Brucioli, Dialogi della morale philosophia [and other works], Venice, 1544-1545, Parisian brown morocco gilt for d'Amboise, the Masterman-Sykes—Heber copy

5 works in one volume, 4to (203 x 139 mm). (1-4) Italic type, 39 lines plus headline. collation: *² A-T⁸ V⁴: 158 leaves; *² a-i⁸ k⁶: 80 leaves; *² A-E⁸ F²: 44 leaves; *² a-h⁸: 66 leaves. Title-pages with woodcut device of grapevine. (5) Italic type, 38 lines plus headline. collation: *² A-E⁸: 42 leaves. Title-page and verso of final leaf with woodcut device. (Some marginal dampstaining to first and final gatherings.)

binding: Parisian binding (210 x 152 mm), c. 1600, dark olive brown morocco over wooden boards, double frame of triple gilt fillets, open apart from wreath containing 4 stars at corners, central panel with corner pieces à feuillages, in centre an oval formed by 3 gilt lines surrounding 2 branches of laurel, containing 4 stars (the Amboise arms), spine with 4 bands, horizontal 2-line title in second compartment, 4 stars in third and fourth compartments, gilt edges. (Expertly rebacked retaining original spine.)

provenance: Jacques-Marie d'Amboise (1538-1611), arms on binding, and ownership inscription on title of first work ("ex libris Jacobi Marii Ambosii Arelatensis")—erased early modern ownership inscription at upper margin of title—Mark Masterman-Sykes, 3rd Baronet (1771-1823), gilt bookplate and manuscript purchase note at upper margin of front free endpaper ("Bought at Paris. Aug. 19. 1821. MMS"), his sale, Robert Harding Evans, London, 14 May 1824, lot 562 ("in fine old morocco, in Thuanus' manner"), £13.13.6 to Thorpe—Richard Heber (1773-1833), "BIBLIOTHECA HEBERIANA" ink stamp at upper margin of front free endpaper, his sale, Sotheby's, 15 April 1834, lot 1189 ("in old venetian morocco")—Sydney Richardson Christie-Miller (1874-1931), his sale, Sotheby's, 31 July-3 August 1917, lot 240, £7 5s to Maggs—Robert Oppenheim, his sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, 15 February 1927, lot 16—Sotheby's, 11-14 February 1929, lot 537 ("Heber-Mark Masterman Sykes copy"), £5 10s to Maggs—Jean Fürstenberg (1890-1982), bookplate—Martin Breslauer, Inc., New York, Catalogue 110, item 58. acquisition: Purchased in 1992 from Martin Breslauer Inc., New York. references: (1-4) USTC 816956; Edit16 CNCE 7631; (5) USTC 816954; Edit16 CNCE 7629. exhibited: Exposition de reliures de la Renaissance: collection Jean Furstenberg: 30 September 1961 (Paris 1961), no. 22