Terentius, Comoediae, Lyon, 1544, Italian red morocco gilt

TERENTIUS AFER, PUBLIUS. Publii Terentii Afri comoediae. Multo majore quam hactenus unquam, vigilantia repurgatae. Lyon: Sébastien Gryphe, 1544

This is one of a group of nine similar bindings, all found on small format Gryphe imprints of 1544-1551, with the same armorial of a tower surmounted by a crowned eagle; while this exact armorial is not recorded, it is most similar to that of the Novarini family of Verona. It has been suggested that these volumes formed part of a travelling library, as the books are all pocket-sized classical texts. For a full listing of the bindings, see Bibliotheca Brookeriana I, 11 October 2023, lot 58, where the present binding is number 9 in the list. 

16mo (113 x 72 mm). Italic type. collation: a-y⁸: 176 leaves. Title-page with woodcut device, woodcut initials, a few leaves with text underlined or annotated by an early reader. (Title-page with old paper repair at margin and pasted slip covering ownership inscription).

Binding: Later sixteenth-century northern Italian red morocco gilt (118 x 78 mm), half lozenge formed by two gilt fillets at top, bottom, and sides, each half lozenge containing a gilt standing putto flanked by leafy branches, and a full lozenge in centre containing gilt arms of the Novarini family consisting of tower on a grassy field surmounted by spread eagle crowned, spine with 4 full bands, gilt putto in other compartments, edges gilt with narrow gauffering around sides. (Upper compartment of spine damaged and restored such that 1-line title is not visible).

Provenance: Plausibly the Novarini family of Verona, arms on binding — "O. di Fra[ncesco] [...] 1622", ownership inscription on title-page obscured by pasted slip — "Ex Libris Joannis Merlini", eighteenth-century ownership inscription on title-page — "?Ricordo del can[oni]co Gio[vanni] Batista Menciati [...] 1859", ownership inscription to endleaf — black circular inkstamp of an unidentified nineteenth-century owner — Don Diego Cristiano Antonio Francesco Pignatelli (1855-1938), Mostra storica della legatura artistica in Palazzo Pitti (Florence 1922), no. 359. Acquisition: Purchased in 2016 from Librairie Lardanchet, Paris. References: USTC 122785; von Gültlingen V: Gryphe 858