V. ITALIAN COLLECTORS AND BINDERS. Modenese (1490-1500) : 12959 THEBALDEO (Antonio) [Sonetti, capitoli e rime, chiamate Opere d'Amore] sm. 4to. fine large copy in the contemporary Italian olive morocco binding, with ornamental panels of gilt tooling, gilt edges, from the Sunderland library, £30. Modena, Dom. Rocociolo, 1488 An unusually fine example of Italian binding at the end of the fifteenth century. It may be Florentine rather than Modenese, but the probability is that it was done at Modena between 1490 and 1500. Florentine (1503): 12960 VALERIUS FLACCUS [Argonautica], sm. 8vo. fine copy in contemporary calf binding, stamped with gold ornament on the sides, gilt and gauffred edges, from the Sunderland library, £5. 58 Florent. Junta, 1503 This is Florentine binding of the same date as the book. Aldine Bindings (1500-50): 12961 MARTIALIS, 12mo. title mended, otherwise a very large and fine copy in old Venetian morocco, richly ornamented with gold tooling, gilt gaufré edges, THICK PAPER, from the Beckford library, £21. Venetiis, Aldus, 1501 The lettering MAR appears on the front cover. Both sides are ornamented with a broad border and an oval centrepiece, also bordered, with a simple rose in the panels on the back-all in gold. The goffering of the edges is of a sort of lace-pattern, and is extraordinarily fresh and fine. 12962 DEMOSTHENIS Orationes, Libanii Argumenta, Vita Demosthenis per Libanium, ejusdem vita per Plutarchum, omnia Græce, sm. folio, very fine copy in the original oakboards, covered with a stamped Aldine binding of black morocco, £30. Venetiis, in ædib. Aldi, 1504 The binding is contemporary with the book, and is an excellent specimen of its class, full of varied design and arabesque ornament. This is the second (and presumably less rare) edition published by Aldus of the date of 1504, but the fact is strange that the present copy is upon fine and stout paper-the very circumstance supposed to distinguish the first issue from the second-and that no one has described such a copy before. 12963 VERGILII Bucolica, Georgica, Aeneis, cum Servii commentariis... (cura Jo. B. Egnatii), sm. 4to. numerous woodcuts, contemporary stamped calf binding, from the Sunderland library, £10. 10s Venet. Bernardinus Stagninus, 1507 A clean copy of a scarce edition with woodcuts, apparently unmentioned by Brunet. The binding has the following inscription: "Melior vigilantia somno. Ant. R. (ANTONIUS RINCKIUs whose name appears inside the cover); spes mea christus." The binding may date from about 1520-30, and is an elaborate specimen of ornamental work in relief. Anton Rinck-probably travelling in Italybought the book before 1568, having the motto and his name added, and in that year sent the volume as a present to his son Johann Rinck "perlegendum et ediscendum." The son gave it away in 1571. 12964 PLINII (C.) SECUNDI Novocomensis EPISTOLARU libri Decem Eiusdem Panegyricus. . . de Viris illustribus ... Suetonii de claris Grāmaticis et Rhetorib. Iulii obsequentis Prodigiorum liber... sm. 8vo. (12mo.) very fine and large copy, apparently ... ALDINE BINDINGS-continued. on thicker paper than usual, in the original Aldine calf binding, with simple gilt ornaments on the back and in centre, and angles on the sides, £8. Venetiis, in aedib. Alli, et Andrea Asulani soceri, 1508 The first book printed by Aldus in active partnership with his father-in-law. 12965 DANTE Col Sito et Forma dell' Inferno, sm. 8vo. (12mo.) woodcuts, fine and very large copy in old calf, gilt edges, from the Beckford library, £15. 15s Vinegia, Aldo & Andrea di Asola, 1515 This volume has been rebacked with surprising dexterity, but the original sides are still there with gilt tooling at the corners and in the centre. The binding, as well as the book, is Aldine; very slightly ornamental, but dignified and elegant in its simplicity. 12966 MUSÆI opusculum de Herone & Leandro. Orphei Argonautica Hymni. . . de Lapidibus, Græce, 12mo. two woodcuts, the initials illuminated, a beautiful large copy in the original Aldine binding, ornamented with a gilt double border, gilt edges, £15. 15s Venetiis, in ædibus Aldi, 1517 The binding is somewhat damaged, but a very little restoration would make it an excellent specimen of its kind. 12967 TERENTIUS (cum præfatione Francisci Asulani), sm. 8vo. The first Aldine edition of Terence, dedicated to Grolier. The binding is a fine example of its kind, with the figures in bold and clear relief. ex 12968 ERASMUS. Pacis Querela; de regno administrando; institutio principis Christiani; Panegyricus ad Philippum Plutarcho de discriminatione adulatoris, etc. 1518-Erasmi Roterodami Opusculum cui titulus est Moria, id est Stultitia, 1518-2 vols. in 1, 12mo. original stamped binding, edges gilt and goffered, and bearing a cipher which seems to be composed of the letters in the word France, £20. Venetiis, in ædibus Aldi et Andreæ Soceri, 1515-18 The binder's initials, P. V., appear amongst the arabesques of the stamped work. On the blank page following the dedication, there is an armorial bearing painted with a device the same as specified in the description of Longepierre's Pliny, and identical with the device on the goffered edges of this book. The back, which had been plain, was tooled and gilt about the beginning of last century for the Abbé de Fourcy, whose bookplate is in the volume. Of the first of these two books Renouard uses the words "édition trèsrare," and of the second, "l'une des plus rares des éditions Aldines." 