Castiglione | Il libro del cortegiano. [Venice], April 1528, first edition, in a magnificent binding by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier

Baldassarre Castiglione

Il libro del cortegiano del conte Baldesar Castiglione. (Venice: in the house of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, April 1528)

Super-Chancery folio (326 x 208 mm). Collation: *⁴ a-o⁸ p⁶: 122 leaves, roman type, 40 lines plus headline, woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso, EACH FINELY HAND-COLOURED AND GILT, ILLUMINATED WITH HAND-COLOURED AND GILT INITIALS, Parisian dark brown morocco (326 x 217 mm) by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier (1540s), richly gold-tooled, covers with lozenge-rectangle interlace with central quadrilobed and outer double interlaced border, large solid tools at angles (Nixon, C. de P. 8a & b, 10), upper cover with title in gilt at centre (“IL CORTEGIANO | DEL CONTE BAL | DESAR CASTI | GLIONE”) and Grolier’s ownership inscription at foot of inner panel tooled over by the motto of a later owner (“TAN. QVAM. VENTUS. EST. VITA. MEA”), lower cover with Grolier’s motto in gilt at centre, and with Grolier’s ownership inscription added later to foot of lower panel, spine with six raised bands, panels outlined with a single gold line, edges gilt, lower outer margin of textblock restored throughout, neatly rebacked and recornered retaining some of original spine, extremities slightly rubbed

FIRST EDITION OF A CORNERSTONE TEXT OF RENAISSANCE HUMANISM, IN A MAGNIFICENT BINDING BY JEAN PICARD FOR THE PRE-EMINENT SIXTEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH BIBLIOPHILE JEAN GROLIER. A WIDE-MARGINED COPY.

Castiglione's renowned book of manners, set at the court of Urbino, was one of the last books to be printed before the death of Andrea Torresano in October 1528. 

According to Anthony Hobson, between 1540 and 1547, Grolier commissioned at least 230 bindings from the Parisian bookbinder and bookseller Jean Picard. Most of Grolier's purchases at this time were Aldines, comprising some 134 volumes (Hobson, Renaissance Book Collecting, p. 59). The covers of each binding originally contained Grolier’s ownership inscription (“IO. GROLIERII ET AMICORVM.”) and motto. As the phrase “et amicorum” suggests, Grolier lent his volumes out to his friends. The spirit of generosity is upheld as a core tenet of courtly manners in Castiglione's treatise, so it is appropriate for Grolier's library to have contained multiple copies. Hobson's census of Grolier bindings lists five copies of the 1528 Aldine edition and four copies of the 1533 second Aldine edition (in 8vo) executed by Picard, plus two further copies of the 1528 edition by other binders.

ONLY ONE OTHER COPY OF THIS EDITION BOUND FOR GROLIER HAS BEEN RECORDED AT AUCTION IN THE PAST CENTURY. Castiglione did not feature amongst the ten Grolier bindings in the Bibliotheca Brookeriana. Indeed, according to Rare Book Hub, the last example offered was the Sunderland-Ives-Hoe-Bishop copy (sold Anderson Galleries, 5 April 1938, lot 397). Comparison of that copy with the present volume reveals several similarities: both have finely hand-coloured/gilt Aldine devices and initials, the lettering of the title at the centre of the upper cover is identical, and the large solid tool found at the corners of the boards is also the same (Nixon, C. de P. 10).

Intriguingly, on the present copy, Grolier’s motto has been supplanted with that of a later owner (“TAN. QVAM. VENTUS. EST. VITA. MEA”), though the lettering of the original ownership inscription remains partially visible beneath. The supplanted motto is recorded in the Libri Carucci sale catalogue of 1847, and though the identity of the later owner has not yet been established, the motto recurs on a 1499 edition of Colonna’s Poliphilo (cited in Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of Bookbindings (London, 1891), p. xxv).

The nineteenth-century French provenance of this volume is fascinating. It was once part of the collection of the notorious bibliomaniac Guglielmo Libri Carucci dalla Sommaja, whose collection boasted seventeen Grolier bindings. In the 1847 Paris auction of Libri Carucci's collection, it was won by Nicolas Yemeniz (c.1871–1871), the wealthy Ottoman textile manufacturer and member of the Société des Bibliophiles françois, who amassed an impressive collection of Grolier bindings himself, numbering some thirteen volumes. Then, it was acquired by Ambroise Firmin-Didot (1790–1876) of the illustrious French publishing dynasty, whose collection of books and art posthumously sold for over 3 million francs at auction. The Firmin-Didot sale catalogue note explains that "Ce volume a sa petite légende". After Yemeniz bought the volume in 1847, in a dramatic turn of events it was seized during the judicial investigation against Libri. The book's misfortunes did not end there since, as Le moniteur universel reported, "un volume précieux et rare, Il Libro del Cortegiano, à la reliure de Grolier, a disparu du parquet de Lyon" during the course of proceedings, though the volume was thankfully "retrouvé et restitué à M. Yemeniz".

The most recent chapter in the book's provenance began when it was acquired by the Mayfair booksellers Ellis & White, who sold it to John Jacob Astor III (1822–1890). A letter of 24 February 1883 addressed to Astor from the firm's proprietor Frederick Startridge Ellis is preserved in the endleaves:

“…The Grolier volume described in our catalogue is sold, but we are in negociation [sic] for the purchase of another very fine example of the same library… preferable to the other volume in two respects, namely that it is a morocco binding which is always preferred by collectors to a calf Grolier & it has the anchor on the title & the initials illuminated… Grolier’s practice for all his choicest books… I hope that the Roman de la Rose will have reached you safely by this time…”

For the rare incunable edition of Le Roman de la Rose mentioned in this letter, see lot 92. For a 1546 edition of Castiglione, see lot 9.

PROVENANCE:

Jean Grolier de Servières, vicomte d’Aguisy (1489?–1565), supralibros, his name (partially erased) and motto on covers; Guglielmo Libri Carucci dalla Sommaja (1803–1869), his sale (“Catalogue de la bibliothèque de M. L****”), Paris, 30 July 1847, lot 2701; Nicolas Yemeniz (c.1781–1871, noted textile manufacturer and bibliophile), his sale (“Catalogue de la bibliothèque de M.N. Yemeniz”), Paris, 21 May 1867, lot 552, sold for 1,050 Francs (sale price recorded in pencil to front pastedown); Ambroise Firmin-Didot, his sale, part IV, Paris, 12–17 June 1882, lot 217; bought by John Jacob Astor III (1822–1890) from Ellis & White, New Bond Street (with 3 page autograph letter signed by F.S. Ellis to Astor, dated 24 February 1883, loosely preserved/tipped onto front free endpaper); thence by descent

LITERATURE:

This copy listed in: Howard M. Nixon, Bookbindings from the library of Jean Grolier (London, 1965), item 65 (reproduced as Plate 59); Gabriel Austin, Catalogue of the Library [of Jean Grolier], The Library of Jean Grolier (New York, 1971), item 86; [Nicolas Yemeniz], Catalogue de mes libres (Lyon: L. Perrin, 1865), item 552

USTC 819485; UCLA 252; Cataldi Palau 115; Edit16 10055; Renouard 105/3