Guevara, Vita, gesti, costumi, discorsi, lettere di M. Aurelio Imperatore, Venice, 1544, brown morocco gilt by Fugger Binder for A.A.
Estimate
5,000 - 7,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
GUEVARA, ANTONIO DE. Vita, gesti, costumi, discorsi, lettere di Marco Aurelio imperatore, sapientissimo filosofo, & oratore eloquentissimo. Con la gionta di moltissime cose, che ne lo Spagnuolo non erano, e de le cose spagnuole, che mancavano in la tradottione Italiana. Venice: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1544
A FINE CONTEMPORARY VENETIAN BINDING BY THE FUGGER BINDER for an unidentified owner with the initials "A.A." In 1991, Anthony Hobson drew attention to five bindings made in the shop of the Fugger Binder for this collector, and added two further bindings to this group in his 1999 census. Two bindings have since been added to the list, with a further two provisional additions. All but one of the bindings contain secular texts of a type used in schools. The present educational tract is one of two works by the humanist historian Antonio de Guevara in such bindings. The identity of the owner has been the subject of much scholarly speculation. Hobson suggested in 1991 that the initials might be those of Arnoldus Arlenius, librarian to the Spanish Ambassador in Venice, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza. However, the volumes in the census do not reflect the serious, focused scholarly interests of Arlenius, and Hobson notably did not repeat this conjecture. For other bindings by the Fugger Binder in this sale, see lots 1607 (Boccaccio), 1679 (Estienne), 1698 (Garimberti), 1704 (Gerardo), 1767 (Montalbani), and 1848 (Tartaglia).
8vo (154 x 101 mm). Italic type, 29 lines plus headline. collation: a-z8: 184 leaves. Woodcut device to title-page and verso of final text leaf. (Minor dampstaining at lower margin of first third of textblock.)
binding: Contemporary Venetian light brown morocco (161 x 110 mm) by the Fugger Binder, richly gilt, broad border formed by 2 gilt frames of double fillets interlacing at the sides, inner frame with excedrae, blind fillets between them, leaf at outer corners of inner frame, solid arabesque tool in corners of central panel which is filled by large shaped cartouche with apple-and leaves, finials enclosing large fleurons and a double roundel containing, on upper cover in gilt "VITA E|COSTUMI DI|MARC.AUR|ELIO", on the lower cover shaped empty shield flanked on each side by an A: 3 full and 4 half bands on spine, later gilt lines and rosettes in compartments, traces of green fabric ties, gilt edges. (Spine ends neatly restored.)
provenance: Bound for a Venetian owner with initials "A.A." in gilt to lower cover—armorial inkstamp of another early modern owner to verso of title-page—Sotheby & Co., London, 24-25 May 1954, lot 85, £38 to Maggs Bros.—Jean Fürstenberg (1890-1982), bookplate—Martin Breslauer Inc., New York, Catalogue 107 (New York [1984]), no. 164 (illustrated). acquisition: Purchased in 1991 from Martin Breslauer Inc. references: USTC 835193; Edit16 CNCE 22155; Anthony Hobson, Renaissance book collecting: Jean Grolier and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, their books and bindings (Cambridge 1999), p.257, Appendix 8: Bindings by the Fugger Binder, no. 79
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