THE LEGATURA A LA FANFARE

"With small irons, in compartments of various sizes and shapes, all dotted with small designs, except for the mirror which often features the owner's coat of arms. This type of binding began to spread during the reign of Henry III, son of Catherine de' Medici, in the second half of the sixteenth century and was very fashionable in the seventeenth century also in Italy. In detail, the scrolls that make up the friezes and frames are traced with three fillets, two close together and one further away. The scrolls create spaces in which branches and foliage are placed. In the center there is an empty space, where a coat of arms, a plaque or other can be placed. The decoration is denser and more elaborate than in the taste of Grolier and Maioli. Grolier himself, however, had a binding of this type made at the end of his life, between 1558 and 1565, demonstrating openness to modern taste and experimenting with unusual forms of decoration compared to his traditional style. The conventional designation of binding à la fanfare, however, dates back to the last century: in In 1829, the bookseller and bibliophile Charles Nodier had a copy of Jean Presvot's work, Fanfares et courvées abbadesques , printed in Chambéry in 1613, bound by the well-known bookbinder Thouvenin." (Pietro Rotelli, online ).