Herberstein, Rerum Moscoviticarum commentarii, Basel, 1551, Parisian calf with gilt arms of Cardinal de Lorraine
Estimate
18,000 - 24,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
HERBERSTEIN, SIGMUND VON. Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii Sigismundi Liberi Baronis in Herberstain, Neyperg, & Guettenhag: In his Commentariis... habebis... Russiae, & ...Moscoviae, brevissimam descriptionem. Basel: for Johann Oporinus, July 1551
SECOND EDITION OF A LANDMARK RENAISSANCE WORK ON RUSSIA, IN A CONTEMPORARY PARISIAN BINDING WITH THE ARMS OF THE CARDINAL OF LORRAINE. Charles de Guise (1524-1574) tried to introduce the Inquisition into France several times and is suspected of having been in favour of the St Bartholomew's day massacre. A highly controversial figure in his day, and the target of libels, he nevertheless gained the favour of Francis II (crowned Charles IX). He was also a major bibliophile, and is known to have frequented the ateliers patronised by royalty and other leading collectors of his day, including that of the Cupid's Bow Binder. The present binding is reproduced and discussed in Hobson and Culot's volume on the Bibliotheca Wittockiana (item 46). Though unable to identify the specific workshop responsible, they assert that the binding is clearly Parisian in origin, as is the case for other bindings bearing the Cardinal of Lorraine's coat of arms (p. 113). Variants of the fleur-de-lys stamp surrounding the Cardinal's coat of arms were used by both the Cupid's Bow Binder and Jean Picard.
Folio (316 x 203 mm). Roman type, 44 lines plus headline. collation: π4 A-Z4 *2: 98 leaves. 2 full-page woodcut illustrations, woodcut device on verso of final leaf, ruled in red, some early marginalia. (Lacking folding woodcut map usually bound after π4 on unsigned leaf, first 7 leaves restored at upper outer corner, some staining, generally at margins.)
binding: Contemporary Parisian binding (321 x 216 mm), calf with gilt arms of Cardinal de Lorraine in centre of architectonic design of 2 gilt fillets forming interlaced strapwork painted black with volutes painted grey and red, at edges of design flair of strapwork painted red and open leaf and trefoil tools painted grey and black, above and below central arms block open stirrup tool painted black with red centre linked by gilt tendrils to 2 open leaf tools painted black, spine with 7 full and 2 half bands, compartments with gilt quatrefoil, 6-line horizontal spine title in upper two compartments, half compartments, gilt edges, housed in modern green cloth box (Restorations to corners of boards, hinges, and spine ends.)
provenance: Charles de Guise (1524-1574), Cardinal de Lorraine (1550-1574), with his gilt stamp to covers—Fernand Pouillon (1912-1986), sale, Monaco, July 1, 1986, lot 184 (illustrated)—Michel Wittock (b. 1936), his sale, Christie's, Paris, Part 3, 7 October 2005, lot 23. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: USTC 690718; VD16 H 2203; Adams, H-299; Hobson & Culot, Italian and French 16th-Century Bookbindings (1991), item 46; Maxence Hermant, "La dispersion de la bibliothèque du Cardinal de Lorraine" in Le cardinal de Lorraine et ses livres: un fastueux mécène au XVIe siècle (Reims 2013), p. 57, fig. 11 ("Non localisés"); Maxence Hermant & Sabine Maffre, "Liste des livres, manuscrits et imprimés, ayant appartenu au Cardinal de Lorraine", ibid., p. 84 ("Collection privée"); for variants of the fleur-de-lys tool, see Hobson, Renaissance Book Collecting (1999), reproductions 27b and 29 and Howard M. Nixon, Bookbindings from the library of Jean Grolier, pl. G, no. 8
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