Henri Pène du Bois

“ An estimate of the weight of such a binding may be formed without reference to the volume of the Epistles of Cicero, now in the Florence Laurentian library; Petrarch’s autograph copy of the work, of such ponderous weight that it severely injured his left leg, on which it was habitually made to rest, until the threatened necessity of its amputation compelled his relinquishing the constant reading of his favorite author. ”

“ The manuscripts of the Abbey of Saint Victor, in 1308, were attached to desks; the books of Notre Dame of Paris, similarly arranged, were designated in numerical order in the first catalogues. The custom was probably abandoned shortly after the invention of printing, as the catenati of the church of St. Gratien of Tours were a curiosity to Lebrun Desmarettes in the reign of Louis XIV., and scarcer than an uncut Elsevier is in France, a book with the chain-mark of the original catenatus. ”