Ovidius Naso, Heroides, Amores, Ars amatoria, Remedia amoris, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Heirs of Andrea Torresano, January 1533, Bologna red morocco, ca. 1540

Ovidius Naso, Publius. P. Ouidij Nasonis uita per Aldum ex ipsius libris excerpta. Heroidum epistolae. Amorum lib. III. De arte amandi lib. III. De remedio amoris lib. II. De medicamine faciei. Nux Somnium … Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Heirs of Andrea Torresano, January 1533

The Bute copy, bound with Alessandro Farnese's arms as Cardinal, by the binder of Ulrich Fugger's Bible.

8vo (163 x 95 mm). Italic and Roman type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: Aa⁸ Bb⁴ aa-hh⁸ ii⁴ kk-oo⁸ pp⁴ qq-zz⁸ AA⁴ (Bb4 and pp4 blanks): 252 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso, early marginalia. (Browning and foxing, long closed tear to inner margin of zz1, minor worming to inner margin.)

binding: Bolognese red morocco over thin wooden boards (168 x 108 mm), ca. 1540, by binder of Ulrich Fugger's Bible, arabesque panel stamp, tête-bêche, .P. | OVIDII | EPIS. on center of upper cover, ALEX. | FARN. on lower, all gilt, edges stained red. (Original panels laid in a later binding, likely a remboîtage, edges stained red, lacking endleaves.)

provenance: Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1520-1589), supralibros — inscription on title (obliterated) — inscription "Ex libris D.D.R.D. Salvatorii Imbert. et amicorum 1566" on title — John Crichton-Stuart, 6th Marquess of Bute (1933-1993), his sale, Christie's London, 15 March 1995, lot 314. acquisition: Purchased at Christie's via Marlborough Rare Books. references: UCLA 266 (v.2); Renouard 109/8; Edit16 27209; USTC 845779; Anthony Hobson, "Bookbinding in Bologna" in Schede umanistiche, n.s. 1 (1998), pp. 171, no. 5 — Anthony Hobson and Leonardo Quaquarelli, Legature bolognesi del rinascimento (Bologna 1998), pp. 26-29, no. 5