Petrarca, Il Petrarcha con l'espositione di Alessandro Vellutello, Venice, 1547, russet morocco gilt by the Cicero Binder for Cardinal Perrenot de Granvelle

4to (228 x 154 mm). Roman and italic type. collation: *⁸ A-Z⁸ 2A-2D⁸ (2D8 blank): 224 leaves. Title-page with elaborate woodcut border, 7 in-text illustrations (of which 1 full-page). (Light stains throughout in lower inside corner.)

binding: Venetian russet morocco (233 x 164 mm), c. 1547, by the Cicero Binder, a Granvelle (Piquard Type C) binding with open frame formed by a single gilt fillet and multiple blind fillets, inner double gilt fillets with exedrae, large gilt arabesque at inside corners, shaped cartouche in centre formed by a gilt fillet with large fleurons finials at top and bottom and smaller ones at sides and 4 inner points, title in gold in centre "IL/PETRAR/CHA", traces of 2 pairs of ties, gilt edges with twin dots gauffered around sides, purple label across upper fore-edge with title painted in gold, purple band much faded, title not legible, original endpapers with anchor watermark, half morocco box by J. Brockman. (Restorations to top compartment and elsewhere, binding stained in places, section of lower compartment detached and loosely preserved.)

provenance: Binding for Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517-1586), Bishop of Arras, with his armorial stamp on verso of title, on title in ink early modern shelfmarks "121" and "304", cited in Marie-Claire Waille, La bibliothèque des Granvelle: inventaire des livres et manuscrits présents au Palais Granvelle en 1607 (Besançon, 2017), no. 1234—"Tho[ma]s Sutton | Oxford", late-seventeenth-century ownership inscription (very plausibly Thomas Sutton, of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, admitted AB in 1683 and MD in 1692)—sold Christie's, 8 December 1982, lot 76—Michel Wittock (1936-2020), bookplate, his sale, Christie's, London, 7 July 2004, lot 89—Christie's Paris, 28 November 2017, lot 408—Patrick Le Lay (b.1942). acquisition: Purchased from Patrick Le Lay in 2018. references: Adams P-813; Edit16 CNCE 47367; USTC 762455; Hobson & Culot, Italian and French 16th Century Bindings, 2nd ed., no. 10; Idem, "La reliure en Italie et en France" in Bibliotheca Wittockiana, Musea Nostra - 38 (Brussels 1996), p.22 (illustrated)—Hobson, Renaissance Book Collecting (Cambridge, 1999), pp. 119–123; 252–254 (Appendix 7: Bindings by the Cicero Binder), item 29; Federico & Livio Macchi, Atlante della legatura italiana: Il Rinascimento (XV-XVI secolo) (Milan 2007), pp. 208-209 Tav. 81; Brooker, "Identifying Books by Colors", in Bibliophilies et reliures: mélanges offerts à Michel Wittock (Brussels, 2006), pp. 65–107 (Appendix 4, Library of Antoine Perronet de Granvelle, Types of Venetian Bindings – 1547 Shipment, Type C: Italian texts – Plain gilt edges, purple title label)