12969 IL PETRARCA, 12mo. large copy in the original smooth red morocco binding, curiously ornamented in the Oriental style, inside as well as outside the cover, £12. 12s Venetia, Aldi filii, 1546 This is a great curiosity of binding. Notwithstanding its "Persicos adparatus," it was undoubtedly done in the Manutian binding-house, where, as someone has suggested, Levantine workmen were employed as well as Italians. The sunk-centre and angles are stamped with gold, the ornamental tracery being produced by a pattern impressed on the red leather and showing in relief above the gold.* Inside, the ornament is still more strikingly Oriental, a pattern of so-called Venetian design being cut out of the leather, so as to expose the green silk which covers the boarding beneath, thus producing a charming effect. Giustiniani of Genoa (about 1520): 12970 PSALTERIUM, Hebreum, Grecu, Arabicũ, & Chaldeū, cũ tribus latinis iterptatoibus & glossis, folio, ruled throughout, very fine large copy in the original calf binding, broadly gilt on the siles with massive gold tooling; the fleur-de-lis of France, the ermine of Brittany, and the Griffin of Genoa stamped in the spaces between the interlacements, and the arms of the original owners engraved and painted as pictures, with landscape backgrounds and ornamental accessories in the centres, the back mended, £12. Genuæ, 1516 The escutcheon on the front is parti-per-pale: the sinister azur, a serpent vert, twined round a fleur-de-lis or; the dexter, gironné, gueules et sable; the shield surmounted by a fleur-de-lis. The escutcheon on the back is parti-per-fess; the lower half the Giustiniani arms, gueules, a castle sable, with chef d'or, an eagle issant, sable, crowned or; the upper half a crest, with the figure of Justice holding a balance. This binding must have been executed between 1516 and 1522, while Genoa, under its Doge Fregoso, recognized the sovereignty of France. C. J. (about 1520-30) : 12971 VIPERÆ (R. P. D. Mercurii) de Divino et vero Numine apologeticon (primum usque ad sextum), 6 parts-de Disciplinarum virtutüque laudibus opusculum, Romæ, 1515-Orationes, Romæ, 1514-Oratio, s. n.- -together 9 parts in 1 vol. sm. 4to. contemporary calf, stamped in gold with an armorial bearing, and the initials C. J., and the Roman figures XVI; from the Sunderland library, £4. 4s Romæ, 1515 The escutcheon is, à la fasce d'or, accompagnée de trois coquilles, 2 et 1. The shield is encircled in a frame-work like a door-knocker, in which the letters C. J. serve as hooks at top to suspend it from, and a bull's head hangs below as the hammer. The XVI on each side is worked in as portion of the cheeks of the knocker. The motto aliqu' is between the top of the shield and the frame. Venetian and Lombard (1520-40): 12972 SALLUSTIUS. Salustio con alcune altre belle cose volgareggiato per Agostino Ortica della Porta Genovese, sm. 4to. contemporary Venetian binding, with gilt tooling in compartments, back repaired, gilt and gauffred edges, from the Sunderland library, £2. 10s Vinegia, Bernardin Vinitiano di Vitali, 1518 The gilding on the sides looks like a fine piece of ornamental metal work -the motif of most of the early Venetian bindings being taken from existing specimens of the skill of artificers in gold, bronze, and iron. 12973 HYGINII Astronomi de Mundi et Sphæræ ac utriusque partium declaratione cum planetis et variis signis historiatis [opus], numerous large woodcuts of the signs of the Zodiac, the planets, and the constellations, with the printer's mark of the cat and mouse, Venetiis, per Melchiorem Sessam and Petrum de Ravanis, 1517-NAUSEAE Blancicampiani (Friderici) libri Mirabilium septem, fine woodcuts by Anton von Worms, Coloniæ, P. Quentell, 1532-2 vols. in 1, sm. 4to. in a Venetian binding of smooth dark morocco, simple gold ornaments in the centre and at the angles, lettered on the front side "Lib. Miras Frede. Hygi. de Stelis,' £4. 1517-32 Bound in Venice and lettered as above about 1540, for some collector who had imported the Nausea from Germany. The volume was already in its present state when the inscription was written which appears inside the cover-"Emptus xvi soll, P. Mohn, 1560." 