Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1523, Roman brown morocco, ca. 1523, by Cardinals' Shop

Valerius Flaccus Setinus Balbus, Gaius. Argonautica. Io Baptistae Pij carmen ex quarto Argonautica Apollonij. Orphei Argonauticon innominato interprete. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, May 1523

First and only Aldine edition, in a contemporary Cardinals' Shop binding. The Cardinals' Shop produced bindings for Cardinals Salviati and Ridolfi as well as Clement VIII.

8vo (159 x 97 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a-s⁸ t⁴: 148 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and verso of last leaf. (Light stains.)

binding: Roman brown morocco (163 x 102 mm), circa 1523, by Cardinals' Shop, gold tooled (oxidized), frame composed of repeated arabesque, at head of both covers "*VALERIVS*FL*" and at tail owner's initials "*P* *E*", flame at outer and inner corners, in center flaming urn tool with flame tool above and below, small circle tools scattered throughout, spine with three full and two half bands, traces of four pairs of ties, gilt and gauffered edges. (Half bands and ends of spine sympathetically restored, extremities lightly rubbed, lightly stained, rear hinge cracked.)

provenance: Unidentified owner, supralibros, initials "P.E." on upper cover — unidentified owner (his library, including two genuine Grolier bindings, was offered as lots 937-1093, "A collection of valuable books. Sold in consequence of the death of the owner”, by) Sotheby's London, 27 June–1 July 1898, lot 1032 — Sir Peter Henry Berry Otway Smithers — Sotheby's London, 5–6 February 1973, lot 164 (realized £220). acquisition: Purchased at Sotheby's via Quaritch. references: UCLA 221; Renouard 97/3; Edit16 37708; USTC 861750; for this binding, Anthony Hobson, "Two early sixteenth-century binder's shops in Rome" in De libris compactis miscellanea (Aubel-Brussels 1984), pp. 79-98 (p. 92, no. 17)