Ovidius Naso, Opera omnia, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Heirs of Andrea Torresano, 1534 (September 1533; January 1533; December 1533), early nineteenth-century straight-grained red morocco by Bozérian Jeune

Ovidius Naso, Publius. Quae hoc volumine continentur. Annotationes in omnia Ouidij opera. Index fabularum et caeterorum, quae insunt hoc libro secundum ordinem alphabeti. Ouidii metamorphoseon libri XV [vol. 2:] P. Ouidij Nasonis uita per Aldum ex ipsius libris excerpta. Heroidum epistolae. Amorum lib. III. De arte amandi lib. III … [vol. 3:] Cla. Ptolemaei inerrantium stellarum significationes … P. Ouidii Nasonis Fastorum lib. VI. Tristium lib. V. De Ponto lib. IV. In Ibin ad Liuiam. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Heirs of Andrea Torresano, 1534 (but September 1533; January 1533; December 1533)

The splendid Fürstenberg-Bonna set of the slightly revised third Aldine edition of Ovid's Opera. The title-page of the first volume is dated 1534, but the colophons of the three volumes are dated September 1533, January 1533, and December 1533, respectively.

3 volumes, 8vo (162 x 95 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: (vol. 1:) π–4π⁸ a–z⁸ A–B⁸ C4: 236 leaves (4π8 blank). Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and C4v, four- and six-line initial spaces with guide letters. (vol. 2:) Aa⁸ Bb⁴ aa– hh⁸ ii⁴ kk–oo⁸ pp⁴ qq–zz⁸ AA⁴: 192 leaves (Bb4 blank). Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and AA4v, two, three-, four- and six-line initial spaces with guide letters. (vol. 3:) π–3π⁸ aaa–zzz⁸ AAA–FFF⁸: 256 leaves (3π6–8, lll6–8, ttt7–8, and FFF4 blank). Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and FFF8v, two-, three-, and four-line initial spaces with guide letters. (Scattered light browning and soiling, largely confined to vol. 2, Bb2 repaired at lower fore-edge corner.)

binding: Early nineteenth-century straight-grained red morocco by Bozérian Jeune (François Bozerian), signed at foot of spine of vol. I, covers with a gilt border of interlocking circles flanked by double gilt fillets, quatrefoils at corners, spines densely gilt-tooled in six compartments, the second lettered with author and title, blue moiré silk linings, gilt Greek key pattern on turn-ins, gilt edges. (Extremities rubbed, joints lightly restored.)

provenance: Jean Fürstenberg (1890–1982), bookplate (not in Geneva 1966 catalogue), Étienne Ader, Jean-Louis Picard et Antoine Ader & Claude Guérin, Paris, 17 December 1969, lot 44, purchased by — unidentified owner (FF 1000) — Pierre- Adrien Yvinec, Catalogue 6: Livres anciens et modernes du XVe au XXe siècle (Paris, [2002?]), item 50 (€15,000) — Jean A. Bonna (b. 1945), morocco booklabel, Christie's London, 16 June, 2015, lot 36 (realised £6,875). acquisition: Purchased at the Bonna auction via Robin Halwas. references: UCLA 266; Adams O489, O432, P2239; Cataldi Palau 120; Edit16 27209; Renouard 109/8; USTC 845779; for this binding, Paul Culot, Le décor néo-classique des reliures françaises au temps du Directoire, du Consulat et de l’Empire (Brussels, 2015), p. 31