Strozzi, poetae pater et filius, Venice, Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1513, late eighteenth-century English red morocco (Roger Payne?), illuminated armorial insignia

Strozzi, Tito Vespasiano. Strozii poetae pater et filius. Venice: Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, January 1513

As with the previous two lots, this copy exhibits manuscript corrections corresponding to those documented by H. George Fletcher in Manuscript corrections in the Aldine Strozzi of 1513 (The Book of Venice - Il libro veneziano, Miscellanea Marciana, 20 [2005-2007], pp. 191-206). Fletcher identifies three specific corrections, applied in a fine quill using a water-based scribal ink, now faded. These corrections, appearing across several copies, suggest they were made at or near the time of publication, potentially within the Aldine workshop itself.

This copy is distinguished by its illuminated armorial insignia on the first leaf of text, possibly representing the Barbo or Condolmieri families. It shares stylistic characteristics with other illuminated Aldines, including copies of Pietro Bembo’s Gli Asolani (1515) and Jacopo Sannazzaro’s L'Arcadia (1514) held in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (D'Elci Collection, nos. 1060 and 1058). Scholarship by Angela Dillon Bussi (1989, 1998) and entries in Aldo Manuzio tipografo 1494-1515 (Florence, 1994) link these examples to Venetian illumination of the period, possibly by a Lombard miniaturist.

8vo (159 x 89 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: ^πA⁸ A-M⁸ N⁴ a-t⁸: 260 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device to title- page and verso of last leaf, guide letters in initial spaces. (Light dampstaining, cockling, offsetting of illumination to facing leaves and some fading.)

binding: Late eighteenth-century English red morocco (167 x 101 mm) (Roger Payne?), gilt Aldine device stamped on covers at a later date, marbled endpapers, marbled gilt edges. (Inkstained, spine somewhat toned.) Housed in a red cloth box.

provenance: Armorial insignia on first leaf of text, perhaps Barbo or Condolmeri arms, of an elephant pulling cart of weapons and armor, on elephant’s back a castle with flag poles and banners, a banderole lettered "Leve fit quod bene fertur onus" (Ovid, Amores, lib. 2, eleg. 2), initials illuminated — unidentified owner(s), inscription "Alex Blaveis (or Blaseis)" on title-page (visible under ultraviolet), manuscript corrections — Sir John Thorold, 9^th Bt. (1734-1815) — by descent to Sir John Hayford Thorold, 10^th Bt. (1773-1831) — by descent to Sir John Henry Thorold, 12^th Bt. (1842-1922); his sale, Sotheby's London, 12-19 December 1884, lot 1853; purchased by — Bernard Quaritch, London; A Rough list of valuable and rare books … removed from Syston Park, Lincolnshire (London 1885), item 524; General catalogue (London 1887), VI, item 36827; Rough List 135 (London September 1893), item 1232; Catalogue 268 (London 1909), item 453 — Davis & Orioli, London; Catalogue 43 (London 1926), item 77 — Libreria antiquaria T. De Marinis & C., Florence; their sale, Libreria antiquaria Ulrico Hoepli, Milan, 30 November-3 December 1925, lot 184. acquisition: Purchased from Family Album, Glen Rock, 1995. references: UCLA 110; Renouard 65/10; Edit16 37457; USTC 857690; for comparable illumination, see Angela Dillon Bussi,"La miniatura nella collezione d'Elci" in La Collezione di Angelo Maria d'Elci: incunaboli ed edizioni rare (Florence 1989), pp. 193-194 no. 87; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 1494-1515 (Florence 1994), nos. 128, 142 and p. 224; Dillon Bussi, "Le Aldine miniate della Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana" in Aldus Manutius and Renaissance Culture (Florence 1998), pp. 209-210 & Fig. 12