Scriptores rei rusticae, Libri de re rustica, Venice, Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1514, contemporary English brown calf over wooden boards, Roger Ascham's copy

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, quare autem id factum fuerit: ostenditur in epistola ad lectorem. Palladij lib. XIV De duobus dierum generibus: simulque de umbris, & horis, quae apud Palladium, in alia epistola ad lectorem. Georgij Alexandrini enarrationes priscarum dictionum, quae in his libris Catonis: Varronis: Columellae. Venice: Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, May 1514

A fine association copy of the first Aldine edition from the library of the English scholar and writer Roger Ascham, tutor to Elizabeth I and author of the posthumously published The Scholemaster, a Plaine and Perfite Way of Teachyng Children to Understand, Write, and Speake in Latin Tong (1570). Although Aldine editions were extensively marketed throughout Northern Europe, early English ownership of the products of the press is very uncommon.

Only four books from Ascham's library are entered so far in the Early Bookowners in Britain (EBOB) database. A published census by Micha Lazarus ("Ascham’s Bookshelf," in Roger Ascham and his Sixteenth-Century World [Leiden, 2020], pp. 297–320) found twenty-two books from his library bound in sixteen volumes. (Lazarus excluded from his inventory books that have no inscription, such as the copy of Ascham's Toxophilus bound for Edward VI as Prince of Wales, now Pierpont Morgan Library, 20522 [Needham, Twelve Centuries, no. 55].) To Lazarus’s census, London bookseller Robin Halwas has added five books, as well as list of seven presentation or gift copies. (A full listing is available from the Books and Manuscripts Department.)

4to (214 x 131 mm). Italic type, 39 lines plus headline. collation: *⁸ aa–bb⁸ cc¹⁰ a–h⁸ i⁴ k–z⁸ A–Q⁸: 342 foliated leaves (cc10 blank). Woodcut Aldine device on title-page, aa1r, and Q8v, three woodcut illustrations of agricultural implements, nine woodcut and four typographic diagrams in text illustrating field layouts and seeding patterns, six- and seven-line initial spaces with guide letters. (Quire Q with some light marginal dampstaining and subsequent minor fraying or tears at some fore-edges, some scattered other marginal staining, Q1 with small hole at lower margin, first and last quires slightly sprung, evidently from some over-enthusiastic attempt to see the manuscript wastepaper in the binding.)

binding: Contemporary English brown calf over pasteboards (224 x 147 mm), panelled in blind with fillets and frame of repeated stamp of arch containing grapes, central panel diapered by three fillets, in interstices thistle or flower, spine sparingly blind-ruled in five compartments, second with later morocco title label, pastedowns from a fourteenth-century legal manuscript on vellum including two illuminated initials, plain edges, title ink-lettered on fore-edge. (Extremities quite rubbed, front joint cracked, portion of front free endpaper torn away and mended.)

provenance: Unidentified owner, inscription "3.0 1.s" (price?) and "ειμι τoύ φραvκισκoυ, και oύ παραλλατζω κυρτov" (I am of Franciscus and I don’t change master) on title-page — Roger Ascham (1515–1568), inscription "Paris, et studii in l(itte)ris, et benevolentiae in amore, perpetuum μvΗμo Cuuor R. Aschamus," dated 18 November 1565, on title-page — John Fortescue (1531?–1607), inscription on title-page and reception inscription "Johos Fortescue ex dono R. Aschami" on leaf facing title – Unidentified owner, eighteenth-century inscription "Th. F." on front pastedown — Charles Hoare (1781–1865), oval armorial bookplate — Randall & Windle, Catalogue 6: Rare Books (San Francisco, 1978), item 5 ($3500) — Lathrop C. Harper, New York — Helmut N. Friedlaender (1913–2008), booklabel; Christie's New York, 23 April 2001, lot 179 (realised

$32,900). acquisition: Purchased at Christie's via E. K. Schreiber. references: UCLA 121; Adams S805; Aldo Manuzio Tipografo 123; Edit16 37471; Renouard 66/2; Simon, Bibliotheca Bacchica II:593; Simon, Bibliotheca Gastronomica 310; USTC 800443