Domenichi, La nobilta delle donne, Venice, 1549, Bolognese silver-tooled morocco, probably by the Binder of Ulrich Fugger's Bible
Auction Closed
July 11, 03:42 PM GMT
Estimate
2,000 - 3,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
DOMENICHI, LODOVICO. La nobilta delle donne. Venice: Gabriele Giolito De Ferrari, 1549
FIRST EDITION IN A RICHLY TOOLED BOLOGNESE BINDING, with the title in ink on the head-edge.
Lodovico Domenichi (1515-1564) is one of the most renowned polymaths of sixteenth-century Italy. In 1549, he published this dialogue about, and for, women, contributing to his self-fashioning as a defender of the women's cause and a promoter of female-authored works.
This binding can be attributed to the "Master of the Cabinetmakers’ Guild Book", renamed by Hobson the "Binder of Ulrich Fugger’s Bible". For other octavo volumes in bindings also attributed to the Binder of Ulrich Fugger's Bible, sharing much of the same tooling as the present volume, see Bibliotheca Brookeriana, Aldine Collection D-M, 18 October 2024, lot 934 (Petrarch), and a 1533 Aldine Petrarch (Bibliotheca Brookeriana, Aldine Collection N-Z, New York, June 2025, lot 1300, forthcoming).
8vo (160 x 98 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: *8 A-Z8 2A-2L8 2M4: 284 leaves (without the cancel leaf after *8 found in some copies). Large woodcut printer's device to title-page, woodcut initials (the first depicting a game of tennis), a few contemporary marginal annotations in the first book. (Marginal dampstaining towards beginning of textblock.)
binding: Bolognese tan morocco (163 x 106 mm), c. 1550, richly silver tooled, probably by the "Master of the Cabinetmakers’ Guild Book" (renamed by Hobson the "Binder of Ulrich Fugger’s Bible"), single fillet around sides flanked by 2 blind fillets, inner rectangular frame with excedrae at sides flanked by 2 blind fillets, within this outer frame, open volute tools at top and bottom, and at sides along with bud and leaf tools, stars in excedrae, centre with a large 2 part plaque decorated with an intricate design of floral and leafy arabesques and curvy tendrils, the central cartouche containing "O[MN]IA" and "PT" flanking cupid with a bow on the upper cover and "I. M.|.M. .P.|I. .M.|.M. .P." and the lower cover, traces of 4 pairs of ties, spine with 3 full bands and 4 half bands, compartments decorated with 4 stars surrounding a knot work tool at centre and 2 floral tools at sides, edges silvered (?) and gauffered, title in ink on head-edge. (Spine ends, corners and endleaves renewed.)
provenance: "DPG", possible ownership inscription at lower margin of R8v—erased eighteenth-century ownership inscription at foot of title (?"Pellerino")—Arthur Lauria, Paris (recorded by De Marinis in the Lauria stock in November 1951)—Carlo Alberto Chiesa (1926-1998), Milanese bookseller. acquisition: Purchased in 2015 from Librairie Lardanchet, Paris. references: De Marinis, II, item 1335: "Marr. scuro; dec. come sopra, con Cupido bendato posto tra le parole abbreviate OIA PT; sul piatto posteriore le iniziali I. M. M. P. IM M P."; USTC 827367; Edit 16 CNCE 17550