Socio, Tractatus de temporibus, et modis, recte purgandi in morbis, Venice, 1550, Venetian brown morocco gilt

SOCIO, NOBILE. Tractatus de temporibus, et modis, recte purgandi in morbis. Nobilis Socii Salodiensis medici. Venice: (Bartolomeo Cesano), 1550

“Ilse Schunke first called attention to this binder, whom she called the ‘Leermauresken-Meister’, a name I have translated as the ‘Arabesque Outline Tool Binder’. The shop was active in Venice in the 1560s” (Hobson and Culot, item 16). Hobson goes on to cite nine ducal commissions, four other manuscripts and five printed books bound by the same shop; Laura Nuvoloni has added another two works, extending the shop's activity to 1571, in "Commissioni dogali: Venetian bookbindings in the British Library" in 'For the love of binding', Studies in bookbinding history presented to Mirjam Foot, (London 2000), pp.81-109 (pp.92-93 and Fig. 16).

8vo (158 x 103mm). Roman and italic types, 29 lines plus headline. Collation: A–R⁸ S⁶: 142 leaves. Woodcut printer’s devices on title and at end, woodcut initials. (Dampstaining towards end).

Binding: Contemporary Venetian brown morocco, by the Arabesque Outline Binder, rectangular frame formed by double interlacing gilt fillets with cinquefoil at each point of interlacing, gilt leafy tools at corners, central gilt circular design formed by leafy tools, gold rings around sides and cruciform tool at centre, spine with 3 full and 4 half bands, edges gilt and lightly gauffered with dotwork pattern. (Joints slightly rubbed.)

Provenance: George Leib Harrison (1811–1885), of Philadelphia, engraved armorial bookplate. Acquisition: Purchased in 1976 from John Fleming, New York. References: Edit16 24116; USTC 856953