Castellesi, De sermone Latino, Cologne, 1524, French brown calf

CASTELLESI, ADRIANO. Hadrianus TT. S. Chrysogoni, S.R.E. presb. Cardinal. Batonien. De sermone Latino, et modis Latine loquendi. Eiusdem venatio ad Ascanium cardinalem. Item iter julii. ii. Pontif. ro. Cum indice. (Cologne: Hero Fuchs, October 1524)

A plain enough binding, but with elaborately gauffered edges. George Bauyntun's 2008 catalogue containing this item was reviewed in The Book Collector: “Chateauvillain is a small town near Chaumont, boasting a seigneur since the Middle Ages, though none of distinction until one of Louis XIV's sons by Mme de Montespan; the finisher obviously confused “à l'arbre d'or”, but what (apart from being the name of the joust at the marriage of Charles the Bold and Margaret of York in 1468) is that? Alan Thomas had a copy of the Estienne Psalterium quintuplex 1509 similarly gauffered with Bishop John Fisher's name, but this is a nice puzzle for someone else to solve” (The Book Collector 2008, p.129).

8vo (153 x 95mm). Italic type, 27 lines plus headline. Collation: A⁸ a-z⁸ A-E⁸ F¹²: 244 leaves. Letterpress title within woodcut allegorical border, woodcut initials, ruled in red.

Binding: French brown calf over pasteboards, blind fillets around sides, roll of crowned dolphin, crowned ermine tail, and crowned fleur-de-lis within rope and separated by knotwork pattern, no ties, spine with 4 full and 2 half bands, head and tail replaced, spine restored, vellum document as spine support, edges gilt and gauffered chastel villain / alabre dor down fore-edge, head and tail edge heavily gauffered to a grape bunch and stem pattern. (Corners restored.)

Provenance: "chastel villain / labre dor", name gauffered down fore-edge, Convent de Chastel Villain, diocese de Langres — inscriptions "Ex libris Iohannis Mongmort" (Montmort) on upper pastedown — inscription "Svm Iohan[nis]…" in a banderol stained red — inscriptions "J. (?) Pautheret (Dautheret?)" and "MS" on title-page — inscription 16 lines in sixteenth-century ink on verso of last leaf of text block, below which "Gramm./Hadr. Card." — label on lower pastedown perhaps covering an inscription on label in twentieth-century pencil "Poit. 15.6.26/M./exe." and below label "L.R." in ink — Edward Bayntun-Coward for George Bayntun, Catalogue 15 (Bath, 2008), item 1. Acquisition: Purchased in 2007 from George Bayntun, Bath. References: VD16 C 1456; USTC 661452