Seneca, Naturalium quaestionum, Venice, Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1522, Venetian black goatskin, ca. 1525, fine paper copy

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. L. Annei Senecae Naturalium quaestionum libri VII. Matthaei Fortunati in eosdem libros annotationes. Index rerum notatu dignarum in calce operis appositus. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, February 1522

Fine paper copy, with excellent margins, in a handsome near-contemporary Venetian goatskin binding.

4to (219 x 129 mm). Italic type, 39 lines plus headline. collation: *⁶ a-g⁸ h¹⁰ i-q⁸ r⁶: 142 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device to title-page and verso of last leaf, guide letters in initial spaces. (Marginal dampstain to first two leaves, a few small inkstains to title, small area of marginal worming to last three leaves.)

binding: Venetian black goatskin, ca. 1525 (224 x 137 mm), broad gilt fillet forming rectangle with sides extended to edges and then connected to form a triangle at corners, floral inner cornerpieces, gilt arabesque in center above which is gilt title "QVEITIONES* /SENECAE*", spine with four compartments, traces of four pairs of ties, blue edges, title on fore-edge. (Rebacked with portions of original spine laid down, corners rubbed with some exposure, pastedowns and endleaves renewed, covers a little scratched.)

provenance: Sotheby's London, 4-5 June 1973, lot 47; purchased by — Alan G. Thomas, London. acquisition: Purchased from Alan G. Thomas, London, 1973. references: UCLA 217; Renouard 96/10; Edit16 37693; USTC 855886