Petrarca, Il Petrarca, Venice, Sons of Aldo Manuzio, 1546, contemporary French polished brown calf in "Persian style"

PETRARCA, FRANCESCO. Il Petrarca. Venice: Sons of Aldo Manuzio, 1546

The 1546 Aldine Petrarch in a fine contemporary French binding with a central blind plaquette in "Persian style."

8vo (155 x 98 mm). Italic types, 30 lines plus headline. Collation: A–Z8 AA10: 194 foliated leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and AA10v, three-line initial spaces with guide letters. (Occasional light marginal dampstaining, principally at end.)

Binding: Contemporary French polished brown calf (162 x 110 mm) in "Persian style," covers with single gilt-fillet border, central blind arabesque floral ornament, finely and deeply impressed, smooth spine gilt with bands, rosette in compartments, plain endpapers, gilt edges. (Joints lightly restored, a little rubbed.)

Provenance: Unidentified owner, sixteenth-century inscription "Mors imperat Regibus Linguam dolosam indicat Dominum" on rear pastedown — unidentified owner, seventeenth-century inscription "de Seint-Marsas(?) 3s1d (?) a Rome" on title- page — unidentified owner, inscription "Journallier pour l’an 1646" on front flyleaf. Acquisition: Purchased from Librairie Thomas-Scheler, Paris, 1978. References: UCLA 359; Adams P811; Edit16 26967; Renouard 138/19; USTC 762224