Bijou

Our beautiful magenta and gold Bijou design is a real jewel in bookbinding history. Originally crafted in France, it was designed to hold the Pars Hiemalis section of the Parisian Brevarium. This was the winter section – including the equinox (or solstice) part of advent – of a book containing the liturgical rites of the Catholic Church throughout the church year.

Bound in red morocco leather, with golden filigree and large pointillé dots, by an unidentified Parisian workshop, the publication was printed by S. and G. Cramoisy in 1645. S. and G. Cramoisy, one of the most powerful booksellers of the era, was one of the first secular printers to take over printing liturgical works after authority was transferred from the Church itself to secular workshops in 1618. However, this binding was likely produced for a book collector, rather than having been used in service. It has been in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France since the Second Empire (1865–1870).

With brilliant filigree work like this, it is easy to see why a collector would commission such a piece, and why the Bibliothèque Nationale de France would so proudly hold it in their collection for the last two centuries.