Very many bindings of the early sixteenth century are decorated by panels or rolls bearing a binder or die-cutter or bookseller’s initials. Fully signed rolls are however uncommon. G.D. Hobson observed that “the habit of signing rolls otherwise than with initials only may be French” and speculated that a roll used in England signed with the name “de Villiers” may have originated in France.¹ Fully signed rolls were used by the printer and bookseller Macé Panthoul at Troyes early in the sixteenth century, and by Thomas Cormier (Courmyer) who was in business at the same time in Bordeaux and perhaps Limoges. Claude Chevallon (1479-1537), a Parisian bookseller, active from about 1506, used a distinctive roll signed with a rebus of his name: a saddled horse between two banderols, one lettered “Claude” and the other “Lon”. A Provisional List of bindings decorated by this roll is presented below.

 

Above Detail from no. 13 Thomas Aquinas (image source)
Below Detail from no. 14 Xenophon (image source)

Claude Chevallon’s first publication was issued jointly with Josse Bade, in 1506, with Bade printing the entire book and Chevallon apparently sharing costs and distribution [link]. By 1511, Claude had established a shop in the Rue Saint-Jean-de-Latran (opposite the Collège de Cambrai), at the sign of Saint Christopher (A Claudio Equulo, vulgariter Chevallon dicto, ante Collegium cameracense sub diui Christofori insignio libros venditante) [link; link]. In 1519, he succeeded Pasquier Lambert as Libraire juré en l’université, and in 1520 Claude married secondly Charlotte (Guillard) Rembolt, heiress to the prominent French printing house, and took over the Rembolt workshop in Rue St Jacques, at the sign of the Golden Sun. Claude Chevallon operated thereafter from both addresses (A Claudio Chevallo in vico diui Iacobi sub sole aureo, et sub intersignio sancti Christofori, e regione collegii Cameracensis). His earliest printer’s device depicts two horses supporting a shield (lettered C. CH.), with his shop sign (Saint Christopher) in foliage above, and “Claude Chevallon” boldly lettered on a panel below.² After his marriage, he preserved the sign of Rembolt’s office (Au soleil d’or), cutting two versions of the device, one with two horses used as supporters (“C.C.” on the shield, within Rembolt’s “cross and globe” symbol; “C. Chevallon” lettered beneath), the other with lion supporters (“C.C.” on the shield, again within the “cross and globe” symbol; without name).³

Before his marriage to Charlotte Guillard, and acquisition of the Rembolt presses, Claude had issued about forty editions, never printing the books himself, but sharing the risks and costs with partners; his principal associates were Josse Bade, Jean Barbier, Gilles de Gourmont, Poncet Le Preux, Jean Petit, and François Regnault. Ten bindings in our Provisional List of fifteen bindings cover books printed in Paris from 1510-1514. In three of these (nos. 10, 12-13) Chevallon is named either in the imprint or colophon. The rest were issued by his erstwhile partners, except for three: a book published by Berthold Rembolt (1510), and two by Denis Roce (1513-1514). Two bindings are on books printed at Lyon (in 1512, 1517), two are on Italian imprints (both printed in 1498), and the last is a manuscript book of hours. All of the Chevallon rebus-mark bindings in our Provisional List probably were made before 1520, whilst Claude operated as a merchant-bookseller. They might have been made to facilitate examination of books stocked by Chevallon (so-called “trade bindings”), or else made to order.⁴

The British collector and librarian Edward Gordon Duff (1863-1924) appears to have been the first, in 1893, to notice Chevallon’s rebus-mark on a binding.⁵ The erudite bookseller Percy Mordaunt Barnard (1868-1941) described one in 1918 (no. 9 in List below), and another (no. 12 below) was published by E.P. Goldschmidt some ten years later.⁶ G.D. Hobson cited Chevallon’s ownership of the roll in 1931 (without reference to books on which it was used).⁷ In 1937, Robert Brun published a census of five bindings (nos. 2, 3-4, 8, 11 below).⁸ The bookseller Fred Schreiber claimed knowledge of six bindings in 1991;⁹ Georges Colin professed to know “un total de onze” in 1994;¹⁰ and Rémi Jimenes affirmed in 2017 “Une douzaine de reliures à sa marque, toutes antérieures à 1519, nous ont été conservées.”¹¹

provisional list of bindings

(1) Adam de Wodeham, Adam Goddam super quattuor libros sententiarum (Paris: Jean Barbier, Jean Granjon, Poncet Le Preux, Jean Petit, 3 April 1512)

