[Laire], Serie dell'edizioni aldine, Pisa, Raffaelli, 1790, French three-quarter brown morocco over marbled boards, by Reparlier, ca. 1860

[Laire, François Xavier]. Serie dell'edizioni aldine per ordine cronologico ed alfabetico. Pisa: Luigi Raffaelli, 1790

[Bound with:] Anonymous. "Editions des Alde qui ne se trouvent pas dans le Catalogue imprimé" (manuscript)

[Bound with:] Barthélemy Mercier de Saint-Léger. Notice de deux anciens catalogues des éditions d'Alde Manuce et de deux autres pièces intéressantes, imprimées par cet artiste célèbre, adressées à MM. les auteurs du Journal des Sçavans par M. l'Abbé de Saint-Leger, Paris, le 29 mars 1790. [Paris: n.p., 1790]

[Bound with:] A profusion of manuscript notes, descriptions, and commentaries, mostly by Mercier de Saint-Léger, approximately 38 pages

Mercier de Saint-Léger's extensively annotated copy of Serie dell'edizioni aldine, bound with other earlier bibliographic studies of the Aldine press. This recueil later belonged to Antoine-Augustin Renouard, the most celebrated bibliographer of Aldo. In a holograph note on the title-page, Renouard relates that many of the annotations in the volume originated with him, as he had regularly informed the abbé de Saint-Léger of discoveries he made after acquiring the Aldine collection of Cardinal de Brienne in its entirety in 1795. In the preface to Annales des Aldes, Renouard writes that he purchased Mercier de Saint-Léger's copy of Serie dell'edizioni aldine at the sale of the latter's library in 1799, hoping to find guidance in the immense quantity of notes collected over the course of his long life by the learned bibliographer and librarian.

Because Laire requested that readers send corrections and additions to the text to Abbot Antonio Cesare Burgassi, Burgassi is sometimes mistakenly identified as the author of Serie dell'edizioni aldine.

Together two printed works and two manuscripts in one volume, 8vo (178 x 102 mm). Serie dell'edizioni aldine: Roman and italic types. collation: A-L¹² M-N⁶: 144 leaves. Woodcut title vignette, extensively annotated by the abbé de Saint-Léger, including on overslips and additional inlaid leaves. "Editions des Alde": Written in a neat cursive hand on blue paper. collation: π¹⁰: 10 leaves (last blank). Notice de deux anciens catalogues: Roman and italic types, 25 lines. collation: A¹²: 12 leaves (inlaid to size). Bound following these three works is profusion of manuscript notes, descriptions, and commentaries, mostly by Mercier de Saint-Léger, approximately 38 pages, on slips of paper of various sizes (inlaid to size).

binding: French three-quarter brown morocco over marbled boards (184 x 114 mm), by Reparlier (signed on front free endpaper), ca. 1860, marbled endpapers. (Slightest rubbing to extremities.)

provenance: Barthélemy Mercier de Saint-Léger (1734–1799), autograph notes throughout; Guillaume de Bure, Notice des livres manuscrits et imprimés de feu le cit. Barth. Mercier, ci-devant abbé de S.-Léger, dont la vente se fera le 24 Frimaire an VIII [15 December 1799], & jours suivants (Paris, 1799), p. 53; purchased by — Antoine-Augustin Renouard (1765–1853) (FF 75); Boulouze & Antoine-Laurent Potier, Paris, Catalogue d'une précieuse collection de livres, manuscrits, autographes, dessins et gravures composant la Bibliothèque de feu M. Antoine-Augustin Renouard, 20 November–23 December 1854, lot 3697; purchased by — unidentified owner (FF 19) — Antoine-Jean-Victor Le Roux de Lincy (1806–1869); Delbergue-Cormont & Adolphe Labitte, Paris, Catalogue des livres composant la bibliothèque de feu M. le Roux de Lincy, 20–30 April 1870, lot 1593; purchased by — Bailleul (FF 16). acquisition: Purchased from Librairie Paul Jammes, Paris, 2003. references: (1) UCLA 1185; Giuseppe Ottino & Giuseppe Fumagalli, Bibliotheca bibliographica Italica (Rome 1889-1902), 514; Grolier/Aldus 137; Lamberto Donati, "Bibliografia Aldina," in La Bibliofilía 52 (1950), pp. 188-204 no. 23; (3) Lamberto Donati, "Bibliografia Aldina," in La Bibliofilía 52 (1950), pp. 188-204 no. 22 ("Estr. Da: 'Journal des Savants', Paris")