Castiglione, Les quatre livres du Courtisan, Lyon, [1537], contemporary French calf tooled in gilt and blind

CASTIGLIONE, BALDASSARE. Les quatre livres du Courtisan du Conte Baltazar de Castillon. Reduyct de langue Ytalicque en Francoys. [Lyon: Denis de Harsy, 1537]

A HANDSOME COPY OF THE SECOND FRENCH EDITION of Jacques Colin d'Auxerre's translation of Castiglione's Il Cortegiano, in a contemporary French binding, with ownership inscriptions by Hans Lux Iselin (1486-1569), a spice merchant and councilor from Basel.

8vo (165 x 103 mm). Roman type, 33 lines plus headline. collation: *² a-g⁸ A-G⁸ H⁶ I⁸ 2a-2f⁸ 2g⁴ Aa-Ee⁸ Ff¹⁰: 230 leaves. Title-page with woodcut device, woodcut initials throughout, a few passages underlined by an early reader.

Binding: Contemporary French brown calf (171 x 114 mm), 2 concentric rectangles composed of multiple blind lines, gilt arabesque at outer angles of inner rectangle and in centre, spine with 4 full bands and 2 half bands, restorations at head, plain edges stained brown. (Neatly rebacked and recornered retaining original spine.)

Provenance: Hans Lux Iselin (1486-1569), spice merchant from Basel, three ownership inscriptions to front endleaves ("Ce present livre est a moy Lux Yslein [...] a[nn]o 1546"; "1546. Ce present livre est a moy lux Yslein Allemant a (?) Loustr Simide..."; "H Laux Deo. Semy a[nn]o 1549. Lux Iselin"—note in an eighteenth- or early-nineteenth-century hand to verso of upper endpaper. Acquisition: Purchased in 2014 from Librairie Thomas Scheler, Paris. References: USTC 83530