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COMPARATIVE IMPLEMENTOLOGY

French Decorative Bookbinding - Sixteenth Century

Atelier Royal - François Ier

Ms. 2413

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Comparative Diagram 1 - Ms. 2413 with associated roulette imprint Type Models
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Fortunately the previous binding Gid 150 is linked to this binding Ms. 2413, found in the online catalogue of the BSG (Blind-tooled Bookbindings from the BIBLIOTHÈQUE SAINTE-GENEVIÈVE 12th -18th Centuries). I show this binding above in Comparative Diagram 1, along with Denise Gid's roulette imprint type models that link this binding to Gid 150. The central roulette is certainly a Décor Continu roulette of the d series as shown in Gid's plates 51 and 52, however none of the listed examples match this particular roulette.





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Comparative Diagram 2 - Decor Continu imprint type models vs Ms 2413 roulette

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The EN c 3 roulette is one of the important links to the atelier Royal found on this Ms. 2413 binding. In Comparative Diagram 3, we see enlarged sections from this roulette imprint, and although the details are blurred or impressed with different strengths, on possibly different qualities of leather, we can still be fairly certain that these imprints have been made with the same tool. Further to this we can see in Comparative Diagram 4, that all of the EN c series contain crowned dauphins. On 18 May 1514, François Ier married his second cousin Claude, the daughter of King Louis XII of France and Duchess Anne of Brittany. The couple had seven children. The first male child and heir to the throne and thus the first dauphin was François born on the 28th of February 1518 and died young on the 10th of August 1536. (Le 28 février 1518, Claude de France, duchesse de Bretagne et reine consort de France, met au monde son premier fils. Prénommé François, comme son père, l'enfant est pourvu du titre de dauphin en tant qu'héritier du trône de France.) Therefore these dauphin roulettes cannot be any earlier than 1518. The dates for the appearance of these roulettes probably ranges from 1518 to 1524 even though some  were in use as late as 1534.





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Comparative Diagram 3 - enlarged Gid roulette imprint model EN c 3 vs Ms 2413 roulettes
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Comparative Diagram 4 - Gid plate 58 Entrelacs - roulette imprint models EN c 3
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Comparative Diagram 5 - Bindings from the atelier Royal
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l.a.miller@mail.pf