Cicero, De philosophia volumen secundum, Venice, Aldus, 1541, Roman morocco gilt for Fernando de Torres

Cicero, Marcus Tullius. M. Tullii Ciceronis De philosophia volumen secundum. Venice: Paolo Manuzio, 1541

The owner of this Roman binding has been identified by T. Kimball Brooker as Fernando de Torres, a Spanish nobleman living in Rome, and the nephew of Cardinal Luis de Torres (1494-1553), who was the owner of numerous books bound for him in Rome with his initials L.T. and with horizontal spine titles. As with his uncle's books, this binding has the title stamped on the cover within a roundel and surrounded by a ring of small gilt stamps, and, most distinctively, with the title lettered horizontally along the spine, indicating that the book was meant to be shelved in the modern way, with the spine outermost. (See Bibliotheca Brookeriana, lot 8 for another book from Fernando de Torres’ library.)

Most of the L.T. bindings are on Aldine editions from the 1530s and 1540s, and this binding must have been executed around the same time from one of the same binders used by Fernando's uncle. For a binding made for Luis de Torres, see lot 225.

8vo (165 x 96 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: A¹⁰ b-z⁸ [2]A-C⁸ [3]A-D⁸ (A4 blank): 242 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso. (Lacking quires [3]A-D⁸, containing the scholia.)

binding: Roman brown morocco (170 x 100 mm), early 1540s, outer border composed of a repeated circular arabesque tool within gilt and blind fillets, band at top and bottom of inner frame containing a row of small leafy stamps, rounded cornerpieces, in center a roundel surrounded by trefoils and title *M.T.C. PHILOSOPHIAE VO.II*, lower cover with same roundel containing *F*T*, later small crowned P on covers, stubs from four pairs of ties, spine with remains of longitudinal gilt title, later gilt stamps in spine compartments with later lettering-piece (now chipped), edges gilt and gauffered to a knotwork design. (Repairs to both hinges, small wormholes in binding, rebacked retaining much of original spine and some of the later spine decoration, binding rubbed.)

provenance: Fernando de Torres (1521-1590), initials FT on binding — Earls of Portland, stamp on covers and Welbeck Abbey bookplate, Portland Library catalogue (London, 1893), p.93 [not traced in the Christie, Manson and Woods sales of books from Welbeck Abbey, 23 March 1953 and 17 March 1954]. acquisition: Purchased from Sokol Books, 2022. references: UCLA 298 (both volumes); Edit16 12250; Renouard 122/5. T. Kimball Brooker, "Who was L.T.? Part I," The Book Collector (Winter 1998), 508-519 and "Who was L.T.? Part II," The Book Collector (Spring 1999), 32-53