unknown, and the productions are accordingly classable
only under their styles or their early owners.

A good deal of the finest French work is attributed to the two Eves,
whose _chefs d'oeuvre_ must, and can easily, be distinguished from
the tolerably frequent imitations put into the market from time to
time, some probably nearly coeval with the original examples. Prior to
the Eves, however, France had more or less skilful artists in this
line of industry. In the Frere sale at Sotheby's in 1896 occurred a
copy of Philelphus _De Liberorum Educatione_, printed by Gilles
Gourmont in 1508, in the original stamped leather covers, with the
name of Andre Boule on the sides. Under Francis I. we find the names
of Estienne Roffet, _dit le Faulcheur_, as "Relieur du Roy," and also
with that of Pignolet. The initials _G. G._ occur on a volume of 1523
in Messrs. Pearson & Co.'s catalogue, 1897-98, No. 679; they are
probably those of Gilles Gourmont above mentioned. In 1528, according
to his edition of _Meliadus de Leonnois_, Galliot du Pre was
sworn binder to the University of Paris. In the imprint of his edition
of _Lancelot du Lac_, Paris, 1533, Philippe le Noir describes himself
as one of the two sworn binders of the same University; and we gather
elsewhere that Francois Regnault was then the other.

When we reach the seventeenth century, greater facilities naturally
arise for identification of artists. One of the earliest directly
associated with his own labours was Le Gascon (1620-60), followed by
the Boyets (1650-1725), Louis de Bois (1725-28), Augustin du Seuil,
(1728-46), and Andreau (binder to the queen of Louis XV.). From the
commencing years of the eighteenth century, in addition to the binders
just enumerated, there is a fairly consecutive series, who worked for
the court and the public: Padeloup, the two Deromes, Douceur (who was
much employed by Madame de Pompadour), the two Bozerians, Le Monnier,
Tessier, Dubuisson (famous for his gilding), Simier, Thompson of
Paris, Cape, Duru, Chambolle, Lesne (who printed in 1827 a didactic
poem on his craft), Trautz, Bauzonnet, Marius-Michel, and Lortic.

Agreeably to the experience in every other department of skilled
labour connected with book-production, the French obeyed here the
early influence of Italian and German taste, and the germ was
Teutonic, as in Spain it was Moorish. The stamped leather bindings,
mainly common to Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, &c., were largely