Oppianus Anazarbensis, Oppianou Aleutikon biblia pente, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, December 1517, seventeenth-century French brown calf, armorial binding of Léonor d'Éstampes de Valençay as Bishop of Chartres

Oppianus Anazarbensis. Oppianou Aleutikon biblia pente. Tou autou Kynegetikon biblia tessara. Oppiani De piscibus libri V. Eiusdem De uenatione libri IV. Oppiani De piscibus Laurentio Lippio interprete libri V [Greek and Latin]. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, December 1517

First Aldine edition of two didactic poems on fishing and hunting, comprising the editio princeps of the Kynegetica (De Venatione) and the second edition of the Haleutikon (De piscibus), the latter with Lorenzo Lippi’s Latin translation. “The Haleutica is particularly noteworthy for its varied and imaginative use of myth and simile and for the way it assimilates man and fishes, hunter and hunted” (Oxford Classical Dictionary). The two poems were by different authors, the Kynegetica being slightly later.

8vo (145 x 88 mm). Greek and italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a-x⁸ (n7 and n8 blanks): 168 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso. (A few stray spots, but overall a pleasant, clean copy.)

binding: Seventeenth-century French brown calf (150 x 98 mm), gilt armorial binding of Léonor d'Éstampes de Valençay as Bishop of Chartres (see Eugène Olivier, Georges Hermal, and Robert de Roton, Manuel de l’amateur de reliures armoriées françaises, 1663) at center, spine with raised bands in five compartments, second and third gilt-lettered, others with repeat gilt motif, edges speckled red and brown. (Extremities rubbed, paper labels pasted to head and tail of spine, inscriptions in ink "45" and "C/449.")

provenance: Léonor d' Estampes de Valençay (1589-1651), armorial supralibros, paper labels pasted to head and tail of spine — John Hay, 2^nd Marquess of Tweeddale (1643-1713), armorial ex libris — A catalogue of the library of the most honble. John Marquis of Tweeddale at Yester taken August 1742 [manuscript], p. 116 — Manuscript Library catalogue of Yester House, East Lothian, dated 1833 (associated with George Hay, Marquess of Tweeddale (1787-1876), p. 93) — William George Montagu Hay, 11^th Marquess of Tweeddale (1884-1967), his sale, Sotheby's London, 15-16 July 1957, lot 175 — Maggs Bros, London, purchased in previous sale (£11) — Sir Peter Henry Berry Otway Smithers (1913-2006) — Sotheby's London, 5-6 February 1973, lot 144 (lots 117-207 consigned by Smithers). acquisition: Purchased at Sotheby's via Quaritch. references: UCLA 160; Renouard 81/9; Edit16 37566; USTC 845399; Adams O-200