Historical essay on the art of bookbinding/Preface
PREFACE.
Multum legendum est, non multa . . . is the precept of Pliny the Elder, and the invention of the printed book has made it invaluable to the true and worthy bibliophile, whose aim is to obtain possession of the best books in the best editions, not the bibliomaniac’s purpose to pile Pelion on Ossa.
Then, as beneath the dome of a great library lies the temple of refuge for the soul that suggested itself to Osymandyas, King of Egypt, the books of the bibliophile should not be artistically as cold as a Carnac dolmen.
The history of the art of bookbinding is compatible with the history of artistic taste in every country; it progressed gradually with the art of bookmaking; it flourished with the Renascence in France; it fell in the Revolutionary era; it is at its height in England, in France and in the United States at present.
To the reader who cares to make a study of it is promised pleasure as well as instruction in the books quoted in the appended bibliography, every one of which has been consulted for the present essay.
