted with stamps of a daisy, a small circle stamp, and a five-pointed star.
A single daisy is impressed in gold in the centre of each of the panels on the back, and on the white edges of the book itself the words, “REX IN ETERNUM VIVE,” are written in gold in capital letters.
1543. A Bible printed at Zurich in 1543, bound in orange-coloured velvet, which was probably originally some shade of crimson, is embroidered with designs outlined in gold cord. It measures 15 by 9-1/4 inches, and has been ruinously rebacked with leather. It forms part of the old English Royal Library at the British Museum, and belonged to King Henry VIII.
The king’s initials, tied together by a knot, are in the centre, within a circle, above and below which are symmetrical curves of like character to those on several of Berthelet’s leather bindings, from which no doubt these are taken. A broad rectangular border encloses the central panel, and is ornamented with large double Tudor roses at each corner, the rest of the border space being cleverly filled with repetitions, right and left, of a simple fleuron with leaves.