Long after the establishment of the printing-press, books, except in the hands of the scholar, continued to be a kind of curiosity, like other objects of art: less an intellectual need than a treasure upon which rich men prided themselves ... the medieval book, with its gold or ivory bas-reliefs bordered with precious stones, and its massive jeweled clasps, was more like a monstrance or reliquary than anything meant for less ceremonious use. It remained for the Italian printers and binders of the sixteenth century, and for their French imitators, to adapt the form of the book to its purpose, changing, as it were, a jeweled idol to a human companion. Edith Wharton
THE DECORATION OF HOUSES
THE DECORATION OF HOUSES
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