The most gorgeous period of French bookbinding was that of Henri II. and his children. Henri himself loved fine bindings, and so did Catherine de Medici, but unfortunately we do not know who executed them. They are in calf or morocco, and nearly always have coloured fillets. Those which were bound for Diane de Poictiers, Duchesse de Valentinois, are equally remarkable, and all of them have, as a rule, heraldic ornamentation. A fine portrait cameo stamp, however, of Henri II. appears as a centrepiece on some of his bindings, and the name Dianne appears on one of Diane’s now in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. [Illustration: FIG. 122.--French sixteenth century binding, made for Diane de Poictiers.] The cyphers which appear on all these bindings are as a rule straightforward enough, being either those of Henri or his Queen Catherine, but among them is one which contains the initials H. and D. intertwined. This may mean “Henri Dauphin,” but it is usually interpreted as meaning “Henri” and “Diane.” I do not propose here to enter into the vexed question of this curious cypher, as it has already been fully discussed elsewhere,[1] but I may say that Henri’s own device before he succeeded to the throne was a crescent with the legend NEC IMPLEAT TOTEM ORBEM. An unstrung bow as well as the other emblems of Diana the huntress undoubtedly appears on bindings made for this king. I am rather inclined to think that these devices of bow, crescents, and quiver, which show on the bindings made for Henri as well as on those made for Diane de Poictiers, may really have been separately chosen, and have no necessary connection with each other. On the bindings made for Diane de Poictiers the bow is strung. [Illustration: FIG. 123.--French binding by Nicholas Eve, 1578. Made for Henri III.] Henri III. was an eccentric king, and it has been said that among other arts he learnt that of bookbinding. He lost his ladylove, and ever afterwards grieved her loss. His bindings show the device of the confraternity of the White Monks, to which order he belonged, and a skull and “SPES MEA DEUS.” But besides these gloomy bindings we owe some of the finest bindings ever made in France to the art of Henri’s royal binder, Nicholas Eve. The French order of St. Michel was founded by Louis XI., in 1466, in place of an older order “De l’Etoile,” which had been instituted by Jean II. Henri III., in 1578, founded a new order, the Saint Esprit, and among the State papers of the time is a note to the effect that Nicholas Eve bound forty-two copies of the _Ordonnances de l’ordre du Sainct Esprit_ for the king. One of these books is now in the British Museum. It is bound, as described in the official note, in orange morocco, and agrees in all respects with that description. [Illustration: FIG. 124.--French, gold tooled “Fanfare” binding. Made for J. A. De Thou.]