Page:Historical essay on the art of bookbinding (IA 0130ARTO).pdf/11

Rh his two sons. That monument of the bibliogestic art of the eighth century, described by Mabillon in his “Annales Ordinis Benedictini” (1703–39), is not extant. Nor is the engraved silver gilt case or coffer which originally enclosed the celebrated Book of Hours of Charlemagne. It is, by the way, improperly called a Book of Hours, as it is composed of extracts from the Gospels applicable to every day in the year. The calligraphist Gottschalk (Godefalcus) labored for twelve years in its execution. It was terminated in 781, and presented by the Emperor to the abbey of St. Sernin, the most ancient monastery of Toulouse. The book is extant in the library of the Louvre. It was presented to Napoleon I. by the city of Toulouse; but the casket was stolen in 1793 from the abbey of St. Sernin. The custom of enclosing valuable bindings in valuable caskets was a prevailing one, but the caskets have been prizes for pillagers, and assuredly could not have been of greater interest to the book-lover than the “carved oak box (in book form), with Milton’s initials on the side, manufactured from the old timber taken from the poet’s residence in Barbican when demolished in 1864, with a certificate of authcenticity, enclosing a work of Frischlini, with John