Details
GREGORY I, Pope, the Great (ca.540-604). Epistolae. Venice: Lazzaro de Soardi, 1505 [colophon: 18 December 1504].
2° (315 x 215mm), 218ff, the last blank. Title in red and black within woodcut border, in centre a large woodcut of the printer receiving the privilege for the book from Pope Julius II, initial woodcut portrait of St.Gregory on A1, printer's device at end. (Two small wormholes in title, ownership entry erased from blank portion). CONTEMPORARY SPANISH 'MUDEJAR' WALLET BINDING, brown morocco tooled in blind, upper cover with ropework border surrounding two rectangular panels, each divided into four triangles by diagonal fillets, each with an impression of a square ropework-and-diamond stamp. Lower cover with ropework border surrounding an upright rectangle, and extending into a flap covering the fore-edge and turning over the upper cover, decorated with the same ropework-and-diamond stamp; at its end two pairs of metal eyelets, each lettered ora pro nobis, through which can be tied two pairs of leather thongs attached to the upper cover. Spine with three raised bands (upper and lower portion of spine missing). Title in ink on lower edge. In lined cloth case.
The binding is in Castilian Mudejar style, the wallet flap particularly reminiscent of Arabic books. The lettered metal eyelets are most unusual; a similar wallet binding with eyelets is reproduced in the catalogue Encuadernaciones Españolas en la Biblioteca Nacional, ed. Isabel Ruiz de Elvira Serra, Madrid 1992, no.42. The endpapers are watermarked Briquet 10762 (Genoa 1503/4) and may have been imported into Spain with the sheets of the book. IN UNUSUALLY GOOD CONDITION.
The title woodcut showing the printer receiving the privilege may have been specially made for this edition. Essling 1492; Sander 3274; Rhodes, Lazzaro de Soardi no.45 (records 7 copies); not in Adams or NUC.
2° (315 x 215mm), 218ff, the last blank. Title in red and black within woodcut border, in centre a large woodcut of the printer receiving the privilege for the book from Pope Julius II, initial woodcut portrait of St.Gregory on A1, printer's device at end. (Two small wormholes in title, ownership entry erased from blank portion). CONTEMPORARY SPANISH 'MUDEJAR' WALLET BINDING, brown morocco tooled in blind, upper cover with ropework border surrounding two rectangular panels, each divided into four triangles by diagonal fillets, each with an impression of a square ropework-and-diamond stamp. Lower cover with ropework border surrounding an upright rectangle, and extending into a flap covering the fore-edge and turning over the upper cover, decorated with the same ropework-and-diamond stamp; at its end two pairs of metal eyelets, each lettered ora pro nobis, through which can be tied two pairs of leather thongs attached to the upper cover. Spine with three raised bands (upper and lower portion of spine missing). Title in ink on lower edge. In lined cloth case.
The binding is in Castilian Mudejar style, the wallet flap particularly reminiscent of Arabic books. The lettered metal eyelets are most unusual; a similar wallet binding with eyelets is reproduced in the catalogue Encuadernaciones Españolas en la Biblioteca Nacional, ed. Isabel Ruiz de Elvira Serra, Madrid 1992, no.42. The endpapers are watermarked Briquet 10762 (Genoa 1503/4) and may have been imported into Spain with the sheets of the book. IN UNUSUALLY GOOD CONDITION.
The title woodcut showing the printer receiving the privilege may have been specially made for this edition. Essling 1492; Sander 3274; Rhodes, Lazzaro de Soardi no.45 (records 7 copies); not in Adams or NUC.