Plutarque, Les Vies des hommes illustres. Trad. Jacques Amyot. Paris, M. Vascosan, 1559, Gr. in-fol. Binding, upper cover. Cambridge, Trinity College, Sel. a. 55.4

Grolier in Cambridge libraries and other French Renaissance bookbindings: 1510-1559

Wed 4 March 2020

Clare College Memorial Court

Sandars Lectures 2020, hosted by Cambridge University Library

The practice of gold-tooling bindings began relatively late in France compared with Italy (c. 1507). Cambridge libraries own one of the earliest very rare French gold-tooled bookbindings, unpublished hitherto and datable to 1510, as well as two remarkable famous plaquette bindings made in Italy for Jean Grolier the same year.

This first Sandars Lecture will discuss Grolier, Mahieu and other examples of French bindings from Cambridge collections. Discoveries made during the course of research for these lectures include an unpublished royal binding made for King Henri II. It will also cover the influence of model and ornament manuals for the design of bookbindings. This overview of the first fifty years of gold-tooling in France ends with a look at the famous bindings of Christophe Plantin – and demonstrates that they were made not in Antwerp but in Paris.

About the series: French bookbindings and bibliophily, 16th-18th centuries

Cambridge institutions are fortunate enough to preserve several important French decorated bookbindings. This series of two lectures and a workshop will detail the development of French gold-tooled bindings from their earliest appearance, with examples taken from Cambridge libraries. They will also focus on the role of the French patrons who encouraged and promoted this extraordinary development.

About the speaker:

A French “archivist-paleographer” trained at the Ecole des Chartes, Isabelle de Conihout worked for twelve years in the Rare Books Department at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, then spent fifteen years as the senior librarian at the Bibliothèque Mazarine. From 2014 to 2017, she was Head of Christie’s Paris Books and Manuscripts Department. In addition to research on first editions and literary libraries, she is particularly interested in the history of collections (cabinets of curiosities, botany and nature printing) and the history of bookbinding (Grolier, Mahieu, Claude de Laubespine, 17th and 18th century bibliophiles).

Lecture is free to attend and open to all.

No booking required; seats offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

Image: Plutarque, Les Vies des hommes illustres. Trad. Jacques Amyot. Paris, M. Vascosan, 1559, Gr. in-fol. Binding, upper cover. Cambridge, Trinity College, Sel. a. 55.4

Cost: Free