12974 VIDÆ (Marci Hieron.) CHRISTIADOS libri sex, sm. 4to. contemporary olive morocco, with centre gilt ornament, large and clean copy, from the Sunderland library, £4. 4s Cremona, Lodovic. Britann. 1535 The binding was probably done for the printer within a very few years from the date of the book. The centre-ornament is the pot-à-feu, or urn from which flames are issuing ;-the ornament at the angles is a trefoil, 12975 ARIOSTO, ORLANDO FURIOSO; sm. 4to. some leaves stained at beginning and the last three in facsimile, in a binding of smooth dark calf or morocco, the sides covered with alternate rows of gold and blind-tooled ornament, the centrepiece stamped with an urn from which flames are issuing, £20. Venetia, Nicolo Zopino, 1524 Bound about 1540-50. J. Laurent. Nucleus (1524): 12976 Coryciana [i.e. Carmina diversor. in laud. Jani Corycii, collecta a Blosio Palladio], sm. 4to. ruled with red lines, contemporary Venetian morocco, the sides covered with tooling in the Grolier manner, having on one side the initials I. L. N. and on the other "CORYCIANA," gilt and gauffred edges, £16. Romæ ap. L.Vincentinum et Lautitium Perusinum, 1524 A large and fine copy; printed in italic type. Contains A-Z, and AAMM in fours. The I. L. N. are evidently the initials of the original owner, whose name, with a memorandum of the cost of the book, appears on the fly-leaf, thus"Jo Laurentii Nuclei denar, 8." It is interesting to compare this binding with that which Grolier gave to his copy of the same work (see Gustave Brunet, La Reliure ancienne et moderne). They were apparently done by the same hand, but in two different styles. The only interlacement here is that of the two intersecting triangles which form a centrepiece for the name, and all the rest of the ornament is in graceful arabesques, tooled à filets pleins. The effect is brilliant and very pleasing; and the whole binding is in wonderfully fine and fresh condition. DO Maiolesque (1530-50): 12977 ARIOSTO. ORLANDO FVRIOSO DI LVDOVICO ARIOSTO DA FERRARA, small 4to. First Edition, large copy in the early Maiolesque morocco binding, the sides covered with ornament, a geometrical interlaced pattern of grand style in painted compartments (scarlet, green, blue, and silver) forming the groundwork, and all the open spaces filled in with gold dots, except the centre compartments in which, within a frame of frame of gold ornament which includes the fleur-de-lis and figures of birds, appear the inscriptions "Orlando Fvrioso," and "Lvdovico Ariosto M.D.XVI," £500. Ferrara, 1516 Probably bound about 1540, and, to judge from the fleursde-lis which are seen at the outer angles as well as in the central compartment, perhaps for Grolier or some other distinguished Frenchman. 12978 [ZANTANI (Antonio)] Le Imagini con tutti i riversi trovati et le vite de gli Imperatori tratte dalle Medaglie et dalle historie de gli antichi, libro primo, sm. 4to. fine plates of Medals, by ENEA VICO, ELEGANTLY BOUND in contemporary brown morocco, with rich ornamental gilt tooling in the MAIOLI-GROLIER MANNER, gilt edges (book-plates of Jean Jobert inserted; autograph of Beverland on title), from the Sunderland library, £48. Parma, 1548 The ornamentation on the sides is a masterly effort of skill and taste; a grand yet simple framework of geometrical interlacement in parallel gold lines with a few centre and corner stamps plein or. The binding was probably done at Venice about 1550 by some hand that had laboured in the service of Maioli and Grolier. Thomas Maioli (about 1500-50): (On ne le connait que par les reliures de ses livres, chefs-d'œuvre de grâce, d'élégance, et de gout que les amateurs couvrent de billets de banque.-Guigard.) 12979 ARIOSTO. ORLANDO FVRIOSO DI LVDOVICO ARIOSTO... ristampato et con molta diligentia da lvi corretto et quasi tvtto formato di nvovo et ampliato, sm. 4to. fourth edition of the poem, in the original binding executed for Maioli, covered with gold tooling and bearing the inscriptions "Orla||do || Fvr||so||" and "Tho. Maioli et amicorvm;" in a case, £120. Venetia, Nicolo Zopino e Vincentio compagno, 1524 Almost as rare as the first edition of 1516. 12980 MASSUCCIO. Le cinquanta Novelle di Massvccio Salernitano intitolate il Novellino, 12mo. very fine copy in the original binding of smooth_brown morocco, gilt edges, the sides and back covered with arabesque ornament in gold, executed for Maioli, and bearing the inscription on the upper cover "Tho. Maioli et amicor.;" on the lower cover "Inimici mei mea non me mihi," in a blue morocco case, £395. Vinegia, Marchio Sessa, 1541 Followed in the same volume by the "Laberinto d'amore di.. Boccaccio," Vinegia, Giolito, 1545. The book was therefore probably bound for Maioli about 1546. |