Terentius, Comoediae, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1517, Roman brown morocco, ca. 1520

Terentius Afer, Publius. Terentius. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, November 1517

[Bound with:] Pontano, Giovanni Gioviano. De prudentia. Florence: Filippo I Giunta, August 1508

[And:] Gaurico, Pomponio. De sculptura. [Florence: Filippo I Giunta, 8 January 1504]

Three works in one volume, including the rare first Aldine edition (of a total of 17 Aldine editions, up to 1594) of the plays of Terence. This is the first Aldine to contain a preface by Gian Francesco Torresano, son of Andrea, which heralds the start of his management of the workshop. The preface is addressed to Jean Grolier.

Gauricio’s De Sculptura, the first printed work on the figurative arts, contains the earliest printed description of perspective: his humanist dialogue on sculpture includes a brief mention of a technique of perspective, though without any illustration to help explain how it works. The dialogue is between Raffaelle Regio and Niccolo Leonico Tomeo, both professors at Padua (the latter was also an art collector), and is mostly based on classical references to sculpture, but also mentions contemporary artists (including the first appearance of Michelangelo’s name in print). Gaurico himself was experimenting with bronze casting at this time and the conversation takes place in his workshop.

The plaquette appearing on this binding (laureate bust of Julius Caesar in profile to right; behind him a lituus; and above right a star; inscription DIVI JULII) is recorded by Anthony Hobson on 23 bindings from at least five towns, making it the most popular plaquette for bindings in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. Three incuse matrices which possibly were used by binders are located by Jeremy Warren (Ashmolean Museum, Medieval and Renaissance sculpture, 2014, pp. 902-903). The model for the plaquette could be a silver denarius of c. 40 BC (Warren), or an intaglio in the Medici collection (Numismatics in the Age of Grolier, p. 12).

3 works in one volume, 8vo (164 x 98 mm). Terentius: Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a-b⁸ 1-18⁸ 19⁴: 164 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and verso of last leaf. (Title stained and lightly wormed, scattered marginal stains, particularly to the first two quires, last leaf a bit soiled.) De prudentia: Italic type, 30 lines. collation: a-p⁸ q⁴: 124 leaves. (Some light soiling and spotting, marginal doodles on h7-8.) De sculptura: Italic type with some Greek, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a-f⁸: 48 leaves (f2 blank). (Some light soiling and spotting, paper flaw on lower corner of d5, a few dark stains, light worming to last few leaves.)

binding: Roman brown morocco (168 x 97 mm), circa 1520, gold tooled, in the center of covers medallion bust portrait of Julius Caesar with "DIVI IVLI," surrounded by fillets forming a rectangle with leaf at inside and outside corners, top of upper cover stamped "TEREN*PONT*POMP*," edges gilt and gauffered, contemporary marginalia to endleaves. (Binding worn, worm damage, loss to head of spine, piece removed and restored above medallion on lower cover, renewed corners.)

provenance: Unidentified owner, inscription "Bartolemeo dal Bardini" with motto "Amor noster vita nostra" (16^th century) — unidentified owner, inscription "Phillipi Iova (or Iocca) de Par— Parma" (interpreted by Hobson as "Philippi Joua(nnis) de parma") — Mostyn, family library (Flintshire, Wales) — Roger Edward Lloyd Lloyd-Mostyn, 5th Baron Mostyn (1920–2000) — Christie's London, 9–10 October 1974, lot 40. acquisition: Purchased at Christie's via Quaritch. references (1) UCLA 156; Renouard 80/5; Edit16 48066; USTC 858679. (2) Edit16 28715; USTC 850304; Decia & Delfiol p. 73 no. 24. (3) Edit16 20537; USTC 832061; Decia & Delfiol pp. 68-69 no. 11; for this binding, Anthony Hobson, Humanists and Bookbinders (Cambridge 1989), p. 222 (Census of Plaquette and Medallion bindings", no. 15r)