Diogenes Laertius, De vita et moribus philosophorum libri X, Lyon, 1559, Parisian brown morocco gilt

DIOGENES LAERTIUS. Diogenis Laertii De vita et moribus philosophorum libri X. Cum indice locupletissimo. Lyon: heirs of Sébastien Gryphe, 1559

Ambrogio Traversari’s translation of the lives of the Greek philosophers, in a fine Parisian binding for an unidentified collector. The star stamp has previously been interpreted as a double delta Δ, and associated with Claude, Pierre or Jacques Dupuy, but this is now largely discredited. A pencil note at the back of the volume assigns the binding to Diane de Poitiers.

Similar bindings were made for the Penitents of Vincennes, with their stamps within the same lattice frame (Nixon, Sixteenth-century gold-tooled bindings in the Pierpont Morgan Library, no. 58; PML 57630), as well as other collectors; Anthony Hobson (French and Italian Collectors, no. 29) lists eight similar bindings, on later sixteenth-century printings, with varying monograms stamped in the binding compartments.

The manuscript fragments in the binding are French, probably tenth century, and contain text from Macrobius, Somnium Scipionis, 2.15, in a handsome early script.

8vo (165 x 110 mm). Italic and Greek type: 30 lines plus headline. Collation: a-z⁸ A-G⁸ H⁴: 244 leaves. Woodcut printer’s device on title-page, woodcut initials. (Occasional light soiling or creasing.)

Binding: Later sixteenth-century Parisian brown morocco gilt (170 x 116 mm), covers tooled with a diagonal lattice, each section containing a Star of David stamp, within a triple gilt frame, flat spine with repeated Star of David stamp, gilt edges, stubs from two pairs of yellow silk ties, vellum manuscript spine liner from a tenth-century French manuscript of Macrobius, printed waste used as board liners. (Upper cover slightly stained, ends of joints cracked with old repairs, corners slightly bumped, flyleaves loose and frayed, pastedowns torn.)

Provenance: Inscription on title-page dated 1596 and inscription on rear flyleaf, "Hic liber est [Marten?] anno Dei 1595, emptus 15 assibus", the name amended later to Pierre de Vergigny[?] — Langlois, Doissel, manuscript pen trials at end — Louisa, dowager Viscountess Wolseley (1843-1920), small booklabel with crowned monogram L.W. on inside front cover, sale, Sotheby’s, 17-18 October 1918, lot 277, £6, to Davis & Orioli — Sir Philip Sassoon (1888-1939), sale, Sotheby’s, 9-10 February 1948, lot 176, £6, to Maggs — William Rees-Mogg (1928-2012), pencil inscription at end. Acquisition: Purchased in 1991 from Pickering and Chatto, London. References: USTC 152653; von Gültlingen V: Gryphe 1405