The Italians were the first to awake to the enormity of binding their books in pig skin, or encasing them between clumsy wooden boards; and readily profiting by the teachings of the great master painters, who made Italy their peculiar home, they began to use calf and morocco, elaborately tooled to geometrical patterns. Leo X. (1513-21) had a good library, and one book at least is extant, bound by an Italian artist in red morocco, with the Papal arms on the sides. Some years previously to this, Aldus Manutius had bound his own books at Venice, and he took as much care of their dress as he did of the text. Some of these bindings appear to be imitations of the designs sculptured on the walls of mosques, and it was from the East therefore that the great Venetian school obtained its first instruction in the art. The book lover rejoices exceedingly when he meets with any of these ancient Italian bindings, but if he can only possess a Maioli, his cup of happiness literally overflows. This Maioli--who or what he was are alike unknown--this Maioli had an extensive library, and all his books were sumptuously bound in the choicest leathers and tooled in gold on the backs and sides. On an embossed shield was the title of the work, and underneath, that inscription afterwards imitated by Grolier, "Tho Maioli et Amicorum". Let not the collector be deceived however:--there were two Maiolis: Thomasso, above mentioned, whose choice bindings are sought after all the world over, and Michel, whose artistic tastes were less fully developed, and who perhaps knew better than to invite his friends to borrow from his store. Cardinal Bonelli (1541-98) and Canevari, the physician to Pope Urban VIII. (1559-1625), were both enamoured of costly bindings, the latter especially, for on the sides of his books appears a gorgeous object representing Apollo in gold, driving his chariot in blue or red over a silver sea. Lorenzo de Medici, Prince of Florence, scholar and patron of art and literature, called the Magnificent, who died in 1492, stamped his books with the Medici arms, together with a laurel branch and the motto _Semper_. Others of the Medici family had splendid libraries, and their books were often covered with silver and gold beautifully inlaid, after the designs of painters of the highest eminence. Amongst other Italian collectors whose fondness for calf and morocco carried them perhaps just a little too near the border line of extravagance, were Pietro Accolti, Cardinal of Ancona (1445-1532), Antonio Alemanni, the poet (1500), and Pasqual Cicogna, Doge of Venice, who died in 1595. Specimens from the libraries of any of these, and others besides, are sometimes worth far more than their weight in gold. The Italian bookbinders were the instructors of the French, who subsequently rivalled and finally eclipsed their masters. At first the French merely imitated, but towards the close of the reign of Francis I. (_cir._ 1540), they struck out fresh lines of their own.