Details
March 1505
BEMBO, Pietro (1470-1547, Cardinal from 1539). Gli Asolani. Slender 4° (210 x 123mm). Collation: a-m8 n. (a1r title Gliasolani di Messer Pietro Bembo, a1v-2r author's dedicatory letter to Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519, Duchess of Ferrara), a2v blank, a3r-e1r bk. I, e1v blank, e2r-k1v bk. II, k2r-m8r bk. III, m8r colophon and privilege, m8v Aldine woodcut device no. 3, n1r.v errata, n2 blank). 98 leaves. Italic type 1:180. 36 lines. (Tiny fault on a2r affecting a few letters.)
BINDING: very fine gold-tooled green morocco of ca. 1840, by the finisher GEORGES TRAUTZ at the atelier of Antoine Bauzonnet, complex geometric design of interlaced fillets retrospective to mid-16th-century Parisian work by the Royal and Grolier's binders, a foliate tool in the corners, floral ornament in compartments of spine, multiple rolls on turn-ins, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. PROVENANCE: unidentified original owner's coat-of-arms in lower margin of the first text-page (a3r), party per fess azure and argent, in chief cross, below column, surrounded by a ribbon and leafy sprays, surrounded by four initials (to dedication and bks. 1-3) with inner borders of floral and foliate ornament, the printed heading to bk. 1 incorporated in a painted scroll, ALL ILLUMINATED IN GOLD AND COLOURS BY A CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ARTIST; Commodore G. Fumach (bookplate); H.-M. Petiet (Paris sale 10-6-92, lot 2)
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of Bembo's most famous literary work, whose title may be translated as The Lovers of Asolo. A dialogue in the purest Italian prose and verse, it treats the nature of (Platonic) love. Because of the political dispute between Lucrezia Borgia's fourth husband Alfonso I d'Este of Ferrara and Pope Julius II, Aldus decided soon after publication to suppress Bembo's dedication to her; this involved resetting the inner and outer formes of the outermost sheet in quire a (2nd issue). "To us it is a work of great interest: a fascinating glimpse of high society, an important literary experiment, a popularisation of Ficino's theories of love, and an edition which commands attention because of the personalities concerned, and because of its connection with political developments in Rome and Ferrara. But to [the German Dominican Johann] Cuno, the work was "a few odds and ends in the vernacular, about Love." The unthinkable had happened. Aldus was printing trash" (Lowry p. 152). A few months later the book was already pirated by the Giunti of Florence, and it was reprinted numerous times throughout the 16th century. FINE, ILLUMINATED COPY AND A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF A LOUIS-PHILIPPE RETROSPECTIVE BINDING (cf. Un âge d'or des arts décoratifs 1814-1848, exh. cat. Grand Palais 1991, no. 211). Isaac 12806; Adams B-578; Gamba 132; Murphy 72; Sansoviniana 105; Laurenziana 90; R 48:1
BEMBO, Pietro (1470-1547, Cardinal from 1539). Gli Asolani. Slender 4° (210 x 123mm). Collation: a-m8 n. (a1r title Gliasolani di Messer Pietro Bembo, a1v-2r author's dedicatory letter to Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519, Duchess of Ferrara), a2v blank, a3r-e1r bk. I, e1v blank, e2r-k1v bk. II, k2r-m8r bk. III, m8r colophon and privilege, m8v Aldine woodcut device no. 3, n1r.v errata, n2 blank). 98 leaves. Italic type 1:180. 36 lines. (Tiny fault on a2r affecting a few letters.)
BINDING: very fine gold-tooled green morocco of ca. 1840, by the finisher GEORGES TRAUTZ at the atelier of Antoine Bauzonnet, complex geometric design of interlaced fillets retrospective to mid-16th-century Parisian work by the Royal and Grolier's binders, a foliate tool in the corners, floral ornament in compartments of spine, multiple rolls on turn-ins, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. PROVENANCE: unidentified original owner's coat-of-arms in lower margin of the first text-page (a3r), party per fess azure and argent, in chief cross, below column, surrounded by a ribbon and leafy sprays, surrounded by four initials (to dedication and bks. 1-3) with inner borders of floral and foliate ornament, the printed heading to bk. 1 incorporated in a painted scroll, ALL ILLUMINATED IN GOLD AND COLOURS BY A CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ARTIST; Commodore G. Fumach (bookplate); H.-M. Petiet (Paris sale 10-6-92, lot 2)
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of Bembo's most famous literary work, whose title may be translated as The Lovers of Asolo. A dialogue in the purest Italian prose and verse, it treats the nature of (Platonic) love. Because of the political dispute between Lucrezia Borgia's fourth husband Alfonso I d'Este of Ferrara and Pope Julius II, Aldus decided soon after publication to suppress Bembo's dedication to her; this involved resetting the inner and outer formes of the outermost sheet in quire a (2nd issue). "To us it is a work of great interest: a fascinating glimpse of high society, an important literary experiment, a popularisation of Ficino's theories of love, and an edition which commands attention because of the personalities concerned, and because of its connection with political developments in Rome and Ferrara. But to [the German Dominican Johann] Cuno, the work was "a few odds and ends in the vernacular, about Love." The unthinkable had happened. Aldus was printing trash" (Lowry p. 152). A few months later the book was already pirated by the Giunti of Florence, and it was reprinted numerous times throughout the 16th century. FINE, ILLUMINATED COPY AND A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF A LOUIS-PHILIPPE RETROSPECTIVE BINDING (cf. Un âge d'or des arts décoratifs 1814-1848, exh. cat. Grand Palais 1991, no. 211). Isaac 12806; Adams B-578; Gamba 132; Murphy 72; Sansoviniana 105; Laurenziana 90; R 48:1