Statius, Syluarum, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1519, contemporary Roman brown goatskin, ca. 1520

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 second copy of the second Aldine edition, bound in contemporary Roman goatskin. Although Paolo di Bernardino Bancheli's ginkgo leaf tool appears here, Anthony Hobson did not believe the binding came from his shop.

8vo (155 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. (Very lightly browned, occasional minor staining.)

binding: Contemporary Roman brown goatskin (162 x 108 mm), ca. 1520, blind-tooled foliate border, outer cornerpieces of gilt floral tool, inner cornerpieces of multiple blind frame tools and ginkgo leaf, central roundel containing four ginkgo leaves in form of cross surrounded by sunburst, traces of four pairs of ties, spine densely gilt-tooled in four compartments, the second lettered, plain endpapers, edges gilt and gauffered. (Worn and repaired at extremities, upper cover detached.) Brown cloth folding-case with printed orange paper labels.

provenance: Roman bookseller’s mark (?), "n. 39" in ink in right arc of title-page printer’s device — unidentified owner, sixteenth-century inscription "De Giulio di Anto Ma Ghibertini et al servitio vostro" on K2 verso — unidentified owner, early inscription effaced from front free endpaper — unidentified owner, inscription "Ventianus de Venantiis fulgna" on title-page, perhaps the Venantius de Venantiis de Fulginia (Foligno), who matriculated at Perugia in 1642 (Studenti a Perugia. La matricola degli scolari forestieri (1511-1723), 2009, p. 76) — unidentified owner, inscription "Vendu 26# chez Silvestre" on front pastedown, [probably referring to an auction sale conducted by Jean-Charles Silvestre (active 1797–1827), or by his son Louis-Catherine Silvestre (1792–1867)] — Unidentified owner, twentieth-century armorial bookplate — Fiammetta Soave, Bibliotheca Aldina (Rome, 1991), item 40. acquisition: Purchased from Fiammetta Soave, Rome, 1991. references: UCLA 175; Adams S1672; Cataldi Palau 43; Edit16 53846; Renouard 88/2; USTC 857456