Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part VII

Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part VII

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 1606. Boccaccio, Des nobles maleureux, Paris, 1538, contemporary Parisian tan calf gilt for Marcus Fugger.

Boccaccio, Des nobles maleureux, Paris, 1538, contemporary Parisian tan calf gilt for Marcus Fugger

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

BOCCACCIO, GIOVANNI. Des Nobles Maleureux. Paris: [Nicolas Cousteau for Jean Petit], 1538


AN IMPORTANT FRENCH TRANSLATION BOUND FOR MARCUS FUGGER.


This copy is from the library of Marcus Fugger (1529–1597), scion of the powerful banking family and trading family based in Augsburg. It is one of a large number of bindings he commissioned from Parisian binders in the early 1550s, the great majority in brown calf, simply decorated, with a small tool of a hand holding a branch, upon which perches a bird (as here), or a crowned double–headed eagle. Marcus habitually wrote his name on the pastedown of the upper cover, but no date, or purchase details. For an identical Fugger binding also from the Bibliotheca Brookeriana, see Magnificent Books and Bindings, 11 October 2023, lot 86. For other books with Fugger provenance, see lots 1587 (Amboise), 1683 (Ficino), 1693 (Galen), 1809 (Plutarch) and 1828 (Sallust).


Laurent de Premierfait (c. 1380-1418), the translator of this version of De casibus virorum illustribus ("On the Fates of Famous Men"), was perhaps the most significant French translator of the first half of the fifteenth century. He translated De casibus virorum illustribus twice, in 1400 and 1409. The latter translation, represented here, is a considered and considerable amplification of the original, adding extra detail to Boccaccio's literary and geographic landscape and indulging in some anti-war moralising.

Folio (312 x 201 mm). Gothic type, double column, 52 lines plus headline. collation: ã6 A-X6 2A-2P6 QQ4. Title-page in red and black with elaborate woodcut border, woodcut initials, further in-text woodcut illustrations.


binding: Parisian polished tan calf over pasteboards (328 x 224 mm), c. 1550, blind fillets around sides, 2 concentric frames of blind fillets, gilt bud and leaf at outer angles of outer frame, gilt fleuron at outer angles of inner frame, in centre gilt hand-held floral sprig surmounted by a bird, spine with 7 full and 2 half bands, manuscript title on vellum to upper compartment, housed in modern red quarter-morocco folding case. (Some marks to boards.)


provenance: Marcus Fugger (1529–1597), signature on upper pastedown, by descent to—Philipp Fugger (1567–1601), by descent to—Marcus Philipp Fugger (1598–1620), by descent to—Marquard Fugger, Graf von Kirchberg und Weissenhorn (1596–1655)—Öttingen-Wallerstein, family library at Schloss Maihingen, armorial ink-stamp on title-page, sale, Karl & Faber, 6-7 November 1933, lot 128. acquisition: Purchased in 1992 from Librairie Sourget, Paris. references: USTC 73603

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