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The reproduction of the binding shown above is found in the 1955 catalogue LIVRES ILLUSTRES du XVIIIe siècle. A Paris Librairie Giraud-Badin 128 Boulevard Saint Germain, lot 41. This may be an early binding by René-François Fétil and my most important discovery so far. Almost all the previous examples have been from the 60's or later, here we see an earlier style of tools that may actually date to 1751. Last night I was thinking about the fact that Fetil, according to Thoinan, served his apprentiship under Padeloup le jeune, spending several years with one of the most celibrated and famous French bookbinders in the history of the art, At the time Padeloup was le maitre du monde of bookbinders, he was the personal binder of Louis XV, the official Relieur du Roi. An apprentice could not hope to find a higher more prestigious workshop or be so lucky as to be instructed by the Grand Master himself. Fetil would have worked on royal bindings and have been involved with the expert binders of the time to whom Padeloup was outsourcing the work that was more than he had time to do, the Dubuissons, Douceur, and others all passed through the workshop of Padeloup, Fetil would have known them all and seen first hand what they were producing. Why the work René-François Fétil is now being ignored by the 'experts' I have no idea, however we are going to put him back on the map with this binding because it is the key yet more bindings. |
| Does this corner look familiar? I am sure I have seen it before, probably Fetil will be famous for this mad cover decoration on , ELOGE DE LA FOLIE |
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In Praise of Folly starts off with a satirical learned encomium, in which Folly praises herself, after the manner of the Greek satirist Lucian, whose work Erasmus and Sir Thomas More had recently translated into Latin, a piece of virtuoso foolery; it then takes a darker tone in a series of orations, as Folly praises self-deception and madness and moves to a satirical examination of pious but superstitious abuses of Catholic doctrine and corrupt practices in parts of the Roman Catholic Church - to which Erasmus was ever faithful - and the folly of pedants. Erasmus had recently returned disappointed from Rome, where he had turned down offers of advancement in the curia, and Folly increasingly takes on Erasmus' own chastising voice. The essay ends with a straightforward statement of Christian ideals. "No Man is wise at all Times, or is without his blind Side." Erasmus was a good friend of More, with whom he shared a taste for dry humor and other intellectual pursuits. The title "Morias Encomium" can also be read as meaning "In praise of More". The double or triple meanings go on throughout the text. The essay is filled with classical allusions delivered in a style typical of the learned humanists of the Renaissance. Folly parades as a goddess, offspring of Plutus, the god of wealth and a nymph, Freshness. She was nursed by two other nymphs, Inebriation and Ignorance. Her faithful companions include Philautia (self-love), Kolakia (flattery), Lethe (forgetfulness), Misoponia (laziness), Hedone (pleasure), Anoia (dementia), Tryphe (wantonness), and two gods, Komos (intemperance) and Nigretos Hypnos (heavy sleep). Folly praises herself endlessly, arguing that life would be dull and distasteful without her. Of earthly existence, Folly pompously states, "you'll find nothing frolic or fortunate that it owes not to me." |
| I don't know if Fetil invented these tools to give a 16th century look to this binding to match the Renaissance content, we see here what are known as "open tools" as opposed to "solid tools", the open tools arrived along with "azured tools" mid 16th century. They look odd because they have not been seen for 2 centuries, talk about retrospective. |
| In Comparative Diagram 1, we see an overlay of Fetil's 'crab', Barber's DCR 28 taken from the previous binding BnF RES-G-2972, this tool seems to be one of Fetil's favorites, a sort of signature tool that he used on many of his bindings, and a sure sign of a Fetil. |
| In Comparative Diagram 2, I have attemped to compare the imprints from binding 41 which is a modern low res 1955 printing, verses actual photos that are relatively high resolution, this is a compromise however as we do not have a lot of choices, we can see that the size is right, but this too is approximate. |
| While searching through Barber's tool catalogue I found a match with FR 81, these imprints are so special there can be no doubt that this is the same tool, this is exciting as it is also found on W.Cat 415, we need to see this binding. Another match showed up with FR 76 shown below. Barbers model is low res as is my binding 41 example, however as this is also found on W.Cat. 636 we know this is probably correct and another Fetil tool. |
| On the next page we are going to examine another binding that has some of these tools that we found on this binding, however we are now heading off into deep water, where danger lurks. |
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| Even experts are sometimes wrong, before you spend thousands on a book, please do your own research! Just because I say a certain binding can be attributed to le Maitre isn't any kind of guarantee, don't take my word for it, go a step further and get your own proof. In these pages I have provided you with a way of doing just that. |
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