gatura." _Hist. of Engl. Poetry_, vol. ii., p. 244.
Hearne, in No. III. of the appendix to _Adam de Domerham
de reb. gest. Glast._, has "published a grant from Rich. de
Paston to Bromholm abbey, of twelve pence a year rent charge
on his estates to _keep their books in repair_." This I
gather from Gough's _Brit. Topog._, vol. ii., p. 20: while
from the _Liber Stat. Eccl. Paulinae_, Lond. MSS., f. 6, 396
(furnished me by my friend Mr. H. Ellis,[D] of the British
Museum), it appears to have been anciently considered as a
part of the Sacrist's duty to bind and clasp the books:
"Sacrista curet quod _Libri bene ligentur et haspentur_," &c.
In Chaucer's time, one would think that the fashionable
binding for the books of young scholars was
_various-coloured velvet_: for thus our poet describes the
library of the Oxford Scholar:

A twenty bokes, clothed in black and red
Of Aristotle----

(_Prolog. to Cant. Tales._)

We have some account of the style in which Chaucer's royal
patron, Edward III., used to have his books bound; as the
following extract (also furnished me by Mr. H. Ellis) will
testify:----"To Alice Claver, for the making of XVI laces
and XVI tasshels for the garnyshing of diuers of the Kings
books, ij_s._ viij_d._----And to Robert Boillet for blac
paper and nailles for closing and fastenyng of diuers cofyns
of ffyrre wherein the Kings boks were conveyed and caried
from the Kings grete warderobe in London vnto Eltham
aforesaid, v_d._----Piers Bauduyn Stacioner for bynding
gilding and dressing of a booke called Titus Liuius, xx_s_:
for binding gilding and dressing of a booke called
Ffrossard, xvj_s_: or binding gilding and dressing of a
booke called the Bible, xvj_s_: for binding gilding and
dressing of a booke called le Gouuernement of Kings and
Princes, xvj_s._" "For the dressing of ij books whereof oon
is called la forteresse de Foy and the other called the
booke of Josephus, iij_s._ iiij_d._ And for binding gilding
and dressing of a booke called the bible historial, xx_s._"
Among the expenses entered in the Wardrobe Accompts 20th
Edw. III. I suspect that it was not 'till towards the close
of the 15th century, when the sister art of painting
directed that of engraving, that books were bound in thick