Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part VII

Boccaccio, Ameto, Venice, 1524, contemporary Venetian Fortuna binding, possibly by the Mendoza Binder

Estimate

4,000 - 6,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

BOCCACCIO, GIOVANNI. Ameto over comedia delle nimphe fiorentine, compilata da Messer Giovanni Boccacci da Certaldo cittadino di Firenze. Venice: Niccolò Zoppino and Vincenzo di Paolo, 20 December 1524

A CHARMING VENETIAN FORTUNA BINDING, POSSIBLY BY THE MENDOZA BINDER.

According to Hobson, variants of the central gilt stamp of Fortune, emblematised as a goddess holding a billowing sail, are "most often found in Italy on bindings from Venice, with its great mercantile interests, and from Bologna and Padua" (Humanists and Bookbinders, p. 164). The present binding is decorated by frames of gilt and blind filets typical of the Mendoza Binder (Andrea di Lorenzo?), however it is not listed in Hobson's census of bindings of that master's production (Renaissance Book Collecting: Jean Grolier and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, their Books and Bindings (Cambridge, 1999), Appendix 5, pp. 244-250; compare Hobson's fig. 42, a Greek Ms bound for Mendoza in 1543).

Other bindings decorated by similar stamps of Fortuna are offered as lots 1611 (Boscán), and 1860 (Ordini delli Avocati).

8vo (153 x 98 mm). Italic type: 29 lines plus headline. collation: A-L⁸ M⁷: 95 leaves (only, of 96: lacking final blank). Woodcut devices on title-page and verso of final leaf, woodcut initial on A3r. (Some marginal soiling and some old inkstains.)

binding: Venetian dark brown morocco (159 x 107 mm), possibly by the Mendoza binder, ca. 1530, outer frame of single gilt and multiple blind fillets, inner frame similarly composed with exedrae at centrepoints, small gilt leaf at outer angles, in centre Fortuna on a dolphin, spine with 3 full and 4 half bands, compartments with guilloche with star in interstices, edges gilt and gauffered, housed in modern half-morocco chemise with velvet inlay and morocco-edged slipcase. (Extremities neatly repaired, upper joint starting.)

provenance: Erasmushaus/ Haus der Bücher, Sammlung Silvain S. Brunschwig und Anderer Besitz, Katalog 904, 2001, item 9. acquisition: Purchased in 2001 from Erasmushaus, Basel. references: USTC 814742; Edit16 CNCE 6260

Guevara, La institutione del prencipe christiano, Venice, 1549, contemporary Parisian freehand gougework binding by Wotton Binder C

Estimate:4,000 - 6,000 GBP

Guevara, Aviso de favoriti e dottrina de cortegani, Venice, 1549, Bolognese armorial morocco gilt for B. Magnani

Estimate:6,000 - 8,000 GBP

Garnier, Les tragedies, Rouen, 1599, contemporary Parisian russet morocco gilt for Bartolomeo Cenami

Estimate:4,000 - 6,000 GBP

Guevara, Vita, gesti, costumi, discorsi, lettere di M. Aurelio Imperatore, Venice, 1544, brown morocco gilt by Fugger Binder for A.A.

Estimate:5,000 - 7,000 GBP

Estienne, Le herbe, fiori, stirpi [and other works], Venice, 1545, Venetian green morocco by the Fugger Binder for Cardinal Perrenot de Granvelle

Estimate:26,000 - 35,000 GBP

Bembo, Delle rime, Venice, 1548, nineteenth-century armorial blue morocco for the Marchese d'Adda, blue-paper copy

Estimate:8,000 - 12,000 GBP

Dolce, Dialogo de i colori, Venice, 1565, contemporary limp vellum

Estimate:2,000 - 3,000 GBP

San Pedro, Carcel de amor, Venice, 1553, contemporary Venetian brown morocco gilt by Anthoni Lodewijk of Flanders

Estimate:2,000 - 3,000 GBP

Avila y Zuñiga, Commentariorum de bello Germanico, Antwerp, 1550, Bohemian armorial calf dated 1553 for Christopher the Elder Popel of Lobkowicz

Estimate:3,000 - 5,000 GBP

Terracina, Rime, Venice, 1550, Roman tan morocco gilt by Niccolò Franzese, contemporary gift binding

Estimate:4,000 - 6,000 GBP