Scriptores astronomici veteres, Phaenomena, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, 1499, contemporary dark brown goatskin, possibly Venetian

Scriptores astronomici veteres. Arati Solensis Phaenomena Cvm Commentariis [Latin and Greek]. (Venice: Aldo Manuzio, [not before 17 October 1499])

Editio princeps of Aratus's didactic poem about the constellations, celestial phenomena, and the weather. While this text was printed as part of Firmicus Maternus's encyclopedic collection of ancient astrological and astronomical texts (see Biblitheca Brookeriana, The Aldine Collection D–M, lot 727; New York, 18 October 2024), this particular section was evidently published as a separate work.

Aldo advertised Scriptores astronomici ueteres in his 1503 catalogue under both libri latini and libri graeci. The first category represented the complete edition, the second, only the final seven quires: the Greek text of Aratus with the commentaries of Leontius and Theon, the Greek text of the Sphaera attributed to Proculus Diadochus, and the Latin translation of Sphaera by Thomas Linacre. (The Linacre translation, which appears on terminal gathering T, is not present here.)

The binding, emblematic of a Greek work, is strictly contemporary and original to the text. The central circular stamp depicts Alexander the Great as a helmeted warrior facing right, lettered around * D * ALSO * (an abbreviation, presumably, of “Divino Alessandro”), and encircled by a wreath. Anthony Hobson could identify no direct prototype—neither a coin, nor a medal—and surmised that the image might be derived from a (lost) cameo of Minerva belonging to Lorenzo de’ Medici, which the Greek scholar Janus Lascaris had adapted (transforming the goddess into a conqueror by adding a helmet and legend ἈΛΈΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ)—"thus incidentally launching a High Renaissance icon of the helmeted Alexander. It is a rare instance of the binding stamp apparently predating the plaquette in other materials" (Humanists and Bookbinders, pp. 100–103).

For the most celebrated use of this medallion stamp of Alexander, see Bibliotheca Brookeriana, Magnificent Books and Bindings, lot 52 (New York, 11 October 2023): the Pillone Library copy of Jean de Jandun, Questiones, Venice, 1505–23, in a Paduan binding stamped with an overall grid pattern of the medallion—and a fore-edge painting by Cesare Vecellio. Hobson supposed that the shop that bound the Jandun was situated in Padua, specialized in selling medical books and works of Aristotelian philosophy, and catered to impecunious students; the workshop has now been given the name The Alexander's Head Shop (Hobson, Decorated Bookbindings in Renaissance Italy, edited by Edward Potten and Mirjam Foot, forthcoming October 2025).

Discreet section from a Super-Chancery folio (295 x 208 mm). Greek type, with title Roman, 40 lines plus headline. collation: ^XN¹⁰ O-S¹⁰: 60 leaves only. (Some light marginal dampstaining, final four leaves lightly stained, a few trifling marginal wormholes, Q1.10 guarded.)

binding: Contemporary dark brown goatskin (304 x 216 mm), Paduan, blind tooled, triple fillets around sides, inner frame formed by triple fillets containing dotted Greek knotwork in center, lozenge formed by triple fillets containing palmettes, central wreathed medallion stamp of a helmeted Alexander the Great, lettered * D * ALSO *, spine in four compartments, undecorated, traces of four pairs of fabric ties, no endleaves, inner covers stained black, blue (or once-silvered?) edges. (Spine and extremities worn with minor loss, a few wormholes, mild repair to spine.) Half brown morocco folding-case.

provenance: Unidentified owner, a few eighteenth-century scholarly annotations in Latin in the main text of Aratus — Libreria Antiquaria Mediolanum, New York Antiquarian Book Fair 2022, item 75 (€35,000). acquisition: Purchased from Libreria Mediolanum, Milan, 2022. references: (all for the complete work) UCLA 34; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 35; BMC V 560 (IB 24486); Goff F191; Grolier/Aldus 15; GW9981; Houzeau & Lancaster 749; ISTC if00191000; Renouard 20/3