THE PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN COLLECTOR
LUCANUS, Marcus Annaeus (A.D. 39-65). Pharsalia. Ed. Aldus Manutius (1452-1515). Venice: Aldo Manuzio and Andrea Torresano, July 1515.
Details
LUCANUS, Marcus Annaeus (A.D. 39-65). Pharsalia. Ed. Aldus Manutius (1452-1515). Venice: Aldo Manuzio and Andrea Torresano, July 1515.
Aldine 8° (166 x 90mm). Collation: a-r8 s4 (a1r title Lucanus, a1v editor's 1502 dedicatory letter to Marcus Antonius Maurocenus, a2r M. Annei Lucani Civilis Belli liber primus, s1v Sulpitii Carmina velut superioribus annectenda, s2r M. Annei Lucani vita ex clarissmis [sic] authoribus, s4r register and colophon, s4v printer's woodcut dolphin-and-anchor device). Italic type 1:80, cut by Francesco Griffo.
Illumination: title in gold, eleven initials in gold with red tracery and printer's device in blue with gold tracery, all by a contemporary French hand.
Binding: Parisian gold-tooled fawn marbled morocco of ca. 1540-43, BY JEAN PICARD FOR JEAN GROLIER, the sides decorated with a rectangular panel of multiple fillets enclosing straight and interlaced curved lines and solid tools (see Nixon solid tools CdeP 1, 8a and 8b, 12.. and 16), author's name lettered in central compartment of the front cover, ownership formula "Io. Grolierii et Amicorum." at foot, Grolier's motto "Portio mea Domine sit in Terra Viventium." lettered in centre of the back cover, spine with raised bands, single-line frames around its compartments surrounding a small solid tool (CdeP 12..), single fillet along the edges of the covers and on turn-ins, paper edges gilt, original endpapers and a pair of vellum flyleaves. (Reproduced in colour as the frontispiece to Austin's census of Grolier's library.)
Provenance: Jean Grolier (Lyon 1479-1565 Paris, Treasurer of France, coin collector, after King Henri II foremost patron of the leading French bookbinders, Parisian representative of the Aldine Press), binding and illumination; Count Justin MacCarthy Reagh (1815 Paris sale, lot 2639); Charles Chardin, bookseller (bought at MacCarthy sale); William Beckford (December 1882 London sale, lot 1928); John Pearson, bookseller (bought at Beckford sale); P. Caperon, owner of a considerable number of Grolier bindings (sold to); Damascène Morgand, bookseller (ledger entry of 14th October 1893); Comte Albert de Naurois (bought from Morgand); Adolphe Bordes (sold to); Louis Giraud-Badin, bookseller and private collector (bookplate); Maurice Loncle (his Renaissance bindings sold to); H.P. Kraus, bookseller (sold to); Raphaël Esmerian (6th June 1972 Paris sale, lot 87 to); M. Breslauer, bookseller (for the present owner)
Second Aldine edition of this epic poem (first: 1502, Ren. 33.3), based on Simon Bevilaqua's 1493 ed. (Goff L-305) and corrected by Aldus from Morosini's manuscript (his preface here reprinted). Marc' Antonio Morosini (d. 1509) was orator to Emperor Maximilian I and Procurator of San Marco.
THIS GROLIER BINDING IS THE FINEST TO APPEAR AT AUCTION IN MANY YEARS AND IN THE MOST ORIGINAL CONDITION, as well as one of the very few marbled morocco bindings of this period. The artist has been called the "Entrelac Binder" (Michon) and identified as Claude de Picques (Nixon). Annie Charon's archival discoveries and A.R.A. Hobson's subsequent analysis have shown him to be the bookseller and binder Jean Picard, Francesco Torresano's Parisian agent, who was accountable to Grolier as chief propagator of the Aldine Press.
Literature: Renouard, Alde 72.6; L. Bigliazzi and others, Aldo Manuzio tipografo 133.5; Dionisotti and Orlandi, Aldo Manuzio editore. Dediche XXXVI; Hobson, Humanists and Bookbinders appendix 7; G. Austin, The Library of Jean Grolier 297.
Aldine 8° (166 x 90mm). Collation: a-r8 s4 (a1r title Lucanus, a1v editor's 1502 dedicatory letter to Marcus Antonius Maurocenus, a2r M. Annei Lucani Civilis Belli liber primus, s1v Sulpitii Carmina velut superioribus annectenda, s2r M. Annei Lucani vita ex clarissmis [sic] authoribus, s4r register and colophon, s4v printer's woodcut dolphin-and-anchor device). Italic type 1:80, cut by Francesco Griffo.
Illumination: title in gold, eleven initials in gold with red tracery and printer's device in blue with gold tracery, all by a contemporary French hand.
Binding: Parisian gold-tooled fawn marbled morocco of ca. 1540-43, BY JEAN PICARD FOR JEAN GROLIER, the sides decorated with a rectangular panel of multiple fillets enclosing straight and interlaced curved lines and solid tools (see Nixon solid tools CdeP 1, 8a and 8b, 12.. and 16), author's name lettered in central compartment of the front cover, ownership formula "Io. Grolierii et Amicorum." at foot, Grolier's motto "Portio mea Domine sit in Terra Viventium." lettered in centre of the back cover, spine with raised bands, single-line frames around its compartments surrounding a small solid tool (CdeP 12..), single fillet along the edges of the covers and on turn-ins, paper edges gilt, original endpapers and a pair of vellum flyleaves. (Reproduced in colour as the frontispiece to Austin's census of Grolier's library.)
Provenance: Jean Grolier (Lyon 1479-1565 Paris, Treasurer of France, coin collector, after King Henri II foremost patron of the leading French bookbinders, Parisian representative of the Aldine Press), binding and illumination; Count Justin MacCarthy Reagh (1815 Paris sale, lot 2639); Charles Chardin, bookseller (bought at MacCarthy sale); William Beckford (December 1882 London sale, lot 1928); John Pearson, bookseller (bought at Beckford sale); P. Caperon, owner of a considerable number of Grolier bindings (sold to); Damascène Morgand, bookseller (ledger entry of 14th October 1893); Comte Albert de Naurois (bought from Morgand); Adolphe Bordes (sold to); Louis Giraud-Badin, bookseller and private collector (bookplate); Maurice Loncle (his Renaissance bindings sold to); H.P. Kraus, bookseller (sold to); Raphaël Esmerian (6th June 1972 Paris sale, lot 87 to); M. Breslauer, bookseller (for the present owner)
Second Aldine edition of this epic poem (first: 1502, Ren. 33.3), based on Simon Bevilaqua's 1493 ed. (Goff L-305) and corrected by Aldus from Morosini's manuscript (his preface here reprinted). Marc' Antonio Morosini (d. 1509) was orator to Emperor Maximilian I and Procurator of San Marco.
THIS GROLIER BINDING IS THE FINEST TO APPEAR AT AUCTION IN MANY YEARS AND IN THE MOST ORIGINAL CONDITION, as well as one of the very few marbled morocco bindings of this period. The artist has been called the "Entrelac Binder" (Michon) and identified as Claude de Picques (Nixon). Annie Charon's archival discoveries and A.R.A. Hobson's subsequent analysis have shown him to be the bookseller and binder Jean Picard, Francesco Torresano's Parisian agent, who was accountable to Grolier as chief propagator of the Aldine Press.
Literature: Renouard, Alde 72.6; L. Bigliazzi and others, Aldo Manuzio tipografo 133.5; Dionisotti and Orlandi, Aldo Manuzio editore. Dediche XXXVI; Hobson, Humanists and Bookbinders appendix 7; G. Austin, The Library of Jean Grolier 297.