Several of Berthelet’s bindings bear legends, and texts, dates, and names, on their sides. These inscriptions are variously arranged, but as a rule they are contained in small long panels, sometimes in circles, and rarely simply impressed on the side of the book as its chief ornament. In the cases where coats of arms are given, the initials of the owner are generally added as well. The lettering on the sides of the books is either in Greek, Latin, French, or English, examples of each of which are described below, and there is never any lettering on the backs of any of them.
Except in so far as the wording of these inscriptions is concerned, which often reads consecutively on both sides, the ornamentation is alike on both boards of all Berthelet’s bindings. The fondness for lettering sentences on the outside of his books did not stop, however, at the binding, as Berthelet carried it out also in several instances on the edges of the leaves themselves. The edges of these leaves were usually made a creamy colour, and a legend was painted upon them with gold paint. This legend, “Rex in Aeternum Vive,” is a quotation from the Book of Daniel; it is sometimes followed by the mysterious word “Neez” or “Nez,” which Mr. Edward Scott of the British Museum considers to be the three first letters of the words, Ναβουχοδονοσωρ Εσαει Ζηθι, as the phrase was addressed to that king. Whenever this legend is found on a decorative binding of the time of Henry VIII., I should say it is a sure sign of Berthelet’s royal work.
Fortunately this legend, on some of Berthelet’s earliest bindings, is associated with certain stamps of marked character, which can thus be safely considered his, and which enable us, even when they are found on other bindings without the legend, to attribute the work with certainty to him. It is my opinion that all the existing bindings in calf or white deerskin that were made for Henry VIII. and Edward VI., as well as most of those for Queen Mary, were Berthelet’s work.
The legend on the edges of the leaves of some of Berthelet’s books was not, however, the only way in which he decorated them. There are other instances where the whole edge is painted with heraldic designs in colour. This fore-edge decoration was not a new thing even in Berthelet’s time, but he seems to have been the first to adopt it in England. To some extent the ornamentation of the edges of rare volumes has been practised ever since, both in this country and abroad. The most elaborate work of the kind was, I believe, from the hand of Samuel Mearne, royal binder to Charles II., and about a hundred years after his time the fashion was revived by James Edwards of Halifax. Both these binders painted the edges of their books so that the pictures showed only when held in a certain position. Possibly the lettering on the edges of some of Berthelet’s books may have been suggested to him by the fact that in Mediæval times, when books were large and were kept on their sides with the front edges forward, it was no uncommon thing to write the title on these edges in large letters.