Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part VII

Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part VII

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 1631. Colonna, Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1561, contemporary vellum gilt.

Colonna, Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1561, contemporary vellum gilt

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

COLONNA, FRANCESCO. Hypnerotomachie, ou Discours du songe de Poliphile. Paris: Jean Le Blanc for Jacques Kerver, 11 July 1561


THIRD KERVER EDITION (THIRD EDITION IN FRENCH) OF THIS RICHLY ILLUSTRATED WORK. The woodcuts in this edition are freely copied from those used in Aldus Manutius' first edition of 1499, and include adaptations into a French style, such as elongated figures and elaborations of the landscape and architecture. This copy was once owned by Richard Heber (1773-1833), English bibliomaniac and co-founder of the Athenaeum Club, reputed to have amassed a collection of over 100,000 volumes, which he housed in no less than eight buildings, both in England and on the continent. For other volumes owned by Heber, "the fiercest and strongest of the bibliomaniacs" (Campbell), see lots 1613 (Brucioli) and 1777 (Ovid). A pencil note on the front pastedown suggests that this book was once in the collection of George Dunn (1864-1912), though it has not been traced in the 1913-1917 Sotheby's sale catalogues.

Folio (337 x 227 mm). Roman and italic type. collation: a6 A-Z6 Aa-Bb6 Cc8: 164 leaves. Title-page with elaborate woodcut border, large woodcut initials, 181 woodcuts illustrations (of which 13 full-page), verso of final leaf with large woodcut device (Renouard 515), ruled in red throughout.


binding: Contemporary vellum (347 x 232 mm), covers ruled in gilt with central arabesques, spine with five raised bands, each compartment tooled in gilt, second compartment with title in manuscript, gilt edges. (Original endleaves removed.)


provenance: Richard Heber (1773–4 October 1833), his sale, Robert Harding Evans, London, 16 June 1835, lot 5204 ("avec planches, vellum, ruled"), £9/6s to—Thomas Thorpe, London, pencil purchase note to front pastedown—John Charles Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey (1840-1929), barrister, bookplate of "Viscount Mersey, Bignor Park"—Christie's, London, 16 December 1991, lot 116. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: USTC 12616; Mortimer Harvard French 147; Adams, C-2413

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