Erizzo, Trattato dell'istrumento, Venice, 1554, brown morocco gilt by Nicolas Ève for Henri III

4to (206 x 150 mm). Roman and italic type, 31 lines plus headline. collation: A-X⁴ Y³: 87 leaves (only, of 88; lacking final blank?). Title within elaborate woodcut cartouche incorporating printer's device, woodcut initials. (Water stain to first leaves at fore-edge, marginal dampstaining to several quires, slight marginal worming to final quire.)

binding: French brown morocco (211 x 155 mm) by Nicolas Ève, c. 1580, triple gilt fillet around sides, at corners gilt angel heads in feuillage, in centre circular gilt arms block of Henri III with crowned arms of France and Poland encircled by the collars of St Michel and the Holy Spirit, the latter formed with enlaced letters "H.M.ΦΔ" and "H.λ.λ" and surmounted by the royal crown, a semé of fleurs-de-lys over the remaining open spaces, flat spine decorated with a semé of fleurs-de-lys with a 5-line title, edges gilt. (Spine ends and corners renewed, some small neat repairs to spine, new free endpapers.)

provenance: King Henri III of France (1551-1589, r. 1574-1589)—early inscription to endpaper, now pasted down, giving the title of the volume—Maggs, Bros., Paris, Catalogue 12 (1938), item 10—Arthur Lauria, Paris, acquired by—Maurice Burrus (1882-1959), purchase inscription dated 1940 to lower pastedown, by descent until sold, Christie's, Paris, 15 December 2015, lot 63. acquisition: Purchased in 2017 from Amélie Sourget, Paris. references: Edit16 CNCE 18272; USTC 828355; Jacqueline Boucher, "Catalogue de livres de Henri III", no. 84,  in Société et mentalités autour de Henri III (Paris 2007), pp. 660-672 (p. 666)