Large Venetian binding from the workshop of Duodo, 1600

Brown goatskin over pasteboard with gold tooling over both covers and spine. A single gold fillet provides the outer border on each cover. Double gold fillets surround and separate two inner borders. The outer of these two borders consists of a gold small flower roll, the inner is made-up of leaf and palm stamps. The central panel is filled with small gold oval stamps formed of leaves arranged in rows. At the centre of each oval is either a knot, a two leaf flower, a four leaf flower, a leaf and acorn, a thistle or a feather. Each oval is divided from the one below by a circle, and there are gothic S’s in the spaces between ovals. Small leaf stamps are placed between the ovals on the outer edges of the panels. In the centre of each panel is a larger version of the gold oval stamp, but with a blank centre to it. Front and back covers are decorated in a similar fashion but the back cover has a hole burnt in the leather at its centre. The spine is flat with a panel formed of a small oval tools three abreast in rows, surrounded by double gold fillets, a border of the small flower roll and more double gold fillets. At the head and tail of the spine are two rows of hatching separated by a single gold fillet. The remains of the headbands are orange and green. There is a single gold fillet around the edges of the boards. The paper edges are gilt and gauffered with traces of paint.

The text has been ruled throughout in red ink. The cords of this binding are laced in and pasted down on the inside of the boards under the pastedowns. The text of this work is lacking the signature A, comprising 16pp; perhaps due to censorship (see below).

Provenance:

There is an inscription on the title page, ‘Donfait a moy Paul Collez Mespin, 1675’. Paul Coulletz (Huguenot pastor active in the pays messin, born Metz, 1639), inscription dated 1675; Law Society, armorial bookplate

Jun 05, 2013 – Jun 05, 2013 Highlights from the Mendham Collection: The property of the Law Society of England and Wales

Binding:

This binding is reminiscent in style to a binding made in 1586 for Jacques-Auguste de Thou, but the binding described here must have been completed after 1602. The binding is very similar in style to those commissioned by Pietro Duodo (1554-1611) in Paris at the turn of the seventeenth century. The tool used for the border of leafy sprays is identical (see Esmerian catalogue, nos 59-61) and it is indeed used in a similar and not quite symmetrical fashion; it is most likely that this binding comes from the same Parisian workshop as Duodo’s (see Hobson, Italian and French 16th-Century Bookbindings, nos 69 and 74, the latter of which also has blank ovals for arms to be added). The individual tools are those found on fanfare bindings, but the overall effect is different. Philippe de Mornay, the author of this work, had his own books bound in fanfare bindings (see Hobson, Les reliures à la fanfare, no. 122).

Philippe de Mornay (1549-1623), a French Protestant Hugenot, endured the tumult of the Wars of Religion. Born in Buhy, he embraced Protestantism after his father’s death. He studied law in Heidelberg and Padua. As a Huguenot apologist, he wrote prolifically, escaping the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre and finding refuge in England. Mornay became a key figure in Henry IV’s circle, but was disheartened by the king’s conversion to Catholicism. He dedicated his later years to the Huguenot cause, participating in the Synod of Dort despite opposition from Louis XIII. Mornay died in retirement at La Forêt-sur-Sèvre, mourning the loss of his son and wife. He founded the Hugenot Academy at Saumur in 1593.

The present work is his response to a publication by the diplomat and Baroque poet Jacques du Perron (1556-1618). In his book, the Reformation, published in 1598, Perron criticized the use and teaching of the holy sacrament of the Eucharist in the ancient church. In a public dispute in Fontainebleau in May 1600, Mornay opposed his opinion, which ultimately marked the end of his influence on Henri IV’s politics

 Some of Philippe de Mornay’s works faced censorship due to their controversial content. Notably, his writings advocating for Protestantism and criticizing monarchy, such as his work “Vindiciae contra tyrannos” (Vindication against Tyrants), were seen as threats to the established order and were subject to suppression by Catholic authorities. Mornay’s ideas challenging monarchical power were particularly provocative during a time of religious and political upheaval in France.