Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part VII

Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part VII

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 1662. Doni, Parabosco, Lollio, Lettere, Venice, 1544-1547, olive brown morocco gilt by Gommar Estienne for Thomas Mahieu.

Doni, Parabosco, Lollio, Lettere, Venice, 1544-1547, olive brown morocco gilt by Gommar Estienne for Thomas Mahieu

Estimate

35,000 - 50,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

DONI, ANTON FRANCESCO. Lettere di m. Anton Francesco Doni, libro primo, con alcune altre lettere nuovamente alla fine aggiunte. Venice: Girolamo Scotto, 1545. [bound with:]


PARABOSCO, GIROLAMO. Lettere amorose di m. Girolamo Parabosco, con alcune altre di nuovo aggiunte nella fine. Venice: Gabriele Giolito De Ferrari, 1547 [and:]


LOLLIO, ALBERTO. Lettera di m. Alberto Lollio, nella quale rispondendo ad una di m. Hercole Perinato. Venice: Gabriele Giolito De Ferrari, 1544


THREE BOOKS OF LETTERS IN AN ELEGANT BINDING BY GOMMAR ESTIENNE FOR THOMAS MAHIEU.


A second and expanded edition of Antonio Francesco Doni's Lettere, first published in 1544, containing 4 leaves at the end of the volume not present in the first edition; third and expanded edition of the love letters of writer and composer Girolamo Parabosco, with 8 leaves not found in the first edition; first edition of the letters of Alberto Lollio, Florentine humanist and translator.


Thomas Mahieu (fl. 1547-1580s) was the son of Jean Mahieu (d. 1527), Receveur de Beauvais in the office of Jean Grolier, Trésorier général de Milan, during the six years of the second French occupation (Veyrin-Forrer, “Notes sur Thomas Mahieu,” pp. 321–349). It is supposed that he was educated in Milan, and that Italian was his native language. In 1547, he was appointed Conseiller secrétaire du Roi, probably through the influence of Grolier, and from 1549–1560 was secretary of Catherine de’ Medici. His complex monogram is found on the lower cover of this volume and others bound for him, including Bibliotheca Brookeriana, 12 October 2023, lot 331 (Cicero) and G.D. Hobson, Maioli, Canevari and Others, pl. 43, no. XXXVII. Lots 1767 (Montalbani) and 1843 (Simeoni) in the present sale are also bound for Mahieu.


For further information on this eminent collector, please see Isabelle de Conihout's essay in Bibliotheca Brookeriana I: Magnificent Books and Bindings, New York, 11 October 2023.


Over the years, Thomas Mahieu patronised at least four clearly identifiable binders. The binder of this book, Gommar Estienne, held the office of royal bookbinder from about November 1547 until about May 1555, working initially at Fontainebleau for the royal library, thereafter from an atelier in Paris for non-royal collectors. He bound at least twenty-six volumes for Jean Grolier and ten for Marcus Fugger.

3 works in one volume, 8vo (160 x 100 mm). Italic type, 29 lines plus headline. collation: (1) A-R8 S4: 140 leaves. (2) A-K8: 80 leaves. (3) A8 B10: 18 leaves. Woodcut printer's device on title-page of each work and final verso of second volume, woodcut initials. (Light spotting and staining to F1, F2 and N5 of (1), small wormhole to margin at fore-edge of text block towards end.)


binding: Contemporary Parisian olive brown morocco (166 x 108 mm), by Gommar Estienne for Thomas Mahieu, richly gilt with triple gilt fillet border, curved tendrils, azured leaves and other tools on covers and flat spine, title lettered in centre of upper cover, Mahieu's complex monogram in centre of lower cover, edges gilt and gauffered, brown morocco case signed "R. Wallis". (Restorations to head of spine, lower spine and corners, small damp spot to foot of spine, joints cracking.)


provenance: Thomas Mahieu (fl. 1547-1580s), monogram on lower cover—Jean Ballesdens (c. 1600-75), erased ownership inscription on title and inscription on second title—"Dieure", erased early inscription on title and inscription to end of text—Sydney Richardson Christie-Miller (1874-1931), sale, Sotheby's, 3 May 1920, lot 476—Mortimer L. Schiff (1877-1931), bookplate, sale, Sotheby's, 6 December 1938, lot 1494 (pl. 97), to Michelmore—Maggs Bros., purchased in 1938 by—Maurice Burrus (1882-1959), bookplate, sale, Christie's, Paris, 15 December 2015, lot 55. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: (1) USTC 827603; Edit16 CNCE 17676; (2) USTC 762674; Edit16 CNCE 54672; (3) USTC 838459; Edit16 CNCE 26016; A. Hobson, "Les livres reliés pour Thomas Mahieu: I", Bulletin du Bibliophile 2, 2004, no. 49

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