Pontano, De aspiratione libri duo, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1519, Roman black morocco over thin wooden boards, early 1540s

Pontano, Giovanni Gioviano. Ioannis Iouiani Pontani De aspiratione libri duo. Charon dialogus. Antonius dialogus. Actius dialogus. Aegidius dialogus. Asinus dialogus. De sermone libri sex. Belli, quod Ferdinandus senior Neapolitanus rex cum Ioanne Andeganiensium [!] duce gessit, libri sex. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, April 1519

T. Kimball Brooker has identified seven works bound for the collector whose initials "G.A.C." are stamped on the upper cover of this copy:

Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis, Iuuenalis. Persius. Venice: Aldo Manuzio, August 1501 [ca. 1515] (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana: Stamp.De.Marinis.181)

Giovanni Gioviano Pontano, De aspiratione libri duo. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, April 1519 (the present lot)

Titus Maccius Plautus, Ex Plauti comoediis XX quarum carmina magna ex parte in mensum suum restituta sunt MDXXII. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1522 (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana: Aldine.II.23)

Giovanni Gioviano Pontano, Opera omnia soluta oratione composita. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, June 1518 (University of Texas, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center: Uzielli 141)

Giovanni Gioviano Pontano, Centum Ptolemaei sententiae ad Syrum fratrem à Pontano è graeco in latinum tralatae, atque expositae. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, September 1519 (British Library: Henry Davis Gift 776)

Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, Institutionum oratoriarum libri XII diligentius recogniti MDXXII. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1522; [Bound with:] Quintilianus, Declamationes. Lyon: Sébastien Gryphe, 1538. [And:] Guillaume Philandrier, Castigationes, atque annotationes pauculae in XII libros institutionum Marci Fabii quintiliani, specimen quoddam futurorum in eosdem commentariorum. Lyon: Sébastien Gryphe, 1535 (Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence: Rari 22.A.4.13)

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Naturalium quaestionum libri VII. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, February 1522 (Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore)

For this collector, known only by his initials G.A.C. (T. Kimball Brooker, “Who was L.T.? Part I” in The Book Collector 47 (1998), pp. 508-518 (p. 511); and “Who was L.T.? Part II” in The Book Collector 48 (1999), pp. 32-53 (p. 50)).

Volume two (of three) only, 4to (214 x 130 mm). Italic and Roman type, 39 lines plus headline. collation: A-Z⁸ AA-QQ⁸ RR⁶ (F8 a blank, lacking G1-I3, which were removed by the order of the ecclesiastical sensors and never included in this copy): 299 (of 318) leaves. Illuminated initials, early manuscript notations. (Worming to lower margin of first gatherings, scattered foxing and browning.)

binding: Roman black morocco over thin wooden boards (220 x 144 mm), early 1540s, gilt arabesque panel stamp with initials G.A.C. at center, spine with raised bands in four compartments, second and third horizontally gilt-lettered PONT.DE. | ASPIRAT, traces of four pairs of ties, edges stained black. (Head and foot of spine skillfully repaired, extremities a touch rubbed.)

provenance: Initials "G.A.C." to upper cover — Giovanni Gancia, Brighton & Paris — Sotheby's, London, 23-24 June 1858, lot 499 (Pollard identifies consignor as Giovanni Gancia) — George Bumstead, London, purchased in previous sale (£2 2s) — Charles Isaac Elton (1839-1900) and Mary Augusta Elton (née Strachey) (1838-1914), their Catalogue of a portion of the library of Charles Isaac Elton and Mary Augusta Elton (London 1891), p. 153 (illustrated); exhibited Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of bookbindings (London 1891), Case E, p. 26 no. 30, and Catalogue of the special exhibition of art bookbindings opened on the occasion of the Annual Meeting of the Library Association of the United Kingdom, Nottingham Meeting, 1891 (Nottingham 1891), p. 42 no. 194; latter’s sale, Sotheby's London, 1-2 May 1916, lot 422 — J. & J. Leighton, London, purchased in previous sale (£33) — Charles Ludovic Lindsay (1862-1925) — John Henry Montagu Manners, 9^th Duke of Rutland (1886-1940) — Manners, family library (Belvoir Castle) — Marlborough Rare Books, Catalogue 146 (London 1992), item 1 (£7,500). acquisition: Purchased from Marlborough Rare Books, London, 1992. references: UCLA 178; Renouard 87/6; Edit16 47484 (3 vol. set, 1518-1519); USTC 850317 (3 vol. set, 1518-1519)