Nearly all the French kings, especially the Valois, were passionately fond of splendid bindings. Catherine de Medicis was such a connoisseur of finely-bound books, that authors and booksellers, who eagerly presented her with copies of their works, tried to distinguish themselves in the choice and beauty of the bindings which they had made expressly for her. Henry III., who appreciated handsomely-bound books no less than his mother, invented a very singular binding, when he had instituted the Order of “Penitents;” this consisted of death’s heads and cross bones, tears, crosses, and other instruments of the Passion, gilt or stamped on black morocco leather, and having the following device, “Spes mea Deus” (“God is my hope”), with or without the arms of France. It is impossible to associate these superb bindings with the usual and common work executed at the booksellers’ shops, and under their superintendence. Some booksellers of Paris and of Lyons, the houses of Gryphe and Tournes, of Estienne and Vascosan, paid a little more attention, however, than others of the fraternity, to the binding of books which they sold to the reading public; they adopted patterns of dun-coloured calf, in compartments; or white vellum, with fillets and arabesques in gold, fine specimens of which are now very rare. At this period Italian bookbinding had reached the most complete state of decadency, while in Germany and other parts of Europe the old massive bindings,--bindings in wood, leather, and parchment, with fastenings of iron or brass,--still held their ground. In France, however, the binders, whom the booksellers kept in a state of obscurity and servitude, had not even been able to form themselves into a guild or fraternity. They might produce masterpieces of their art, but were not allowed to append their names to their works; and we must come down as far as the famous _Gascon_ (1641) before we can introduce the name of any illustrious bookbinder. [Illustration: Fig. 386.--Banner of the Corporation of Printers-Booksellers of Autun.] PRINTING Who was the Inventor of Printing?--Movable Letters in Ancient Times.--Block Printing.--Laurent Coster.--_Donati_ and _Specula_.--Gutenberg’s Process.--Partnership of Gutenberg and Faust.--Schoeffer.--The Mayence Bible.--The Psalter of 1457.--The “Rationale” of 1459.--Gutenburg prints by himself.--The “Catholicon” of 1460.--Printing at Cologne, Strasbourg, Venice, and Paris.--Louis XI. and Nicholas Jenson.--German Printers at Rome.--_Incunabula._--Colart Mansion.--Caxton.--Improvement of Typographical Processes up to the Sixteenth Century.