Perotti, Cornucopiae, siue linguae latinae commentarij diligentissime recogniti, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, May 1517, Venetian black morocco, ca. 1520, by Mendoza Binder

Perotti, Niccolò. In hoc volumine habentur haec. Cornucopiae, siue linguae latinae commentarij diligentissime recogniti: atque ex archetypo emendati. Index copiosissimus dictionum omnium, … Eiusdem Sypontini libellus, quo Plynij epistola ad Titum Vespasianum corrigitur.Cornelij Vitellij in eum ipsum libellum Sypontini annotationes. M. Terentij Varronis De lingua latina libri tres. Quartus. Quintus. Sextus. Eiusdem De analogia libri tres. Sexti Pompeij Festi undeuiginti librorum fragmenta. Nonij Marcelli Compendia, in quibus tertia ferè pars addita est, non ante impressa, idque labore, & diligentia Iucundi nostri Veronensis, qui in Gallia Nonium cum antiquis contulit exemplaribus. Additus praeterea est longus tractatus de generibus. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, May 1517

According to Robin Halwas, nine bindings by the “Mendoza Binder” (Andrea di Lorenzo?) for “Alex. Rha.” are known (including the present lot). "They cover eight Aldine Press books and one Giunta imprint, the earliest printed in 1513 and the last in 1524. All are in dark olive (nearly black) goatskin, decorated with a gilt rectangular frame, gilt rosettes and leaves at the outer and inner corners, a title lettered in gilt at the head of the upper covers and beneath “Alex. Rha.” (on four, “Alex. Rhav.”)." Chris Coppens has suggested that “Alex. Rha.” could refer to Alexios Rhartouros (ca. 1504-1574), a priest and self-described archivist of Cyprus.

Folio (315 x 210 mm). Italic type, 62 lines plus headline, text in two columns. collation: π-10π⁸ a-z⁸ A-Y⁸ (10π8 a blank): 440 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page, verso of K8, and final verso, early marginalia. (Occasional browning, scattered foxing, a few marginal tears and paper flaws, worming to upper pastedown lower margin of last three gatherings.)

binding: Venetian black morocco (322 x 230 mm), ca. 1520, by Mendoza Binder, covers with frame of multiple blind rules flanking single gilt rule, gilt rosettes at outer corners, gilt oak leaf at inner corners, upper cover with *CORNVCOPIAE* gilt at top and ALEX*RHAV* gilt at bottom, spine with raised bands in four compartments, compartments diapered in blind, edges stained blue. (Rubbed, joints starting.)

provenance: Supralibros "Alex[ander]. Rhav[ennas?]" on upper cover — inscription "Nacque Barbara Virginia mia figliuola et della Mag.ca S.ra Drusilla Boldona, nell'anno di nostra salute 1580 alli 10 di Settembre… e fu battizzata in Sta. Babilla Mendone, stato compadre L.M.S.re Giovanni Augostino Litta, Marchese di Gambalo alli [date missing] di sudetto mese" on verso of final leaf — inscription "Acquisto del C. Giovanni 1791" on endpaper — Sotheby's London, 27-28 July 1955, lot 20 — Horace G. Commin, Bournemouth, purchased in previous sale (£14) — Georges Heilbrun, Catalogue 21 (Paris [1963]), item 9 (FF 950); Catalogue 37 (Paris [1972]), item 224 (FF 1500). acquisition: Purchased from Georges Heilbrun, Paris, 1973. references: UCLA 151; Renouard 81/10; Edit16 37579; USTC 847581; Anthony Hobson, Renaissance book collecting (Cambridge 1999), p. 246 (Appendix 5: Bindings by the Mendoza Binder, no. 67); Federico & Livio Macchi, Atlante della legatura italiana: Il Rinascimento (XV-XVI secolo) (Milan 2007), pp. 190-191 Tav. 72