Statius, Syluarum, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1519, Italian brown goatskin, 1530s

Statius, Publius Papinius. Statii Syluarum libri V Achilleidos libri XII Thebaidos libri II Orthographia et flexus dictionum Graecarum omnium apud Statium cum accentib. et generib. ex uarijs utriusque linguae authoribus. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, January 1519

A third copy of the second Aldine edition, printed on fine paper and bound for the yet-to-be-identified collector A. B. For another binding for this collector from Bibliotheca Brookeriana, see The Aldine Collection D–M, lot 826: Lactantius, Institutiones Divinae, Venice: Paolo Manuzio & Heirs of Torresano, 1535 (New York, 18 October 2024).

8vo (162 x 98 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a–z⁸ A–O⁸: 296 foliated leaves (K2 blank). Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and O8v, section-titles, two to five-line initial spaces with guide letters. (Some dampstaining, principally marginal but occasionally intruding on text, especially at the end.)

binding: Italian brown goatskin (168 x 111 mm), 1530s, covers with border of two concentric gilt-ruled rectangles flanked by multiple blind fillets, gilt fleurons at inner and outer corners, center of upper cover gilt-lettered .STATII., lower cover gilt- lettered .A. .B., spine in six compartments, each with a single gilt quatrefoil, edges gilt with dotted border. (Rebacked, minor restoration to corners.)

provenance: A. B., unidentified owner, cipher supralibros — Laurent Coulet, Catalogue 11: Livres anciens et modernes (Paris, [1991?]), item 6 (FF 9500). acquisition: Purchased from Laurent Coulet, Paris, 1994. references: UCLA 175; Adams S1672; Cataldi Palau 43; Edit16 53846; Renouard 88/2; USTC 857456