Botero, Della ragion di stato libri dieci, Venice, 1589, Spanish red morocco armorial binding for Núñez de Guzmán

4to (212 x 159 mm). Italic and roman type, 28 lines plus headline. collation: *⁸ A-Z⁸: 192 leaves. Woodcut initials, decorative head- and tail-pieces. (First few leaves with light dampstain, some light spotting.)

binding: Spanish armorial binding for Nuñez de Guzmán (218 x 166 mm), shortly after 1645, red morocco, gilt frame composed of tendrils with leaves and flowers within gilt fillets, gilt leafy spray at corners, upper cover with large arms block of Guzmán impaled with those of his second wife, Anna Carafa, Duchess of Sabbioneta, surrounded by an acrologic inscription, lower cover with his emblematic impresa of a plant growing between reeds and a starry sky with motto "REVOLVTA FOECVNDANT" above within a shield with the same acrologic inscription, spine with 3 bands, upper compartment with 3-line title, others with large gilt ornament, edges gilt. (Spine and one corner neatly repaired.)

provenance: Ramiro Felipe Núñez de Guzmán, Duque de Medina de las Torres (ca 1600-1668), arms on binding (Guzmán arms, impaled with those of his second wife, Anna Carafa)—Sir William Godolphin (1635-1696), English ambassador to Madrid—Giannalisa Feltrinelli (1903-1981), bookplate, her sale, Christie's, New York, 7 October 1997, lot 16. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: USTC 816556; Edit 16 CNCE 7272; Adams B-2548; instructions to the binder on the present volume cited in Bernard M. Rosenthal, "Early owners' instructions to their bookbinders" in Bibliophilies et reliures: Mélanges offerts à Michel Wittock, edited by Annie de Coster & Claude Sorgeloos (Brussels, 2006), pp. 410-419 (p. 417 no. 9 and Fig. 4)