provenance
● Abbaye de Saint-Denis-en-Broqueroie, Mons (Benedictine abbey) (Faider)
● “Mons, Bibliothèque publique de la ville, T. 599” (Faider) [not traced in opac of the Bibliothèque Centrale, Université de Mons]

literature
Catalogue des livres imprimés de la Bibliothèque publique de la Ville de Mons (Brussels 1852), no. 781 [link]
Paul Faider, Bibliothèque publique de la ville de Mons: Exposition documentaire de reliures anciennes (Mons 1929), no. 79 (“Veau sur ais de chêne. Reliure exécutée par Claude Chevallon … et dont la marque, très caractéristique: ‘Claude (un cheval) Lon’, a été appliquée en plusieurs endroits de l’encadrement décoratif.”)
Colin, op. cit., p.86


(2) Bonifacius VIII, Sextus Liber. Sexti libri argumentum. Multis signatum sillabi: quis capita quater centum quadraginataocto dabis (Paris: Berthold Rembolt, 5 April 1510)

provenance
● Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, Inc 734:1 (opac, [link])

literature
E.P. Goldschmidt, Gothic & Renaissance bookbindings exemplified and illustrated from the author’s collection (London 1928), p.189
Robert Brun, “Guide de l’amateur de reliures anciennes” in Bulletin du Bibliophile et du Bibliothécaire, new series, 16 (1937), pp.211-216 (p.215: “Bibl. de Bâle”)


(3-4) Agostino Dati, Augustini Dathi, Senensis, oratoris clarissimi, orationum prima pars, cum annotamentis marginalibus, lima castigatiori excusa (Paris: [Guillaume Le Rouge for] Denis Roce, 5 November 1513), and Agostino Dati, Augustini Dathi, Senensis, oratoris ac philosophi clarissimi, Orationum secunda pars (Paris: [Guillaume Le Rouge for] Denis Roce, 24 September 1514) [in 2 volumes]

provenance
● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Rés. X-1134 (1)-(2) (opac Rel. XVI e s., en veau fauve, avec encadrement, estampée à froid [link])

literature
Brun, op. cit., p.215 (“Recueil de pièces imprimées par G. le Rouge pour D. Roce, 1513-1514 (Res. X. 1134)”)


(5) Dionysius Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae (Reggio Emilia: Franciscus de Mazalibus, 12 November 1498), bound with Ambrosius Aurelius Theodosius  Macrobius, somnium scipionis ex Ciceronis libro de republica excerptum (Venice: Philippus Pincius, 29 October 1500)

provenance
● John Vaus (Vascus; ca 1484-ca 1539; studied at Paris, 1505, 1515-1516), inscription “Liber M. Ioannis Vaus” [list of his books]
● Aberdeen, University Library, Inc. 166 (opac, [link])

literature
William Smith Mitchell, Catalogue of the incunabula in Aberdeen University Library (Edinburgh 1968), p.61 no. 166 (“Binding: Paris, by Claude Chevallon, between 1511 and 1537. Brown calf on wooden boards; five bands; traces of two clasps. A frame of Chevallon's rebus roll (Goldschmidt, pl. CIII no. 73), encloses a space filled by strips, two of the rebus roll with a roll of rosettes 10mm. wide between, all flanked by a roll of flies 9 mm. wide. Chevallon's distinctive roll is 19 mm. wide and is of a continuous pattern of quatrefoils in lozenges with the rebus repeated every 100 mm. or so: Claude - a saddled horse (cheval) - Lon.”)
James Roy Pickard, History of King’s College Library, Aberdeen, until 1860: Part I, Pre-Reformation (Aberdeen 1979), p.103 no. 180 (“The Parisian binding was executed by Claude Chevallon between 1511 and 1537. There is brown calf on wooden boards. A frame of Chevallon's rebus roll encloses a space filled by strips, two of the rebus roll with a roll of rosettes 10 mm. wide between, all flanked by a roll of flies 9 mm. wide. Chevallon's distinctive roll is 19 mm. wide and is of a continuous pattern of quatrefoils in lozenges with the rebus repeated about every 100 mm.”)


