Claude de Picques (c. 1510 – 1574 or 1578) was an influential French
bookbinder. He was closely connected with the court of King
Henry II of France, serving as the personal bookbinder to Queen
Catherine de' Medici
Catherine de' Medici ( it, Caterina de' Medici, ; french: Catherine de Médicis, ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King ...
from 1553 and as the personal bookbinder to the King himself from 1556 to 1574.
He is thought also to have been one of the binders who worked for
Thomas Mahieu Thomas Mahieu (born between 1515 and 1527 – died after 1588), also known as Thomas Maiolus, was a French courtier and bibliophile with a special interest in decorative bookbindings.
Mahieu was advisor and secretary to Henry II of France, persona ...
.
De Picques is acknowledged to have created some of the finest decorative bindings of his era.
France was taking over from Italy as the center of artistic bookbinding during the early sixteenth century. Political upheaval in Italy, the
Sack of Rome in 1527, and the
French occupation of Milan had caused innovations such as gold tooling to reach to France, where they were swiftly embraced and refined. The
Franco-Ottoman alliance brought high-quality
morocco leather and an influx of highly proficient gilders. French bookbinders began manufacturing gold-tooled books in 1507. By 1535, they were capable of "large-scale production" exhibiting impressive "decorative effect, beauty of design and skill in execution."
While De Picques was one of the driving forces behind the refinement of his craft,
there has been a reassessment of the scope of his activities, as more has become known about the work of
Jean Picard
Jean Picard (21 July 1620 – 12 July 1682) was a French astronomer and priest born in La Flèche, where he studied at the Jesuit Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand.
He is principally notable for his accurate measure of the size of the Earth, base ...
and
Gomar Estienne.
In older studies of French bookbinding De Picques has been associated with a workshop called the "atelier au trèfle" (named after the distinctive use of
trefoil motifs).
While it is not disputed that De Picques used a trefoil tool, more recent scholarship highlights other binders working in the same style.
[For a binding which may or may not be by De Picques, see ] Current thinking accepts the evidence presented by A.R.A. Hobson that some of the bookbindings which were formerly attributed to the "atelier au trèfle" were not in fact the work of De Picques. In particular, Jean Picard has been credited with a notable series of bindings executed for
Grolier in the 1540s.
References
External links
British Library- Search on "Claude de Picques" for images and catalogue entries on bindings attributed to de Picques.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Picques, Claude De
Bookbinders
16th-century French people
1510s births
1570s deaths