Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part VII

Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part VII

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 1834. Sansovino, Del secretario, Venice, 1580, French limp brown morocco richly tooled in silver by the Ève bindery for Henri III.

Sansovino, Del secretario, Venice, 1580, French limp brown morocco richly tooled in silver by the Ève bindery for Henri III

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

SANSOVINO, FRANCESCO. Del secretario libri VII. Venice: Heirs of Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1580


A CONTEMPORARY FRENCH BINDING BY THE ÈVE BINDERY FOR HENRI III. Jean Balsamo, in Henri III mécène (Paris 2006; p. 283), includes this volume in his list of 26 Italian books in Henri III’s library, the majority of which were printed in the decade 1570-1580, and "reliés en deux moments distincts". The corner winged cherubs within branches are silver decorated, as on a copy (also with Henri III’s arms) of Ariosto’s Sette libri di satire (Venice 1573) offered by Librairie Sourget, Cent livres précieux de 1469 à 1914, no. 32. The same cornerpieces (in gold tooling) occur on a Ms Book of Hours in the British Library, described by Foot as "made in Paris, possibly by the Ève bindery" (Davis Gift III, no. 109). The King also possessed copies of Sansovino's Cronologia del mondo (1580) and Historia universale dell'origine et imperio de Turchi (1573).


An almost identical binding is found on Bibliotheca Brookeriana, 10 December 2024, lot 1220 (Thucydides), a folio volume also for Henri III.


This book has some interesting provenance: as well as being bound for Henri III, it was also presented to a ?"Giovanni Battista Pallarone" in 1610 and inscribed with an Italian proverb to the lower endpaper in 1612. The title-page features an obscured inscription reading "de Longueil", perhaps a descendant of Christopherus de Longueil/Longolius (1485-1522), humanist and book collector (CERL 2639).

8vo (149 x 99 mm). Italic type, 29 lines plus headline. collation: ✝8 ✝✝8 A-Z8 Aa-Ee8 (Ee6v-8 blank): 240 leaves. Woodcut printer's device on title-page, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. (Some dampstaining throughout, some very small marginal wormholes.)


binding: Contemporary French bordeaux morocco (155 x 103 mm), tooled in (oxidised) silver, by the Ève bindery for Henri III, his arms of France and Poland-Lithuania at centre [Olivier 2491 fer 3] on a semé of fleurs-de-lys, leafy cornerpieces with winged cherubs, flat spine with a semé of fleurs-de-lys, title lettered near head of spine, edges silvered. (Small repairs to corners, arms on lower cover and fore-edge of lower board, joints cracking.)


provenance: Henri III of France (born 1551, ruled 1574-1589), arms on binding—“A Gio. Batta. Pallarone 1610”, inscription to upper endpaper—proverbial inscription dated 1612 to lower pastedown—?"de Longueil", inscription to title-page—Librairie Damascène Morgand, Paris, Bulletin Mensuel - No. 27, Avril 1890, item 18342 and Répertoire méthodique. Deuxième partie (1893), item 6427—J. Pearson & Co., London, A Catalogue of Shakespeareana (London 1899), II, p. 406 no. 748—Rosenbach Company, Philadelphia, Rare books, manuscripts and autograph letters (1947), item 511—Jean Fürstenberg (1890-1982), red gilt booklabel, bequeathed to Fondation Fürstenberg-Beaumesnil, sale, Wemaëre, de Beaupuis, Denesle, Binoche et Giquello, Paris, 9 December 2013, lot 153. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: USTC 854822; Edit16 CNCE 39142

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