Quintilianus, Institutionum oratoriarum, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1521 (but 1522), Parisian brown morocco, by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier, ca. 1545

Quintilianus, Marcus Fabius. M. Fabii Quintiliani Institutionum oratoriarum libri XII diligentius recogniti MDXXII. Index capitum totius operis. Conuersio dictionum Graecarum, quas ipse author in Latinum non transtulit. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, January 1521 (but 1522)

A recently rediscovered Grolier binding by Jean Picard, not recorded in Gabriel Austin, The Library of Jean Grolier, or Anthony Hobson, Renaissance Book Collecting. In 2012, Isabelle de Conihout concluded her lecture at the Grolier Club, "On Ten New Groliers: Jean Grolier's First Library and His Ownership Marks before 1540" (published 2013), "Ten? I should have said eleven, as another unknown Picard binding was recently sold at auction in a small French town, in Montluçon, an Aldus Quintilian, 1521. You may know that it safely reached an extremely fine American collection of French bindings…"

For a virtual twin of this binding, see lot 1413, and for Picard’s work for Grolier, Isabelle de Conihout, “Grolierii et amicorum” in Bibliotheca Brookeriana: Magnificent books and bindings, 11 October 2023, pp. 138-141.

4to (222 x 136 mm). Italic type, 39 lines plus headline. collation: *⁴ a–z⁸ A–E⁸ F⁶: 234 foliated leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and F6v, three- and six-line initial spaces with guide letters. Illuminated and decorated in Paris for Jean Grolier: printer's devices illuminated in blue and argent, guide letters supplied in liquid gold, the larger with further red penwork.

binding: Parisian brown morocco, by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier (226 x 141mm), ca. 1545, profusely gilt, covers paneled with border of double gilt fillets and frame of three interlocking shaped panels (a small rectangle, a rhombus, and a larger rectangle with concave curvilinear corners), each composed of a gilt French fillet and blind fillets, the whole forming a central elongated octagon gilt with an elaborate cartouche of fleurons and curved fillets enclosing on upper cover gilt- lettered title M. FABII QVINTI |LIANI ORATIO | RIAR INSTI |TVTIONES and on lower cover Grolier's personal motto (Portio mea Domine sit in terra viventium), at foot of upper cover between the border and frame IO. GROLIERII ET AMICORVM, large gilt fleur-de-lis at corners between border and frame, spine gilt-ruled in eight compartments with five full and two half bands, vellum endleaves, additional contemporary paper flyleaves at front and back (conjugate of third front flyleaf not excised and bound between *4 and a1), gilt edges. (Extremities quite rubbed, spine dried as though exposed to heat, with some minor loss and repair.) Black morocco folding-case gilt with plexiglass covers.

provenance: Jean Grolier de Servières, vicomte d’Aguisy (1489?–1565), supralibros, his name and motto on covers — Méry de Vic, vicomte d'Ermenonville (1560–1622) — Dominique de Vic (1588–1661) — André Guy (1913–2008); Sylvie Dagot & Jean-Luc Devaux, Bibliothèque André Guy. Première partie, Montluçon, 8–9 October 2011, lot 64. acquisition: Purchased at the Guy auction via Thomas-Scheler. references: UCLA 208; Adams Q56; Cataldi Palau 61; Edit16 54149; Renouard 93/14; USTC 851768