Materials on which books are printed--Early popular works printed on vellum--The _edition de luxe_ again--Binding of books--Earliest method and style--Printers who were also binders--Superiority of morocco to russia and calf--Influence of climate and atmosphere on bindings--Character of old English bindings--Charm of a Caxton or other precious volume in the original covers--A first folio Shakespeare in old calf--Our latter-day literature compared with the old--Splendour of the liveries of books in the libraries of France under the ancient régime--Disappointment at the interiors of well-bound volumes explained--The author plays a subordinate part--The Parisian book-binding Code--The difference between the French and ourselves--The original publisher's boards--The Frenchman's _maroquin rouge_--A suggestion to collectors--Bibliographical _simulacra_--Do not touch!--Sentiment finds a place in England in regard to the treatment of old books--Thoughts which a book may awaken.
IT may be necessary to introduce a few words about the material on which the Printed Book has at various times been brought before its readers, or at least its purchasers. The oldest European fabrics employed for books of this class (not MSS.) were paper and parchment, the latter very often prepared with very slight care, but the former of remarkable strength and durability. The cost must have been at first very onerous; but impressions of ancient volumes were usually limited. By degrees, fine vellum, alike conspicuous for its delicacy of quality and beauty of tone, was introduced, and became fashionable among the patrons of literature in Italy and elsewhere during the Renaissance. No such luxurious mode of presenting the type and giving full effect to the work of the illuminator, which so constantly formed a feature and a charm in the productions of the presses of the Continent of Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries has ever since been found possible. It is rather singular that not merely classical authors and other _editiones principes_ received this sumptuous treatment, but even such books as grammars and theological treatises. A copy of the _Grammatica_ of Alexander Gallus (or _De Villâ Dei_) was lately offered for sale by auction, and realised £23; it was printed on vellum of excellent character and colour about 1480.