Barrois, in describing the library of this sovereign, gives (as a selection only) the titles of nearly three thousand works, the greater part being magnificent folios, written on vellum, beautifully illuminated, and bound in velvet, satin, or damask. Many of the volumes were studded with gems, and were fastened with gold clasps, jewelled or chased. The fashion set by the Court was followed by the opulent nobles, and, later, by the wealthy merchants, who vied with each other in multiplying libraries. A nobleman whose name became famous in connection with literature was Louis de Bruges, Seigneur de la Gruthuyse, who afterwards received from Edward IV. of England the title of Earl of Winchester. The larger portion of his manuscripts were the work of Flemish scribes and were decorated by Flemish artists. His library afterwards came into possession of the kings of France, being added to the collection of the Chateau of Blois. A number of the manuscripts are now preserved in the _Bibliothèque Nationale_ of Paris. The Flemish armorial bearings had been partly obliterated in order to be replaced with those of the French King, but the obliteration was not so complete as to prevent the identification of the manuscripts with the original collection of Louis. It was to Louis de Bruges that Colard Mansion owed the first assistance he secured in the attempt (which was finally unsuccessful) to establish a printing concern in Bruges. It is somewhat surprising, in consideration of the great wealth of the Flemish capital, the large measure of literary interest shown by its noblemen and its merchants, the extensive collections of beautiful and accurate manuscripts available for the use of the printers, and the exceptional trade facilities and connections possessed by a city which was at the time the commercial capital of North Europe, that the art of printing should not at once have secured an assured foothold, and that some printer should not have built up in the Flemish capital a successful publishing concern. The first publishers who did secure an assured business foundation and a wide-spread literary prestige were obliged to do their work under conditions which appeared to be much less favourable than those existing in 1470 at Bruges. Bruges was probably the first city in Europe which possessed, some years before the beginning of printing, a guild of makers of books, the organisation of which was entirely on a mercantile basis, that is to say, which had no connection with any university and was under no other supervision or control than that of the monarch. The company, which in 1454 received a formal charter, is styled _Der Ghilde van sinte jan Ewagz_, or the Guild of S. John the Evangelist, who was the patron saint of scribes. The branches of industry connected with book-making which were represented in this guild are specified by Van Praet as follows: scriveners, illuminators, printers (that is to say, those who produced