Petrarca, Il Petrarca, Venice, Sons of Aldo Manuzio, 1546, near-contemporary gilt panel-stamped yellow calf, possibly Bolognese

Petrarca, Francesco. Il Petrarca. Venice: Sons of Aldo Manuzio, 1546

An attractive copy in a rare panel-stamped binding. Dr. Brooker has suggested that this binding may have originated in the Bolognese shop of the Binder for Ulrich Fugger, which utilized several stamps of Cupid blindfolded and shooting an arrow (compare to images in a Notabilia blog post, https://www.robinhalwas.com/n71-panel-stamps-used-at-bologna-1).

8vo (163 x 97 mm). Italic types, 30 lines plus headline. collation: A–Z⁸ AA¹⁰: 194 foliated leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and AA10v, three-line initial spaces with guide letters. (Title-page soiled, first four leaves with minor marginal wormholes, some with early repair, occasional staining and soiling.)

binding: Near-contemporary gilt panel-stamped yellow calf (168 x 106 mm), possibly Bolognese, covers with border of two gilt fillets, elaborate gilt panel stamp of leafy forms on interlaced stems, bud and leaf at angles, central cartouche of front cover gilt-lettered IL | PET | RAR | CA, and on lower cover Cupid with a bow and three sets of crossed arrows, spine in eight compartments with three full and four half bands, gilt double trefoils in compartments, traces of four pairs of fabric ties, edges gilt and gauffered. (Joints cracked, repairs to spine, extremities rubbed.)

provenance: "CMF," unidentified owner, early black stamp on A2 (covered with overslips) and top and bottom edges — "KH" within a circle in pencil on front pastedown, unidentified owner, but very possibly Kenneth John Hewett (1919–1994). acquisition: Purchased from Alessandro Meda Riquier, London, 2019. references: UCLA 359; Adams P811; Edit16 26967; Renouard 138/19; USTC 762224