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ELEGANTISSIME È GRAECO AUTHORUM SUBDITORUM TRANSLATIONES, UIDELICET. PHILOSTRATI ICONES. PYTHAGORAE CARMEN AUREUM ATHENAEI COLLECTANEA MUSONII PHILOSOPHI TYRII DE PRINCIPE OPTIMO ISOCRATIS DE REGIS MUNERIBUS ORATIO, & ALIA MULTA SCITU DIGNISS.
(Mediolani [Milan]: Giovanni Castiglione [for Andrea Calvo], 1521). 226 x 160 mm. (9 x 6 1/4"). 4 p.l., x1iii, [2], xliiii-lx, [1], ii-liii, [2], liiii-lxiiii, [1], lxiiii (i.e., lxvi), lxvii-xciii, [1, blank] leaves. FIRST EDITION, First Issue. DEDICATEE'S COPY.
SUPERB PARISIAN BROWN MOROCCO BY JEAN PICARD FOR JEAN GROLIER, ca. 1540, covers framed by multiple gilt and blind rules, central panel with strapwork frame interlocking with large strapwork lozenge, the latter containing a decorative cartouche, that on the upper cover with title in gilt, that on the lower cover with Grolier's motto, "PORTIO MEA DOMINE SIT IN TERRA VIVENTIUM" ("Lord, let my portion be in the land of the living"), fleurons at corners of central panel and at ends of cartouches, sides of lozenge with arabesque accents, foot of front cover lettered in gilt: "IO. GROLIERII ET AMICORUM" ("Jean Grolier and his friends"); raised bands, spine compartments with small gilt tool at center, Grolier's distinctive vellum pastedowns and endleaves, with a bifolium of plain paper before and after the free vellum leaf, all edges gilt; very minor restoration work perhaps at spine ends (and at corners?), but, if so, done with consummate skill and virtually undetectable. In a 20th century red morocco pull-off case. First paper endleaf with ink stamps of Bibliotheca Heberiana. One leaf (xliii in the second half) with neat early ink marginalia (by Grolier or one of his friends?): "Meretrices insignes" ("notable prostitutes") and "Venus hetaera" ("Venus as a courtesan"). USTC 844441; EDIT 16 CNCE 47085. For the binding: Hobson, "Renaissance Book Collecting," p. 226 (item 348) and "Humanists and Bookbinders," Appendix 7; [H. M. Nixon] "The British Museum. Bookbindings from the library of Jean Grolier," for individual tools: C. de P. 1, 2, 3, 12, 16, 17 (Nixon attributing these to Claude de Picques, but later attributed by Hobson to Jean Picard); Nixon, "Twelve Centuries of Bookbinding," p. 149. Just the faintest scuffing to covers, very minor rubbing to a couple of the small gilt spine tools, isolated negligible spots of foxing or smudges, but the contents remarkably clean, fresh, and bright, and the binding with lustrous leather and gilt. AN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE COPY with only trivial signs of use and obviously always treated as more of a treasure than a work to consult.
This is the lovely Jean Grolier - Heber - Christie-Miller copy of a collection of translations of prominent Greek authors, offered in an especially attractive state of preservation, and with special features (like marginalia reflecting immodest curiosity perhaps written by the great collector himself). Although the content is not without significance, the story here resides in the binding and the collector for whom it was made. Jean Grolier de Servières, viscount d'Aguisy (ca. 1489/90 - 1565) was born in Lyon into a wealthy family and given a humanist education. At the age of 19 or 20, he succeeded his father as France's Treasurer-General in Milan, then under French rule. For the decade or so he was based in Milan, Grolier became a leading figure in the humanist literary circles there, befriending many writers, including the author of the present work, and having numerous books dedicated to him. He met Aldus Manutius when the Venetian printer visited Milan in 1511, and became a devoted collector of his editions. During his residence in Italy, he took care to put his books into special bindings, but it was not until he returned to Paris after 1521 that he commissioned the distinctive bindings that bear his name. Grolier's main binder was long believed to be Claude de Piques, but later scholars, chief among them A. R. A. Hobson, have determined that the so-called "Entrelac Binder" was Jean Picard (fl. 1540s), a bookseller and binder who served as the Paris agent for the Aldine Press. According to Hobson's "Renaissance Book Collecting," "Grolier bought and had bound by Jean Picard at least 230 books, probably more than half his third and final library. . . . All the bindings had Grolier's name, Christian name, and motto tooled on the covers." (p. 59) Nixon notes another consistent characteristic of Grolier's bindings--the use of plain vellum pastedowns and endleaves, with two conjugate paper leaves bound before and after the free vellum endleaf. Sometimes, these leaves became loose over the centuries or were removed by later owners, so we are fortunate to have this feature intact. The text here is composed of Latin translations by Stefano Negri, a Milanese Greek teacher, from various famous Greek authors, among them Philostratus and Isocrates. It is the second work Negri dedicated to Grolier, who Hobson says had three copies of this book bound in a fashion similar to ours, with the inscription on the front indicating they belonged, not just to Grolier, but to "Jean Grolier and his friends." This remarkable emblazonment of largesse is echoed by Negri, who notes in his dedicatory poem that "Grolierius often enriches virtuous men with gifts." Because Grolier may, in fact, have given the present volume to one of his friends, we can't be sure that the annotations next to the text's discussion of Athenian courtesans belonged to our original owner; regardless, they reflect the fact that Renaissance men, even those immersed in study of the Greeks, had worldly curiosity. The subsequent provenance of our book was worthy of its origins. It was part of the Bibliotheca Heberiana of Richard Heber (1773-1833), a co-founder of the Roxburghe Club and one of the most prodigious collectors of his day. His library, estimated by T. F. Dibdin at 105,000 volumes in England (and thousands more on the Continent), was dispersed in a series of auctions after his death; this volume was lot 5135 in Sotheby's Part I, 10th April, 1834. It was acquired by voracious book collector William Henry Miller (1789-1848), a bibliophile who, in de Ricci's words, "literally bought by the cartload." He was a major buyer at the Heber sales, and likely won this book in the Sotheby's auction. Miller's books were kept at his Britwell Court estate in Buckinghamshire, where they were added to substantially by successors Samuel Christy (d. 1889) and Wakefield Christy (d. 1898), both of whom took the name Christie-Miller. Their immense library was sold between 1916 and 1927 at Sotheby's, bringing in more than £500,000. Our volume was lot 489 at Sotheby's, 3rd & 4th May, 1920, where it sold (for £91) to Ellis (presumably the London firm begun by Frederick Startridge Ellis in 1860 and being run in 1920 by J. J. Holdsworth, George Smith, and Frank Benger). It subsequently passed through the hands of other booksellers and private owners of distinction including Breslauer and A. Edward Newton, before landing in a private UK collection. Grolier bindings show up in the marketplace from time to time--and almost always command notable prices--but it is not easy to find them today in such attractive condition as seen here. We have waited nearly 50 years to own a Grolier binding, so it is with almost unrestrained pleasure that we now offer the present volume for sale. (ST20547)
Price: $120,000.00