(6) Aulus Gellius, A. Gellii viri disertissimi Noctium Atticarum libri XX. summa accuratione Joannis Connelli Camoten. ad recognitionem Beroaldinam repositi (Paris: Josse Bade, Jehan Petit, 13 November 1511)

provenance
● Ramey family (16C)
● New York, Morgan Library & Museum, 125334 (opac, [link])

literature
Nicholas Pickwoad, “The interpretation of bookbinding structure: An examination of sixteenth-century bindings in the Ramey Collection in the Pierpont Morgan Library” in The Library, sixth series, 17 (1995), pp.209-249 (p.246); reprinted in Eloquent witnesses: Bookbindings and their history: a volume of essays dedicated to the memory of Dr. Phiroze Randeria (London & New Castle, DE 2004), pp.127-170 (pp.160-161: “a splendid example from the shop of Claude Chevallon with the roll containing his rebus”); p.170, endnote 87)


(7) John Major, Quartus sententiarum Johannis Majoris ab eodem recognitus denuoque impressus (Paris: Jean Granjon, Poncet Le Preux, Philippe Pigouchet, 1512)

provenance
● Abbaye de Saint-Denis-en-Broqueroie, Mons (Benedictine abbey) (Faider)
● “Mons, Bibliothèque publique de la ville, T. 606” (Faider) [not traced in opac of the Bibliothèque Centrale, Université de Mons]

literature
Catalogue des livres imprimés de la Bibliothèque publique de la Ville de Mons (Brussels 1852), no. 780 [link]
Faider, op. cit., p.34 (“Autre exemplaire du même type [as no. 1 above] … mêmes dimensions; même provenance”)


(8) Publius Ovidius Naso, P. Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoseos libri moralisati cum pulcherrimis fabularum principalium figuris … et Lactancii Firmiani Argumentis (Lyon: Jacques Sacon, 1512)

provenance
● Grenoble, Bibliothèque Municipale, F. 4384 Rés. (opac, [link])

literature
Brun, op. cit., p.215 (“Ovide, Lyon, 1511 (Bibl. de Grenoble, Rés. F. 4384)”)


(9) Paulus Soncinas, Quaestiones in libros metaphysicae Aristotelis (Venice: Simon Bevilaqua, 28 September 1498)

provenance
● P.M. Barnard, Tunbridge Wells; their Catalogue 115: Catalogue of rare and interesting books and autographs (Tunbridge Wells [1918]), item 13 (“on each cover an oblong centre panel is formed by four perpendicular rows of bees, on each side of which is a roll of rosettes within diagonal compartments, bearing the binder’s device claude (figure of a horse for Cheval) lon. The same roll is used to surround the whole panel”) [see Book-Auction Records 15 (1918), p.xxxiii, where this catalogue is reviewed: “including a book bound for Louis XII, by a hitherto-unknown binder, (Claude Chevallon) … the price is £45”; link]
● Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of valuable books and a few illuminated and other manuscripts, London, 30 January-1 February 1922, lot 864 (“original binding, for Louis XII, by Claude Chevallon, leather stamped with panels of bees, borders with roses and the rebus of the binder (‘Claude’ in a scroll, a horse (cheval) and ‘lon’ in a scroll), rebacked and repaired, enclosed in a case” [link]) [offered among Other Properties]
● Peters - bought in sale (£14 10s)
● San Marino, Huntington Library, 93514 (opac Contemporary French calf, in brown morocco box; bound for Louis XII by Claude Chevallon [link])


(10) Petrus de Palude, Exactissimi et quammaxime probati ac clarissimi doctoris Petri de Palude predicatorii ordinis. Hierosolimitani quondam patriarche dignissimi quartus sententiarum liber a f. Vincentio de Haerlem germano ejusdem ordinis diligentissime recognitus & ea quae Venetiane impressioni deerant ex scriptis codicibus solerter transsumpta, plenius hic sunt inserta (Paris: [printed by Jean Bienayse and Jacques Ferrebouc for] Jean Petit, François Regnault, Claude Chevallon, 7 October 1514)

provenance
● Ludolphus van Emynghe, inscription on pastedown [lector in Groningen; Hermans, Fig. 2]
● Academiebibliotheek, Groningen
● Groningen, Universiteitsbibliotheek, C 31 f (opac Met hs. aant. op binnenzijde achterplat [link])

literature
Jos. M.M. Hermans, “Oude banden Aantekeningen over vroege uitsgeversbanden uit Parijs en Keulen” in Codex in context: studies over codicologie, kartuizergeschiedenis en laatmiddeleeuws geestesleven: aangeboden aan Prof. Dr. A. Gruijs (Nijmegen 1985), pp.175-197 (pp.178-185 on Chevallon; image source: p.183 Fig. 1 (upper cover); image source: Fig. 3 (rubbing of the rebus roll, and two other rolls used on binding)


