Priscianus Caesariensis, Opera grammatica, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1527, contemporary Bolognese brown morocco by the "German Students' Binder"

Priscianus Caesariensis. Prisciani grammatici Caesariensis Libri omnes. De octo partibus orationis XVI: deque earundem constructione II. De duodecim primis Aneidos librorum carminibus. De accentibus. De ponderibus, et mensuris. De praeexercitamentis rhetoricae ex Hermogene. De versibus comicis. Rufini item de metris comicis, et oratorijs numeris. Quibus omnibus ad suum deus restituendis quanta adhibuerimus diligentiam, facile cognosces, si hanc nostram editionem conferes non modo cum caeteris editionibus, sed etiam cumea quae proxime Florentiae ante hanc nostram facta est et omnes in primis locos ubi graecum quod deerat, restituimus in illis enim, sed et in multis alijs tantam differentiam depraehendes inter hanc et illam, ut illud musicorum sis dicturus diapason vale. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, May 1527

A binding decorated with a bust portrait of a Caesar or a laureate poet, a popular ornament on bindings made in university towns. De Marinis (1966) attributed this binding to a Venetian workshop, because an apparently identical bust of Caesar appears on a binding he had previously assigned to Venice (La Legatura Artistica in Italia, 1960, no. 1779 & Pl. 339). Ilse Schunke correctly reassigned that binding to Bologna (“Venezianische Renaissanceeinbände” in Studi di Bibliografia in onore di T. De Marinis, 1964, p. 198), and Hobson subsequently linked this one to a Bolognese workshop which he named “The German Students’ Binder”. The shop started work in the early 1520s and about 1535 was taken over by another, known as the “Pflug & Ebeleben Binder”.

4to (212 x 135 mm). Italic type, 40 lines plus headline. collation: π^{8 2}π⁶ a-z⁸ A-O⁸ P⁶: 316 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device to title-page and verso of last leaf. (Intermittent spotting and dampstaining, closed marginal tear to π8.)

binding: Contemporary Bolognese brown morocco by the "German Students' Binder" (215 x 139 mm), blind tooled, ivy leaf border flanked by double fillets, panel filled with foliate arabesques on curving stems surrounding bust of Caesar or a poet laureate, traces of four pairs of ties, blue edges. (Corners and spine restored, endleaves renewed, textblock cracked in places, worming to upper pastedown.)

provenance: Unidentified owner(s), inscription dated 1544 or 1548 on title-page (washed), a few contemporary marginalia — Jean Fürstenberg (1890-1982), ex libris; Exposition de reliures de la Renaissance: collection Jean Furstenberg: 30 September 1961 (Paris 1961), no. 92 [GC]; Musée d'art et d'histoire, Collection Jean Furstenberg: 3 mai-5 juin 1966 (Geneva 1966), no. 51; his sale, Ader Picard Tajan & Claude Guérin with Dominique Courvoisier, Paris, 16 November 1983, lot 156 — possibly Martin Breslauer Inc., New York — Christie's London, 13 December 1984, lot 90 — Alan G. Thomas, London. acquisition: Purchased from Alan G. Thomas, London, 1985. references: UCLA 243; Renouard 103/2; Edit16 47512; USTC 851384; Tammaro De Marinis, Die italienischen Renaissance-Einbände der Bibliothek Fürstenberg (Hamburg 1966), pp. 134-135 (illustrated); Anthony Hobson, "Bookbinding in Bologna" in Schede umanistiche, n.s., 1 (1998), pp. 147-175 (this binding, p. 158); Anthony Hobson & Leonardo Quaquarelli, Legature bolognesi del rinascimento (Bologna 1998), p. 17 (this binding)