Maximus Tyrius, Sermones è Graeca in Latinam linguam versi, Paris, 1554, contemporary Parisian tan calf

MAXIMUS TYRIUS. Maximi Tyrii philosophi platonici, sermones è Graeca in Latinam linguam versi, Cosmo Paccio Archiepiscopo Florentino interprete. Ex castigatione G. Alberti Picti. Paris: [Benoît Prévost for] Guillaume Cavellat, 1554

A contemporary Parisian binding, plausibly a publisher's binding, from the use of a strutting hen gilt at the centre of the covers, which was the device of Guillaume Cavellat.

16mo (113 x 76 mm). Roman type: 28 lines plus headline. Collation: a⁸ e⁸ i⁸ a-z⁸ &⁸ A-H⁸ i⁸: 288 leaves. Woodcut device to title-page, woodcut headpiece and initials, index at end with list of errata to verso of final leaf.

Binding: Contemporary Parisian tan calf (123 x 82 mm). 2 blind lines around sides, inner frame of 2 blind lines, gilt fleurons at corners, in centre gilt strutting hen, traces of 2 pairs of fabric ties, spine with four full bands, compartments decorated with a blind quatrefoil, edges gilt and gauffered. (Spine and corners damaged.)

Provenance: Plausibly bound for Guillaume Cavellat's shop, with his strutting hen device to covers — S. Maria, Buxheim (Carthusian abbey), early inscription and eighteenth-century inkstamp to title-page, and paper label on spine with shelfmark in black ink "H|114" — Ludwig Rosenthal's Antiquariaat, Catalogue 224 (Hilversum, 1976), item 177, reproduced as pl. 18 — Bruce McKittrick Rare Books, Narberth, PA. Acquisition: Purchased in 2011 from Bruce McKittrick Rare Books. References: USTC 151657 (listing four institutional copies); Philippe Renouard, Imprimeurs et libraires parisiens du XVIe siècle: Fascicule Cavellat (Paris 1986), pp.68-69: 74