Henri Pène du Bois

“ Grolier undoubtedly led the art of bookbinding, justifying the opinionated expression of the Comte de Laborde: “Bookbinding is an art all French.” It is a moot point with bibliographers as to the binding of Grolier’s volumes, whether they were executed at Paris or at Lyons. The relentless Mr. Fournier, inferring from an allusion in Bonaventure des Périer’s “Cymbalum Mundi,” that the best bindings were made in Paris, while the no less learned “bibliophile Jacob” (P. Lacroix) gives the palm to Lyons, the birth-place of Grolier, and the favorite city of Bonaventure des Périers. ”

“ He was a member of the little academy which held its meetings at the learned printer’s house, apparently of a size to contain none but true friends, as a realization of the ideal of Socrates. There he met as colleagues Navagero, Marino Sanudo, the Greek Musurus, Giovanni Gioconde, Erasmus, poets, artists and savants. ”