Scriptores rei rusticae, Libri de re rustica, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Heirs of Andrea Torresano, 1533, Parisian dark brown morocco, ca. 1545, by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier

Scriptores rei rusticae. Libri de re rustica. M. Catonis lib. I M. Terentij Varronis lib. III L. Iunij Moderati Columellae lib. XII Eiusdem de arboribus liber separatus ab alijs. Palladij lib. XIIII De duobus dierum generibus: simulque de umbris, et horis, quae apud Palladium. Index omnium ferè rerum, quae in his libris scitu dignae leguntur. Index Graecarum dictionum. Enarrationes priscarum uocum per ordinem literarum digestae. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Heirs of Andrea Torresano, December 1533

Second Aldine edition, bound and illuminated in Paris by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier. For a virtual twin of this binding, see lot 1373.

4to (221 x 134 mm). Italic type, with some Greek, 40 lines plus headline. collation: *⁴ A–E⁸ F¹⁰ a–z^{8 2}A–O⁸: 350 foliated leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page, A1r, and O8v, three-, six-, and seven-line initial spaces with guide letters, three woodcut illustrations of agricultural implements, nine woodcut and four typographic diagrams in text illustrating field layouts and seeding patterns. 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, woodcut illustrations and diagrams simply colored by hand. (Title-page stained, some scattered damp- and other staining throughout, a few miniscule marginal wormholes in quires ²D–O.)

binding: Parisian dark brown morocco (224 x 142 mm), ca. 1545, by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier, 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. CATO. | M. TERRENTIVS | VARRO. | L. IVNIVS COLV | MELLA. | PALLADIVS. 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, plain endpapers, gilt edges. (Trifling repair to joints and head and foot of spine, some light scrapes to rear cover, one costing a few letters of motto, possibly recased.) Green morocco folding-case gilt, fleece-lined (lettering attributing the binding to Claude de Picques, as was the fashion).

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) — unidentified owner, inscription "Ex origine ab haeredibus domini Martage (?) Avocatus Regis, anno MDCLXXXVI" at foot of title-page (washed, but legible under ultraviolet light) — Librairie Lardanchet, Paris; Catalogue 53: Beaux livres anciens et modernes du XIIIe au XXe siècle (Paris, 1960), item 364 (NFF 14,500) — Martin Breslauer, London; Catalogue 101: Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters,Bindings (London, 1970), item 199 ($12,000) — John C. W. Sawbridge Erle-Drax (1893–1982), morocco booklabel — evidently reacquired by Breslauer after Erle-Drax's death. acquisition: Purchased from Martin Breslauer, Inc., New York, 1985. references: UCLA 264; Adams S812; Cataldi Palau 128; Edit16 27203; Renouard 109/9; Simon, Bibliotheca Bacchica II:599; USTC 800776; for the binding: Austin 459.1; Austin, "The Library of Jean Grolier: A Few Additions," in Festschrift Otto Schäfer zum 75 Geburtstag, ed. Manfred von Arnim (Stuttgart, 1987), pp. 437–450 (p. 441)