Plautus, comoediis XX, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, July 1522, Paduan tan morocco, ca. 1527

Plautus, Titus Maccius. Ex Plauti comoediis XX quarum carmina magna ex parte in mensum suum restituta sunt MDXXII. Index uerborum, quib. paulo abstrusiorib. Plautus utitur. Argumenta singularum comoediarum. Authoris uita. Tralatio [!] dictionum Graecarum. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, July 1522

First true Aldine edition of the oldest surviving complete works in Latin—by the Mendoza Binder.

According to Robin Halwas, Eberhard Schenk von Erbach, whom the present work was bound for, was born at Schloss Fürstenau (Michelstadt) on 19 January 1511. On 18 September 1522, he matriculated at Tübingen (Humaniora) along with his tutor, Marquard, and in 1526, they travelled together to Padua, where Eberhard attended lectures from 19 April 1526 to July 1527. "At Padua, Eberhard acquired the four books … Aldine editions of Cicero’s De Officiis (1519), Aulus Gellius (1515), Plautus [this lot] (1522), and Suetonius (1521). All four were bound with his name lettered on their lower covers, by the 'Mendoza Binder', whose shop, situated in the parish of San Fantin, maintained a loose association with the retail shop of the Aldine press in the Merceria" (see Halwas, "The schoolbooks of Eberhard XIV Schenk, Graf zu Erbach").

Tall 8vo (213 x 130 mm). Italic and Roman type, 39 lines plus headline. collation: *⁶ **⁸ a-z⁸ A-M⁸ N⁴: 298 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso, final line of *ii recto beginning with "exemplar." (A few stray spots and stains.)

binding: Venetian tan morocco, by the Mendoza Binder (222 x 140 mm), ca. 1527, gilt fillet flanked by four blind fillets on either side forming frame, upper cover with *PLAVTVS** gilt-lettered, lower cover with *SCHENCKH* | *EBERHARD* | *DNS* ET* | *BARO* | *IN* | *ERPACH* gilt-lettered, traces of four pairs of green silk ties, spine with raised bands in eight compartments, each decoratively blind-tooled, edges stained blue, vellum pastedowns, manuscript binding support visible under pastedowns. (Shelfwear, joints weak, vellum endleaves removed.)

provenance: Schenk Eberhard XIV, Graf zu Erbach (1511-1564), supralibros — initials "A.S." on lower pastedown — Henry F. Blanchard; C.F. Libbie, Catalogue of the valuable private library of H.F. Blanchard, Esq., of Augusta, Me., Boston, 3-5 May 1898, lot 1341 — American Art Association, New York, 7 May 1926, lot 8 — Adolph Lewisohn (1849-1938), ex libris; his sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, 25 January 1940, lot 6 — Parke-Bernet, New York, 13 January 1970, lot 25 ($325). acquisition: Purchased from Seven Gables Bookshop, New York, 1973. references: UCLA 211; Renouard 94/2; Edit16 37687; USTC 849863; Anthony Hobson, Renaissance book collecting (Cambridge 1999), p. 246 (Appendix 5: Bindings by the Mendoza Binder, no. 85); Robin Halwas, "The schoolbooks of Eberhard XIV Schenk, Graf zu Erbach (1511-1564)" (https://www.robinhalwas.com/n68-the-schoolbooks-of-eberhard-xiv-schenk-graf-zu-erbach-1511-1564)