This book studies and compares two sixteenth-century libraries. Jean Grolier's was a bibliophilic "cabinet" of fine books. Hurtado de Mendoza's was a much larger and more scholarly collection; a full Catalogue is provided for the first time. Books commissioned by Jean Grolier, "the Prince of Bibliophiles," have long been famous. Hurtado de Mendoza was a poet and historian, a Greek scholar and Arabist. This book contains valuable information on Grolier and Hurtado de Mendoza's work, including catalogues, lists of bindings and indexes of printers, publishers, editors, commentators and...

This book studies and compares two sixteenth-century libraries. Jean Grolier's was a bibliophilic "cabinet" of fine books. Hurtado de Mendoza's was a much larger and more scholarly collection; a full Catalogue is provided for the first time. Books commissioned by Jean Grolier, "the Prince of Bibliophiles," have long been famous. Hurtado de Mendoza was a poet and historian, a Greek scholar and Arabist. This book contains valuable information on Grolier and Hurtado de Mendoza's work, including catalogues, lists of bindings and indexes of printers, publishers, editors, commentators and...

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...