Sibilla, Speculum peregrinarum quaestionum, Lyon, 1521, contemporary Bolognese chestnut morocco

SIBILLA, BARTOLOMEO. Speculum peregrinarum questionum eruditissimi viri Bartholomei sybille Monopolitani... Tres decades complectens: in quibus varie quaestiones de animalibus rationalibus in coniuncto: et separati. Deque angelis bonis et malis multisque aliis scitu dignissimis, et ad ipsos responsiones ponuntur. Lyon: Jacques Myt, 1521

This binding has been attributed to the Vignette Binder, active in Bologna from around 1525 to 1545. Two stamps, the flower and the leaf repeated at the inner corners, are also found on a copy of Cicero in the Bibliotheca Brookeriana, Aldine Collection A-C, 12 October 2023, lot 309. Though previously considered the work of the Vignette Binder, Hobson's forthcoming Decorated Bookbindings in Renaissance Italy (edited by Edward Potten and Mirjam Foot, forthcoming 2025) suggests that the binding could have been made by the Blickling Lucian Shop, which may in turn be true of this volume.

The title lettered on the tail-edge implies that the volume was shelved flat, with the tail facing outward.

8vo (152 x 105 mm). Gothic type, 35 lines plus headline. Collation: a-z⁸ &⁸ [con]⁸ [rum]⁸ A-B⁸ C⁴: 228 leaves. Title in red within decorative woodcut, woodcut initials, some early annotations, drawing of a seated nude man on verso of last leaf. (Light browning, small hole on title-page from erased inscription with loss of text on verso.)

Binding: Contemporary Bolognese chestnut morocco (162 x 115 mm), by the Vignette binder or the Blickling Lucian Shop, tooled in blind, border of repeated arabesque cornerpieces, central large arabesque stamp with leaf stamps at inner corners, fleurons, plain spine, stubs of four pairs of green ties, some deckle edges, plain edges, title lettered on tail-edge. (Binding a little rubbed and worn, head of spine and corners defective, hinges detached.)

Provenance: "Emptus Bononiae Libris duobus / 561", purchase inscription on lower endleaf — "sum Sti Petri[?] de Bononia", obscured seventeenth-century inscription on title-page from a Bolognese convent. Acquisition: Purchased in 1993 from Librairie Paul Jammes, Paris. References: USTC 145468