AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND FORM OF THE BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS; WITH A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING, FROM THE TIMES OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS TO THE PRESENT DAY; INTERSPERSED WITH BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES TO MEN AND BOOKS ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS. BY JOHN ANDREWS ARNETT, LONDON: RICHARD GROOMBRIDGE. EDINBURGH: OLIVER AND BOYD.-DUBLIN: CURRY AND CO. PARIS 18755 June 19. Ward Fund. HARVARD London: G. II. Davidson, Printer, Tudor-street, Blackfriars Bridge. PREFACE. THE following work aspires to the rank of a historical and chronological record of the art and science of composing books, and their subsequent embellishment,-a subject so intimately connected with literature, as to have ever been a matter of much speculation to the antiquarian and man of letters, as well as of great interest to the artist and general reader. To the perusal of the works of Ames, Palmer, Stower, Hansard, and Johnson, on the History of Printing, may a desire to collect the dispersed records of the much older Art of Bookbinding, and to perpetuate the still existing specimens of the talent of early times (many fast hastening to, and all in progress of, decay), be said to have arisen, and the appearance of the present work be attributed. To effect this object, the slight notices of the form of books, and remarks on their embellishment, found in numerous publications devoted to bibliographical subjects, to the histories of countries, of a people, or of individuals, have been collected. These, as now arranged in chronological order, and embodied with a historical record and dissertations founded on personal inspection of many ancient bindings, will, it is presumed, be found to possess an interest and variety not hitherto attached to the subject. Where an opportunity of consulting the works to which allusion has been found made by others, has not occurred, references have been given to the parties citing them; but in all other cases the original authority. The references to the labours of such as have incidentally toiled in the same field will be found throughout scrupulously recorded; as also to the productions of those, who, in a more extended manner, have devoted their time and talents to the subject. These are, the Rev. T. F. Dibdin, D.D., and the Rev. T. H. Horne, B.D. To the former gentleman, thanks are particularly tendered for the ready permission granted to copy some of the engravings, and make use of extracts from his valuable works. In the composition of the following pages, it has, on two occasions, been necessary more particularly to refer to them, viz. the impressed |