Guevara, Aviso de favoriti e dottrina de cortegani, Venice, 1549, Bolognese armorial morocco gilt for B. Magnani

8vo (157 x 103 mm). Roman and italic type, 29 lines plus headline. collation: a-b⁸ c⁴ A-Z⁸: 204 leaves (final leaf blank). Woodcut device on title-page, woodcut initials, some marginal annotations. (Slight spotting and foxing, marginal dampstaining to head of some quires, small paper flaw to A2 affecting 2 letters, small burn hole to lower margin of X8.)

binding: Contemporary dark olive morocco (159 x 92 mm), gilt-stamped with different plaques on each cover, floral and leafy arabesque interlaces, central cartouche with gilt initials "B.M." flanking the git design of Magnani's arms partly inlaid with red and silvered morocco, floral tool at corners, spine with 3 full bands, gilt in 4 compartments with floral tool, stubs from 4 pairs of ties, edges gilt and gauffered. (Rebacked retaining most of original spine compartments, recornered, upper joint cracked at head (25mm), small repair to red morocco inlay on upper cover, evidence of one removed upper endleaf.)

provenance: B. Magnani, family arms and initials "B.M." on binding—Giovanni Gancia, Brighton & Paris, his sale, Delbergue-Cormont & Librairie Bachelin-Deflorenne, Paris, 27 April-2 May 1868, lot 245, to Gruel—Gruel and Engelmann Collection, bookplate to upper pastedown—red oval inkstamp "642" with excedra—Jacques Rosenthal, Munich—Sotheby's, London, 12-14 April 1899, lot 315, £6 5s to J. & J. Leighton, London—Maggs Bros., Catalogue 830 (1955), item 64—Jean Fürstenberg (1890-1982), booklabel to upper pastedown—Martin Breslauer Inc., New York, Catalogue 104/II, item 169; Catalogue 107, item 63; Catalogue 110, item 39—Otto Schäfer (1912-2000), his sale, Sotheby's, New York, 8 December 1994, lot 87. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: Edit16 CNCE 22171; USTC 835209; A. Hobson, "Bookbinding in Bologna" in Schede umanistiche 1 (1998), p.174 (cited); Hobson & Quaquarelli, pp. 29-30; De Marinis, Die italienischen Renaissance-Einbände der Bibliothek Fürstenberg (Hamburg 1966), pp. 112-113; Manfred von Arnim, Europaïsche Einbandkunst aus sechs Jahrhunderten: Beispiele aus der Bibliothek Otto Schäfer (Schweinfurt 1992), no. 34. exhibited: Exposition de reliures de la Renaissance: collection Jean Furstenberg: 30 September 1961 (Paris 1961), no. 56; Musée d'art et d'histoire, Collection Jean Furstenberg: 3 mai–5 juin 1966 (Geneva 1966), no. 40