This book, first published in 1999, studies and compares two sixteenth-century libraries. Jean Grolier's was a bibliophilic 'cabinet' of fine books; Diego Hurtado de Mendoza's was a much larger and more scholarly collection; a full catalogue is provided for the first time. Both men were greatly influenced by experience of Italy. Grolier has been called 'the Prince of Bibliophiles'; the books he commissioned have long been famous. This is the first full account of his life for eighty years. Hurtado de Mendoza was a poet, historian, Greek scholar and Arabist. He served as the Emperor's Ambassador in Venice (1540–6), to the Council of Trent (1545–6), and to the Pope (1547–52). In Venice he set out to form for Spain a collection of Greek manuscripts to rival that being formed for France by Francis I's agents. Anthony Hobson's text is complemented by ninety-one illustrations, several thematic indexes, eleven appendices and a bibliography.
When it was first published in 1990, this book was an important study (the first for over sixty years) of north Italian and Parisian bindings by a distinguished authority who has elegantly considered the twin claims of ornament and patronage. The decorative possibilities of book binding were transformed during the third quarter of the fifteenth century through the work of antiquaries and scribes centred in Padua. Gilt-tooled elements taken from Islamic bookbindings and metal work, antique monuments and inscriptions and classical gems were adapted to create a new style. Italian men of letters and collectors enthusiastic for the New Learning carried the Paduan fashion to Central and Northern Europe, and Francis I's respect for learning and the patronage of two successive kings kindled a final blaze of creative brilliance in sixteenth-century France.
This is the first time that many of these bindings have been shown and photographed Features specialist writers from the UK, France and Spain The exhibition that this book accompanied, took place in A
