Ovidius Naso, Ouidii Metamorphoseon libri XV, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, October 1502, Bolognese brown morocco, ca. 1535

Ovidius Naso, Publius. Ouidii Metamorphoseon libri XV. Venice: Aldo Manuzio, October 1502

First edition, an early work of the Pflug and Ebeleben Binder (Hobson). This is the first of a three-volume set of the works of Ovid, issued between October 1502 and February 1503, all of which were dedicated to Marin Sanudo.

8vo (153 x 92 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a-h^{8 2}a-z⁸ A-B⁸ C⁴ (h⁸ a blank): 268 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso, manuscript pagination in an early hand. (Scattered staining.)

binding: Bolognese brown morocco (158 x 100 mm), ca. 1535, Ebeleben Binder, P. | OVDII | METAM | OR. | gilt on upper cover within a gilt floriate gilt cartouche, surrounded by blindstamped panel and cornerpieces of vines, leaves, and arabesques, lower cover with gilt head bearing a laurel wreath in cartouche, surrounded by blindstamped panel and cornerpieces of vines, leaves, and arabesques, traces of four pairs of ties, edges stained black (Hobson Binding Cat., no. 42). (Rebacked, inner joints cracked.)

provenance: Cecil Dunn-Gardner (1825-1903), his sale, Sotheby's London, 21-26 June 1880, lot 1168 — J. Pearson & Co., London, purchased in previous sale (8s) — Sir Edward Sullivan, 1^st Bt. (1822-1885), his sale, Sotheby's London, 19 May-12 June 1890, lot 204 — Charles Isaac Elton (1839-1900), purchased in previous sale (£1 4s); A catalogue of a portion of the library of Charles Isaac Elton and Mary Augusta Elton (London 1891), p. 38 — Mary Augusta (née Strachey) Elton (1838- 1914), her sale, Sotheby's London, 1-2 May 1916, lot 389 — J. & J. Leighton, London, purchased in previous sale (£4) — Maggs Bros, Catalogue 356 (London 1917), item 5 — Carl H. Pforzheimer (1879-1957), his sale, Sotheby's London, 12 June 1978, lot 30 (£380). acquisition: Purchased at Sotheby's via Martin Breslauer Inc. references: UCLA 66; Renouard 37/12; Edit16 55826; USTC 845656; Adams O-469; for this binding, Anthony Hobson, "Bookbinding in Bologna" in Schede umanistiche, n.s., 1 (1998), pp. 147-175 (p. 167); A. Hobson & Leonardo Quaquarelli, Legature bolognesi del rinascimento (Bologna 1998), p. 24