Suetonius, XII Caesares, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1516, contemporary Spanish(?) black morocco

Suetonius Tranquillus, Gaius. In hoc volumine haec continentur. C. Suetonij Tranquilli XII Caesares. Sexti Aurelij Victoris a d. Caesare Augusto usque ad Theodosium excerpta. Eutropij de gestis Romanorum lib. X. Pauli Diaconi libri VIII ad Eutropij historiam additi. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, August 1516

First Aldine edition, in a fine contemporary black morocco binding.

Edit16 records two variants, this being Var. A.

8vo (144 x 83 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: *-**⁸ χ-²χ⁸ a-z⁸ aa-rr⁸: 352 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device to title-page and verso of last leaf. (Intermittent dampstaining, very small marginal wormhole to title.)

binding: Contemporary Spanish(?) black morocco (147 x 92 mm), border outlined by three blind fillets filled with gilt fleurons at corners and rosette between leaves at sides, inner frame of repeated blind floral tool, gilt fleurons in corners, in center gilt ornament composed of four fleurons with rosette above and below, spine with four compartments, compartments with gilt knotwork tool, traces of two pairs of ties, edges gilt and gauffered. (Rear endleaf loosening, upper joints cracked at head and foot, third band a little cracked.)

provenance: Charles W. Clark (1871-1933); The Library of Charles W. Clark (San Francisco 1922), VII, pp.126-127 — Rosenbach Company, Philadelphia. acquisition: Purchased from John Fleming, New York, 1975. references: UCLA 147; Renouard 77/5; Edit16 53872; USTC 857771