Theocritus, Eidyllia trigintasex, Basel, 1531, contemporary north Italian dark brown morocco gilt

THEOCRITUS. Theocriti Syracusani Eidyllia trigintasex, Latino carmine reddita, Helio Eobano Hesso interprete. Accesserunt recens Theocriti genus, ac vita. De inventione, ac discrimine Bucolicorum carminum. Item singulis Eidylliis singula argumenta. A quodam Graece, Latineque erudito latinitate donata. Basel: Andreas Cratander, (September) 1531

The binding design is typical of bindings across north Italy at this time, including both Bologna and Venice. The early Bergamo provenance on a foreign imprint might indicate the possibility of this being a Bergamo binding.

8vo (161 x 104 mm). Italic type, 23 lines plus headline. Collation: a-q⁸: 128 leaves. Woodcut initials, woodcut printer's device on final verso (otherwise blank). (Occasional light browning, a few ink marks obscuring Erasmus Ebner's name on a3-4, small paper repair on a4.)

Binding: Contemporary north Italian dark brown morocco gilt (168 x 113 mm), central small gilt stamp of a pot of flames, outer double frame of blind and gilt fillets with semicircular drawer handle tool in centre of sides, corner fleurons, spine bands outlined with gilt fillets with blind-stamped decoration in between, edges gilt and gauffered to a knotwork design. (Binding slightly rubbed, small binding stamp removed from upper cover, small stain on fore-edge, later pastedowns.)

Provenance: "Alo. Tassi Berg^is, nunc vero Bernardini Sarzetti Berg", inscription on title-page, i.e. Alvise/Luigi Tasso of Bergamo and then Bernardino Sarzetti of Bergamo (Sarzetti was a notary in the early eighteenth century) — Jean Fürstenberg (1890-1982), red morocco gilt booklabel — Martin Breslauer Inc., catalogue 110 (New York, 1992), item 25. Acquisition: Purchased in 1993 from Martin Breslauer Inc., New York. References: USTC 696632; VD 16 T 722