(11) Gaius Sallustius Crispus, Opera Sallustiana Caij Crispi Sallustij inter historicos nominatissimi ac veri cum Jodici Badij Ascensij expositione per quam familiari opera post nouam limam et nonnulla nuperrime addita recenter, et subiecta continent (Lyon: Jean de Jonvelle for Simon Vincent, 4 April 1517)

provenance
● Abbatia Beata Maria de Victoria, Augustinian abbey, diocese of Senlis
● Nicolas de La Fosse, inscription “Nicolaus Delafosse Religiosus Bte. Marie de Victoria usitur hoc libro, AP.M.13” (16C)
● Martin Caron, inscription “Martinus le Caron Religiosus Bte. Marie de Victoria hoc libro” (18C)
● “La Bibliotheca Victoriana” (17-18C)
● Joseph-François-René-Marie-Pierre de Kergariou (1779-1849), inkstamp “J.F.K.” with “Là ou ailleurs” [compare, link]
● Ed. Girard & Henri Leclerc with Librairie Giraud-Badin, Catalogue de livres anciens la plupart relatifs à la Bretagne ou d’auteurs bretons provenant de la bibliothèque du château de La Grand’ville, Paris, 16 January 1923, lot
● unidentified owner - bought in sale (FF 400) [Annuaire des ventes de livres 4 (1923), p.364: “Ex. dans une curieuse rel. anc. v. portant répété dans l’encad. des plats un cheval accomp. du nom.: Claude Lon. (Rel réparée; gardes mod.) 400 fr.” link]
● Hector Marie Auguste de Backer (1843-1925)
● Fernand Lair-Dubreuil & Librairie Giraud-Badin, Bibliothèque de feu M. Hector de Backer. Deuxième partie, Paris, 28-31 March 1927, lot 3053 (“… un cheval placé entre ces deux mots sur une banderole: Claude Lon … Timbre de la bibliothèque Kergariou sur le titre”)
● unidentified owner - bought in sale (FF 1650) [Bulletin du Bibliophile et du Bibliothécaire, new series, 6 (1927), p.179: “un Salluste, relié pour ou par Claude Chevallon, a réalisé le prix modeste de 1650 francs: il est vrai qu’en 1923, à la vente du Château de la Grand’ville, il s’était vendu 400 francs, mais son origine n’avait pas été déterminée” [link])
● E.K. Schreiber, New York; their Catalogue Twenty-five (New York [1991]), item 82 ($6500)
● T. Kimball Brooker, purchased from the above, 1991 [Bibliotheca Brookeriana #2026; to be sold by Sotheby’s in 2024-2025]

literature
Brun, op. cit., p.215 (“Collection Gruel”) [however, the possession of this book by Léon Gruel (1841-1923) has not been verified]
possibly the copy cited by Jan Storm Van Leeuwen, “Some observations on Dutch publishers’ bindings up to 1800” in Bookbindings & other bibliophily: Essays in honour of Anthony Hobson (Verona 1994), p.289 (as offered in a catalogue of Librairie Giraud Badin, “Livres anciens et modernes, Littérature - Histoire” “Paris ca 1990” item 135)


(12) Strabo, Strabonis, illustrissimi scriptoris, Geographia decem et septem libros continens e greco in latinum a Gregorio Typhernale [sic] et Guarino Veronense conversa, cum indice (Paris: Claude Chevallon, Gilles de Gourmont, Hémon Le Fèvre, Olivier Senant, 23 January 1512)

