Fracco, Sacrorum fastorum libri XII, Rome, 1547, Roman brown morocco, Lorraine family arms

FRACCO, AMBROGIO NOVIDIO. Ambrosii Novidii Fracci Ferentinatis Sacrorum fastorum libri XII cum romanis consuetudinibus per totum annum, suisque causis, ac stellis, et numinum nostrum introductionibus. Adhibitis XII mensibus XII apost. tutelis, rebus gestis, necnon figuris, ac fabulis ad rem facientibus, a suis tenebris ad lucem, idest Christum, reductis, opus sane sic post natalem Domini a nullo antea scriptum aut editum. Rome: Antonio Blado, 18 May 1547

First edition of Fracco’s verse description of Roman Catholic festivals, imitating Ovid’s Fasti; his nickname Novidio referred to him as a new Ovid. The content of the book is linked closely to the papacy of Paul III, the dedicatee, and the illustrations include the presentation of the book to Paul III by Fracco (4*4v).

Some of the same binding stamps can be seen on Apollo and Pegasus bindings made by both Niccolò Franzese and Marcantonio Guillery (see Hobson, Apollo & Pegasus, plates VI(a) and XIX(b)) as well as by Maestro Luigi (Davis Gift 316). The binding is similar to the Harvard copy as described by Mortimer, which has the arms of a cardinal; these may well have been presentation copies. This copy may have been for a member of the Guise family, perhaps Charles Cardinal de Lorraine (1524-1574), though there is no further provenance to prove this (and there is no cardinal’s hat around the armorial).

There is a manuscript note added to the register to state that quires F and H also have six leaves; this is also recorded in several other copies and was presumably done in the printshop.

4to (230 x 150 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. Collation: *-4*⁴ A-E⁴ F⁶ G⁴ H⁶ I-Z⁴ AA-SS⁴ TT⁶: 190 leaves. Title within architectural woodcut border, woodcut initials, woodcut illustrations, woodcut portrait of the author, woodcut printer’s device on final verso, a few early marginal notes. (Small section at head of title-page excised, small tear at foot of Z3v.)

Binding: Contemporary Roman armorial calf (234 x 165 mm), plausibly by Marcantonio Guillery, tooled in oxidised gold (now black), central arms of Lorraine, within a double frame of blind and black fillets with small leafy stamps between the two frames, corner fleurons and fleurs-de-lys, spine with blind hatching and gilt shelfmark < Y.D.29 > stamped at foot, edges gilt and gauffered to a knotwork design, stubs from four pairs of ties. (Binding slightly rubbed and scraped, joints repaired, spine repaired at ends.)

Provenance: Lorraine, family arms on binding, and early shelfmark "arm y tab u [?or 11] loc 10" — Jesuits of Paris, Domus professorum, inscription at head of second leaf, Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de la Maison professe des ci-devant soi-disans Jésuites, Pissot & Gogué, Paris, 1763, no. 4616 (but with no description of binding) — printed shelf-label pasted to inside front cover, "LXX VII K" — Samuel Butler (1774-1839, bishop of Lichfield and Coventry), pencil inscription on flyleaf, sale, Christie & Manson, Bibliotheca Butleriana, 1-10 June 1840, lot 880 — E.P. Goldschmidt & Co., catalogue 8 (London, 1925), item 218 and catalogue 13 (1928), item 337 — Erich von Rath (1881-1948), bookplate — Erasmushaus, catalogue 909 (Basel, 2000), item 37. Acquisition: Purchased in 2002 from Erasmushaus, Basel. References: Edit16 19618; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 198