Pontano, Opera omnia, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1518, Venetian black goatskin by the Mendoza Binder, ca. 1540

Pontano, Giovanni Gioviano. Ioannis Iouiani Pontani Opera omnia soluta oratione composita. Nomina librorum, qui in hisce tribus partibus continentur, à tergo huius paginae notata reperiuntur. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, June 1518

[Uniformly bound with vol. 2, with separate title-page:] 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

[Uniformly bound with vol. 3, with separate title-page:] Centum Ptolemaei sententiae ad Syrum fratrem à Pontano è graeco in latinum tralatae [!], atque expositae. Eiusdem Pontani libri xiiii de reb. coelestibus. Liber etiam de luna imperfectus. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, September 1519

A fine set of the first Aldine edition of Pontano's collected prose in unrestored uniform bindings by the Mendoza Binder, from the library of the Papal Countess Doheny. The third volume contains the first edition of his scientific, proto-scientific, and astrological writings, including Centum Ptolemaei sententiae. Eiusdem de reb. coeslestibus. Liber etiam de luna imperfectus. The pseudo-Ptolemaic Centum sententiae, or Centiloquy, is a collection of astrological aphorisms, once thought to have been the work of Claudius Ptolemaeus—from whose work it differs in many key respects. Seventeenth-century English scholars such as Joseph Moxon and William Lilly noted that some ascribed it to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus. More recent speculation has centered around the figure of Abu Ja’far Ahmad ibn Yusuf Ibn Daya (d. ca. 941), who wrote extensive glosses to the work, and translated it into Hebrew and Latin. Indices, contents, errata, and registers for all three volumes appear at the end of volume 3.

3 volumes, 4to (216 x 130 mm). Italic type, with some Greek, 39 lines plus headline. collation: (vol. 1:) *⁴ a–z⁸ aa–ss⁸ (-ss8); 331 (of 332) foliated leaves (lacking terminal blank; with blank m8). Woodcut Aldine device on title-page, three- to seven- line initial spaces with guide letters. (vol. 2:) A–Z⁸ AA–QQ⁸ RR⁶: 318 foliated leaves (F8 blank). Four- to seven-line initial spaces with guide letters. (vol. 3:) aaa–zzz⁸ AAA–RRR⁸: 320 foliated leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on RRR8v, four- to seven-line initial spaces with guide letters. (A little scattered staining throughout, vol. 1 with some mostly unobtrusive small wormholes and short trail in lower margins of quires *–bb, vol. 2 title-page a bit soiled, miniscule worming to lower fore- edge corners of K6–M7, short tear at fore-edge margin of M3, vol. 3 with sporadic minor worming at lowermost margin, most apparent in first quire, inner sheet of quire rrr and outer sheet of ttt browned.)

binding: Venetian black goatskin by the Mendoza Binder (222 x 145 mm), ca. 1540, border formed by gold and blind fillets empty except for gilt rosettes at corners and gilt-lettered title OPERA PŌTA. VOL. I [II, III] at head, gilt leafy corner ornaments, gilt stirrups tête-bêche in center surrounded by four leaves, spine gilt-ruled with fillets and hatches in eight compartments with three full and four half bands, edges gilt and gauffered to a ropework pattern, remnants of four pairs of fabric ties. (Slightest rubbing to extremities, few small wormholes, front free endpaper of first vol. restored.)

provenance: Carlo Archinto, conte di Tainate (1669–1732), armorial bookplate — John Anderson, Jr. (successor to Bangs & Co.), New York, 21 May 1903, lot 7; purchased by — unidentified owner — Charles William Dyson Perrins (1864-1958), ex libris and circular ticket “223” referencing Alfred W. Pollard, Italian book-illustrations and early printing; a catalogue of early Italian books in the library of C. W. Dyson Perrins (London 1914); his sale, Sotheby’s, London, 17-18 June 1946, lot 224; purchased by —Martin Breslauer, London (£65); Catalogue 61 (London, 1947), item 42 (£105) — Estelle Doheny (1875– 1958); Lucille V. Miller, Catalogue of books & manuscripts in the Estelle Doheny Collection (Los Angeles 1955), III, p. 3; bequeathed to; bequeathed to — St. John's Seminary, Camarillo; Christie's New York, 17–18 October 1988, lot 1027 (sold on behalf of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles). acquisition: Purchased at Christie's via Martin Breslauer, Inc. references: UCLA 168, 178, 183; Adams P1860; Cataldi Palau 36, 47, 50; Edit16 47484; Renouard 82/3, 87/6, 87/7; USTC 850317; for the binding, Anthony Hobson, Renaissance book collecting (Cambridge 1999), p. 247 (Appendix 5: The Mendoza Binder, no. 117)