provenance
● “Gazieri possessio, ex dono Petri Caroli, doctoris christiani”, inscription on title-page; “Gazierus”, inscription on fol. 152, above colophon and register (opac)
● Baptiste Galanti, Paris
● E.P. Goldschmidt, London [E.P. Goldschmidt & Co. stockbook #8509, bought from Galanti, 7 April 1926; see Grolier Club, E.P. Goldschmidt & Co., Financial Records, 1919-1981, link]; their Catalogue 31: The Renaissance in France (London 1934), item 50 (£12 12s) [reoffered in Goldschmidt Catalogues 42/298, 86/276, 93/262, 97/308, 104/121]
● Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of valuable printed books, autograph letters & historical documents … The well-known E.P. Goldschmidt Collection of Gothic and Renaissance book-bindings, London, 4-5 April 1955, lot 298 [RBH PILCHARD-298]
● H.D. Lyon, London - bought in sale (£12)
● Christian Denesle & Claude Guérin with Dominique Courvoisier, Très beaux livres anciens provenant du Château de X… et appartenant a divers amateurs, Rouen, 1 March 1990, lot 95 [estimate FF 25,000-30,000]
● New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, 127110 (Purchased on the Fellows Fund as the gift of Julia P. Wightman, 1991) (opac Bound in dark-brown calf over pasteboards, tooled in blind with roll stamps in the Parisian style; central panel of front and rear covers filled with repeated vertical roll tools within a wide rectangular border; inner panels of flowers and bees; outer border consisting of printer/publisher’s rebus stamp [link])

literature
E.P. Goldschmidt, Gothic & Renaissance bookbindings exemplified and illustrated from the author’s collection (London 1928), no. 73 & Pl. 103 (rubbing of the roll)


(13) Saint Thomas Aquinas, Prima pars secunde partis summe theologie (Paris: Jean Barbier for Claude Chevallon, 1513)

provenance
● Librairie Jean-Marc Dechaud, Crissay-sur-Manse (2007)
● Bruce McKittrick, Catalog 53 (Narberth, PA 2008), item 57 ($9500; “a lattice work and foliage roll incorporating the name of the publisher Claude Chevallon in the form of a rebus, double rule central rectangle around two vertical repetitions of a bee roll (like Gid ANd2, 7 & 13) flanked by a foliage & vine roll (like Gid FLj14 & 19), ruled spine compartments, evidence of four ties”)

literature
Rémi Jimenes, Charlotte Guillard, une femme imprimeur a la Renaissance (Tours 2017), p.37 & Fig. 11 (“Thomas d’Aquin, Summa Theologica, Paris, Chevallon, 1514”); p.49 (note 78: “un exemplaire de la Summa Theologica de Thomas d’Aquin, proposé à la vente par le libraire Jean-Marc Dechaud en 2007”) [pdf, link; online, link]


(14) Xenophon, Commentariorum urbanorum octo et triginta libri. Oeconomicus (Paris: Josse Bade, Jean Petit, 1511)

provenance
● Thomas Linacre (1460-1524)
● Edward Gordon Duff (1863-1924)
● Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of the library of the late Edward Gordon Duff, London, 16 March 1925, lot 184 (“Binder Claude Chevallon … In the roll is the binder’s name and rebus” [link]
● Bourne - bought in sale (£16 10s) [Book Prices Current, link]
● London, Wellcome Library, EPB / D 3940/D (opac 16th century French calf with blind rolls over wooden boards, (rebacked and clasps wanting) by Claude Chevallon … Signature of Thomas Linacre at top of lower board. From the library of E. Gordon Duff, purchased at Sotheby’s 16/03/1925, lot 184. [link])

literature
Giles Barber, “Thomas Linacre: a bibliographical survey of his works” in Essays on the life and work of Thomas Linacre, c. 1460-1524 (Ocford 1977), pp.290-336 (p.334 no. 13: “Contemporary leather binding by Claude Chevallon”)
Giles Barber, “The Advent of gold tooling in English bookbinding” in ‘For the love of binding’: Studies in bookbinding history presented to Mirjam Foot (London 2000), pp.53-65 (p.56 no. 2 & Pl. 1 [identifies the other rolls on this binding as those reproduced by Denise Gid, Catalogue des reliures françaises estampées à froid, XVe-XVIe siècle, de la Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris 1984, DCf6, And6, FLf4)]


(15) Manuscript Book of Hours, Use of Paris (Brittany or Paris, beginning 15C)

provenance
● P.M. Barnard, Tunbridge Wells (1908)
● Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms Lat. liturg. f. 17 (opac, [link])

literature
Falconer Madan and H.H.E. Craster, A summary catalogue of western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, VI. Accessions, 1890-1915 (Oxford 1924), p.315 no. 34474 (“binding, brown leather with blind tooling, injured, worm-eaten, re-backed, and repaired. French contemporary work” [link])
Otto Pächt & J.J.G. Alexander, Illuminated manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, 1: German, Dutch, Flemish, French and Spanish Schools (Oxford 1966), no. 649 (“Stamped leather binding by Claude Chevallon, Paris 1511-37” [link])