Pontano, Opera, Venice, Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1513, contemporary Roman dark green goatskin

Pontano, Giovanni Gioviano. Pontani Opera. Vrania, siue de stellis libri quinque. Meteororum liber unus. De hortis Hesperidum libri duo. Lepidina siue postorales [!] pompae septem. Item Meliseus Maeon Acon. Hendecasyllaborum libri duo. Tumulorum liber unus. Neniae duodecim. Epigrammata duodecim. Quae uero in toto opere habeantur in indice, qui in calce est, licet uidere. Venice: Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1513

A second copy of the second Aldine edition of this collection of Pontano's lyric, and other, poetry. The elegantly austere binding is by the same shop that bound the 1515 Erasmus (Bibliotheca Brookeriana: The Aldine Collection D–M, lot 702; New York, 18 October 2024) and the 1516 Suetonius (lot 1463, below).

8vo (163 x 99 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a–z⁸ aa–ii⁸: 256 foliated leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and ii8v, two-, three-, and six-line initial spaces with guide letters. (Title-page a little frayed at inner margin, first two quires lightly browned, single wormhole to final three quires, occasionally touching a letter.)

binding: Contemporary Roman dark green goatskin (168 x 110 mm), covers paneled in low-grade gold and black, forming two concentric frames joined by miters, gilt leaf-tool at inner corners, small gilt trefoil at outer corners, ring and dot punch at angle of inner frame, front cover with author and title gilt-lettered in center of panel PONTA | NI | VRANIA, panel on rear cover empty, traces of four pairs of green fabric ties, edges gilt and gauffered. (Rebacked with extensive restoration to rear joint, extremities worn.)

provenance: St. Anna, Augsburg (convent of Discalced Carmelites), seventeenth-century inscription on title-page — William Thompson (1712–1766), inscription, "Gul. Thompson E. Coll. Reg. Oxon. 1742," on title-page. acquisition: Purchased from Internationaal Antiquariaat Menno Hertzberger, Amsterdam, 1978. references: UCLA 109; Adams P1858; Aldo Manuzio Tipografo 119; Edit16 37456; Renouard 63/7; USTC 850318