Albertus Patavinus, Ordinis eremitarum, Venice, 1523, dedication copy for Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio

ALBERTO DE PADOVA [ALBERTUS PATAVINUS]. Clarissimi atque eruditissimi viri Alberti Patavi ordinis Eremitarum divi Augu. doctoris Parisie[nsis]. Sacri eloquii preconis famosissimi: evangeliorum quadragesimalium opus aureum nunquam alias, impressum. Venice: Giacomo Penzio, 20 May 1523

THE DEDICATION COPY IN A FINE BOLOGNESE BINDING FOR CARDINAL LORENZO CAMPEGGIO. This is the first edition of this text, by the fourteenth-century Augustinian Alberto da Padova. While the binding contains distinctively Bolognese features, it has not been possible to identify the binding workshop.

8vo (151 x 103 mm). Gothic type, 45 lines plus headline, double column. Collation: †⁸ A-Z⁸ AA-ZZ⁸ AAA-EEE⁸: 416 leaves (last leaf blank). Title-page printed in red and black, arms of Cardinal Campeggio at foot of title-page within woodcut border, woodcut initials, full-page woodcut of St Augustine opposite A1, some early annotations in different hands, including on rear flyleaves. (Occasional light staining.)

Binding: Contemporary Bolognese dark brown morocco gilt (163 x 114 mm), both covers lettered R. D. D. LAUR. CAMP. S. R. E. CARD OPUS DICATUM within a central lozenge, small wolf’s head stamp beneath lettering, outer border of interlinked arabesque circle tools, with an inner border of a small plant tool with leafy stamps at inner corners, spine with gilt and blind fillet decoration, edges gilt and gauffered, stubs from four pairs of ties, some deckle edges. (Some restoration to edges, spine and lower corner of front cover, spine creased, joints weak.)

Provenance: Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio (1474-1539, of Bologna, papal legate), name on binding — Fr. Bonifacio Sperelli of Morrovalle (Marche), late sixteenth-century inscription on title-page — Fossombrone, convent of Sant’Agostino, listed in an inventory of books compiled by Fra Bonifacio Sperelli as prior (Vat. Lat. 11310, fol. 144) — Jacques Rosenthal, Munich, catalogue 66 (1914), item 28, and catalogue 87 (1927), item 181 — Martin Breslauer Inc., New York, catalogue 110 (1992), item 22. Acquisition: Purchased in 1992 from Martin Breslauer Inc., New York. References: Edit16 770