Vie de S. François d' Assisse** The 1907 Signed Fine Binding attributed to Edith Diehl**

33, Rue de Seine, 33, Paris: Librairie Fischbacher , 1111 Reprint. (33rd edition,) in French. Near Fine. Hard cover, 8vo, in a contemporary fine binding of full niger levant morocco with decoration in blind and in gilt, and with the gilt-tooled signature attributed to the early professional debut of the American master bookbinder, bookbinding historian, author and teacher, Miss Edith [Josephine Lee] Diehl (1876-1953), appearing on the rear turn-in with the four-letter monogram and date: "19 EJLD 07." In a cloth covered, felt-lined slipcase. The front board has a panel stamped portrait in blind of Saint Francis within an ellipse, in imitation of panel-stamped German or French religious books of the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries. This is contrasted to border decoration tooled in gilt done in the manner of one of her contemporary English bookbinding mentors, Douglas Cockerell, [to whom the bookbinding was once attributed in the past, given some similarities of the somewhat difficult-to-read initials, and on style.] The "Cockerellesque" British Arts and Crafts border design consists of a series of heart shapes in gilt, tooled to intersect, and yet not fully enclose, the additional decoration of 15 Tudor roses, flanked by small leaves, and stippled dots applied somewhat irregularly within the heart intersections. In addition, a row of what appear to be small, stylized cotton ball blooms (or another small, round flower?) and smaller leaf accent the double-banded ruled border. Board edges are also ruled in gilt. Endcaps are tooled with "shilling" style lines. All edges gilt. The spine has five raised bands, each terminating in the Cockerellesque manner of medieval-like "hinge" extensions, with a tooled Tudor rose accenting each point on both front and rear boards. The rear board also has a more simple design consisting of two concentric rectangles with medium dots tooled at the corners. Within, the turn-ins are decorated with two opposing lines of the cotton ball flowers, leaves, with a single (smaller) Tudor rose at each corner. Edith Diehl's signature and date appear to rear turn-in as described above. **CONDITION: Near Fine, in a Fine slipcase. The spine is a bit sunned, and shows some areas lacking varnish. Pages are moderately age-toned. Pencil notation to front pastedown and ffep. remain with the [incorrect] Cockerell attribution.**The initials EJLD and date have been explained as incorporating Edith's mother's name, Josephine Lee Diehl into the monogram. (an identical sounding desription appears in a near-contemporary example appears in a professional book dealer's cached catalog; interestingly on a title which showcasing a different set of book decorative skills, including the use of small circles of gilt banded onlaid circles; strongly suggesting the lineage of the Cockerellesque tutelage.**The influence of American Bookbinder, author and educator Edith Diehl (1876-1953) is hard to overstate in terms of her craft, and in her writings about the inequities of women employed in the skilled trades associated with bookmaking in the early to mid twentieth century. Her title, "Bookbinding: It's Background and Technique" (1946) remains a classic two-volume encyclopedia of both the history of the book from antiquity as well as a manual for all parts of book production by hand. (Diehl discusses her preference for the use of this particular morocco, the distinctively pinky-red colored niger "levant" on page 311.) **Born in Brewster, New York, and educated at the all-women's Wellesley College ('04) near Boston, Diehl continued studies in philosophy at the University of Jena; her time on the continent must also have introduced her to the elaborate medieval-era panel-stamped book bindings found in Germany, France and Belgium, from which she may have taken the inspiration for this depiction of St. Francis. Home again in New York, she trained under Florence Foote at New York's female-run Emily Nordhoff Bindery. She went abroad again to extend her bookbinding training in 1902, visiting London, Paris and Brussels. Marianne Tidcombe sites Diehl's first solely-owned workshop, dating from 1906, at 121 East 23rd Street, New York. Later, a display ad appears for "Miss Edith Diehl/Bookbinder/ Instruction in Hand Bookbinding/Orders Taken for Binding Books in Leather or Vellum/ Finishing Department in Charge of Monsieur Adolphe Dehertogh/ Late Head Finisher of the Club Bindery/ Studio: 131 East 31st St., N.Y." ( from "Arts and Decoration Magazine" of Jan. 1911, Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 99, via jstordotorg)**Finally, this book's significance lies in its representation of the early promise of a woman professional bookbinder who would become a major figure in the teaching of the history of the book, and book binding techniques in the early twentieth-century United States. With the world of fine books as her teacher, Edith Diehl's travels channelled a passion to study with some of the "Best of British" practitioners of the era, including Douglas Cockerell. Some of her works can be seen in New York's Grolier Club. Refs.: M. Tidcombe, Women Book-Binders (Oak Knoll, British Library, 1996) pp. 180-81. Notes p. 235. . Trente-Troisième Éditión. Hard Cover. Near Fine.