GROLIER DE SERVIRES, JEAN, VICOMTE (VISCOUNT) D'AGUISY

born 1479, Lyon, France died Oct. 22, 1565, Paris French bibliophile and patron of bookbinders. Grolier was educated in Paris and became the treasurer and receiver general of the French army in Italy at the age of 30. By 1547 he had become one of the four treasurers of France. Grolier became a patron of Aldus Manutius, who organized the Aldine Press, one of the world's first publishers. Grolier was particularly interested in fine, gold-tooled bindings. He was a patron of many artists, and with his help the growing French bookbinding trade improved to equal the already established and renowned Italian trade. Grolier's splendid library of approximately 3,000 volumes was sold and dispersed in 1675. His books were richly bound in morocco or calf decorated with intricate designs in gold and colours. Some 400 of these Grolier bindings have survived, and each is marked distinctly with two Latin phrases. On the upper cover of all Grolier books is written Io. Grolierii et amicorum (for Grolier and his friends). On the lower cover of his books is written Portia mea, Domine, sit in terra viventium (O Lord, may my portion be in the land of the living). The Grolier Club of New York City was founded in the latter part of the 19th century in honour of Jean Grolier.