Aneau, Picta poesis, Lyon, 1552, contemporary limp vellum, Vershbow copy

ANEAU, BARTHÉLEMY. Picta poesis. Ut pictura poesis erit. Lyon: Macé Bonhomme, 1552

First Latin edition of this emblem book. The illustrations, including an early depiction of tennis (p.75), are thought to be by Pierre Eskrich and were also used for the French text edition issued in the same year. Aneau had translated Alciati's emblem book for Bonhomme and Rouille's 1549 edition. Aneau's own device appears on A5.

8vo (155 x 95 mm). Italic type. Collation: A-G⁸ H⁴: 60 leaves. Woodcut printer's device on title-page, wood or metalcut illustrations, head- and tailpieces. (Occasional light browning, final quire torn along foot of gutter.)

Binding: Old limp vellum (158 x 100 mm), later manuscript lettering on spine. (Binding slightly soiled and creased.)

Provenance: Laurentii Fontanae (Lawrence Fountain?), old inscription on flyleaf — [Seven Gables Bookshop, sold in 1977 to] — Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow, bookplate, sale, Christie's New York, 10 April 2013, lot 89. Acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. References: Adams, Rawles & Saunders F.085; Landwehr, Romanic Emblem Books 113; Mortimer, Harvard French 25; von Gültlingen VIII, p.94, Bonhomme 154