Dogale, appointing the governor of Zante, manuscript on vellum, 20 April 1580, Venetian red morocco gilt fanfare binding
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
[DOGALE]. Ducal Commission, on vellum, issued on behalf of Nicolò da Ponte (Doge of Venice 1578-1585) appointing Bernardino di Carlo Contarini (unnamed in the leaves remaining in the Commission) to the post of Governor (Provveditore) of the Ionian Island of Zante, 20 April 1580.
A DUCAL COMMISSION ON VELLUM IN A CONTEMPORARY FANFARE-STYLE VENETIAN BINDING.
Bernardino di Carlo Contarini (born 13 October 1521) belonged to the prestigious Contarini family. Despite a lack of familial backing due to his parents' early demise, Bernardino rose to the position of Provveditore of Cattaro where he was in charge of the city leading up to the Venetian-Turkish conflict which culminated in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. During his office in Cattaro, Bernardino was instrumental in uncovering a treasonous plot by the city's praefectus militum, Troiano Siciliano, who had intended to surrender the city to the eager Ottoman forces. From 1576 to 1579 Bernardino consolidated his political position, joining the Council of Ten before his appointment to the rank of Provveditore of Zante recorded in the document at hand. In the leaves remaining in this Commission, he goes unnamed.
The illustrious office of Provveditore was bestowed by the Doge of Venice. Recipients of these political and administrative appointments by the Doge often commissioned the help of a professional scribe to create a copy of the record which could then be illuminated and bound. These records served as tangible witnesses to the recipient’s service to the Venetian Republic, while also embodying the wealth and prestige of the office.
The atelier responsible for this binding was named by Ilse Schunke ("Bandwerkmeister"), attributing eight bindings to him, all on ducal commissions granted 1578-1582 ("Venezianische Renaissance-Einbände: Ihre Entwicklung und ihre Werkstätten" in Studi di bibliografia e di storia in onore di Tammaro De Marinis ([Verona] 1964), IV, pp. 123-200 (pp. 190-192). Two additions to Schunke's list are the present binding and another, similarly bound and decorated, formerly Librairie Théophile Belin, Livres anciens de provenances historiques (Paris 1910), item 244 (illustrated), and now Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery (Jeannine Vereecken, Les oracles de Léon le Sage
(Venice 2000), p. 266 and pl. 52/1).
4to (230 x 166 mm). 145 numbered vellum leaves (first leaf missing) with gilt fore-edge, written in a fine calligraphic humanist hand, 23 lines to a page, entry headers and incipits rubricated, 13 unnumbered leaves, of which 5 are blank, and 8 contain the table of contents, fol. 145v contains "Datae in nostro ducali palatio die xx aprilis indictione octava 1580" signed by Julius Zambertus, ducal scribe, who had a page setting annual salary of 3,100 ducats signed by Agustin Sp[ine]lli (cf. Le relazioni dei provveditori Veneziani di Zante, ed. Dēmētrēs Arvanitakēs, Venice, Istituto Ellenico di Studi Bizantini, 2000, p. 498). (Lacking first leaf, last few leaves with slight marginal worming.)
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g
: Venetian red morocco in fanfare style (238 x 178 mm), 1580, by the Venetian Strapwork Binder, profusely gilt and enamelled to an elaborate strapwork design of interlacing double fillets painted dark silvery grey, in centre of upper cover, within a cartouche, the Lion of St. Mark, on the lower cover the date "M.D/.L.X./ .X.X.", the interstices filled with azured leafy and arabesque tools on curving stems, volutes, stylised buds and flowers, roundels and solid marguerites, largely on pointillé ground, 5 raised bands on spine, the compartments closely gilt, with some of the same tools, traces of 4 pairs of green ties. (Rebacked retaining most of original spine, minor repairs to corners, a few very small wormholes to boards, ties lacking.)
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venance
: Bernardino di Carlo Contarini (1521-1604)—sale, Sotheby’s, 28 February 1966, lot 150, £90 to Maggs Bros., Jean Fürstenberg (1890-1982), exhibition label—Martin Breslauer Inc., New York (1986), Catalogue 107, no. 104. acquisition: Purchased in 1986 from Martin Breslauer Inc., New York. references: "Venezianische Renaissance-Einbände: Ihre Entwicklung und ihre Werkstätten" in Studi di bibliografia e di storia in onore di Tammaro De Marinis ([Verona] 1964), IV, pp.123-200 (pp. 190-192); Le relazioni dei provveditori Veneziani di Zante, ed. Dēmētrēs Arvanitakēs (Venice: Istituto Ellenico di Studi Bizantini, 2000): p. 489;
Diz
ion
ario Biografico degli Italiani
, Volume 28, ed. Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Rome 1983). exhibited: Musée d'art et d'histoire, Collection Jean Furstenberg : 3 mai-5 juin 1966 (Geneva 1966), no. 83
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