Alciati, Emblematum liber, Augsburg, 1531, and other works, contemporary German calf, Brassicanus's copy

ALCIATI, ANDREA. Viri clarissimi D. Andree Alciati Iurisconsultiss. Mediol. ad D. Chonradum Peutingerum Augustanum, Iurisconsultum Emblematum liber. (Augsburg: Heinrich Steiner, 6 April 1531) [bound with:]

HOMERUS. Homeri Iliados libri aliquot, partim versi à Nicolao Valla, partim à Vincentio Obsopoeo. Homeriacae Iliados summa, Latinis expressa versiculis, Pindaro Thebano authore. Haguenau: Johann Setzer, 1531

EOBANUS HESSUS, HELIUS. Bonae Valetudinis Conservandae rationes aliquot. Simplicium ciborum facultates quaedam. Medicinae encomion. Chorus illustrium medicorum. Novem Musae. Authore Helio Eobano Hesso. [Nuremberg: Johann Petreius], 1 November 1531

EOBANUS HESSUS, HELIUS. Illustrium ac clarorum aliquot Virorum Memoriae scripta Epicedia Per Helium Eobanum Hessum. Epitaphia epigrammata composita ab Joachimo Camerario Bombergensi. Nuremberg: Friedrich Peypus, 1531

SABINUS, GEORGIUS (Georg Schüler). Elegia de adventu Caroli V Caesaris. Additae praeterea Elegiae duae. (Augsburg: Alexander Weissenhorn), 1530

MONTANUS, PETRUS. Satyrae Petri Montani, poetae clarissimi, qui obiit, anno M. D.VII. I. De Poëtis. De discrimine inter divinum Poëtam, & versificatorem. II. De Medicis. Exemplar verè boni Medici. III. De Principibus, adeóque ignobili nobilitate. IIII. De vita beata. Strassburg: Christian Egenolff, 1529

CORDUS, EURICIUS. Euricii Cordi Epigrammatum Libri IX. Marburg: (Franz Rhode), 1529

SECOND EDITION OF THE FIRST EMBLEM BOOK printed just five weeks after the first (see previous lot). The text has been reset, with the errata given in the first edition corrected and a printer's device inserted in place of the errata.

PRESENTATION COPY OF THE WORKS BY EOBANUS HESSUS, inscribed by him on the title-page "Dn I A Brassicano, amico cariss. Eobanus D.D." (given as a gift to his very dear friend Brassicanus by Eobanus). Eobanus (1488-1540) was a humanist and poet (and unlike Brassicanus, a Lutheran) and professor at the universities of Erfurt, Nuremberg and Marburg. Brassicanus had introduced himself to Eobanus by letter in August 1526 and became a regular correspondent. Apart from Alciati, the rest of the volume contains poems on various subjects and people, including Aldo Manuzio and Eobanus himself (see Cordus, leaf A4r).

Brassicanus, a Viennese humanist, visited the Corvinus library in 1525, and obtained some of the books, from which he erased some of the armorials of Matthias Corvinas. Another binding of his with similar stamped initials is now in the Marciana in Venice (on a copy of the 1525 Aldine Xenophon). His library catalogue survives in the inventory of his goods after his death (University of Vienna archive, CA VA Fasz. 49 nr. 100).

A VOLUME WITH FASCINATING CONTENTS AND HISTORY. The library of Johann Fabri (1478-1541) was shelved in the modern style with the spines facing outwards, using paper labels on the spine to identify the contents.

7 works in one volume, 8vo (149 x 96 mm). Alciati: Italic type. Collation: A-E⁸ F⁴: 44 leaves (last leaf blank). Title within a woodcut border, woodcut initials and illustrations, woodcut device on final verso. (Title-page stained and chipped, first few leaves browned.) Homer: Italic type, 25 lines plus headline. Collation: A-Z⁸: 184 leaves. Title within woodcut border, woodcut initial, woodcut printer's device at end. Eobanus 1: Italic type, 26 lines. Collation: A-D⁸: 32 leaves (last leaf blank). Woodcut initials. Eobanus 2: Italic and Greek type, 26 lines. Collation: A-E⁸ F¹⁰: 50 leaves. Sabinus: Italic type, 28 lines. Collation: A⁸ B⁴: 12 leaves. Title within woodcut border. Montanus: Italic type, 26 lines plus headline. Collation: A-B⁸: 16 leaves. Woodcut printer's device on title-page. Cordus: Italic type, 26 lines plus headline. Collation: A¹⁰ B-R⁸: 146 leaves (last leaf blank). Title within woodcut border.

Binding: Contemporary blind-tooled German calf lettered IAB on upper cover and with Fabri's paper label (now illegible and wormed), spine with blind tooling and paper labels, two clasps, hole at head of lower cover possibly indicative of a chaining staple. In modern sleeve and slipcase. (Binding worn and somewhat wormed, lower board cracked with hole at head, spine very defective, lacking one strap.)

Provenance: Joannes Alexander Brassicanus (or Kohlburger, 1500-1539), initials IAB stamped on binding and inscription by Hessus, his library purchased by — Johannes Fabri (1478-1541, bishop of Vienna and founder of the Collegium Trilingue of St Nicholas, to which he bequeathed his library), traces of his spine label and his inscription on cover — Collegium Trilingue of St Nicholas, Vienna, listed in the Bibliothekskatalog der Fabri-Bibliothek of 1541 (University of Vienna archive, R 44.2), item 1261 (the college did not long survive his death and the books were divided between other libraries) — Antiquariaat J.L. Beijers, catalogue 143 (Utrecht, 1971), item 2, purchased by — Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow, sale, Christie's, New York, 9 April 2013, lot 29. Acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. References: Alciati: Green, Alciati 3; Landwehr, German Emblem Books 25; VD16 A 1642; Homer: VD16 H 4691; Eobanus 1: VD16 E 1462 (recording one copy only, in Wolfenbüttel); Eobanus 2: VD16 E 1509; Sabinus: VD16 S 108; Montanus: VD16 M 6242; Cordus: VD16 C 5081; Exhibited: David P. Becker, Fact and fantasy: illustrated books from a private collection [Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow], Houghton Library, Harvard University (1976), no. 25