e was made of this opportunity. The
beautiful products of the modern bookbinding art are familiar to us all.
Beautiful and costly as they are, they are commonplace as compared with
the decoration of the early bookbinders. It must be remembered that
these books were never intended to be crowded in serried ranks into
shelves from which they should present only their backs to the world.
They were precious treasures to be kept by themselves, handled
reverently, laid on tables or shelves, often enclosed in bags. The
covers, often blazing with jewels, were adorned by all the resources of
many kinds of art. Some were plates of ivory or rare wood covered with
wonderful carvings. Some were plates of chiseled gold or silver. Some
were brilliant with enamel. Medallions and pictures in the best style of
art ornamented them. Gems of every kind, cut and uncut, added color and
brilliancy to the effect. As late as 1583 when the great age of
book-cover ornamentation was already past, Henry III of France decreed
that ordinary citizens should not use more than four diamonds to the
decoration of one book, but nobles might use five.

The book as distinguished from the roll began to be popular in the first
Christian century. It had certain very great advantages. The rolls were
never very long and long compositions or collections of compositions
necessarily ran to many volumes. They were not easy to refer to as they
had to be unrolled and then rolled up again whenever any passage was to
be consulted. They were made of a material which was not durable in any
but the very driest of climates. The book on the other hand, while
heavy, could contain a very great amount of material in a single
volume, could be easily referred to, and was made of much more durable
material. For this reason the book form was used for legal documents
and other purposes where ease of reference was particularly desired. The
growth of the Christian church especially stimulated the substitution of
the book for the roll. Christianity, unlike any of the religions with
which it came into contact, except Judaism, was a book religion. The
Christian was constantly referring to his scriptures for argument with
his adversary as well as for his own edification and he wanted to be
able to find his favorite passages readily. The conservatism of the Jew
prevented his changing the roll form of his scriptures. The Pagan
adhered to the rolls with their associations of classic culture. The