Lucretius, De rerum natura, Venice, Heirs of Aldo & Torresano, 1515, contemporary Roman green morocco by Cardinals' Shop, before 1527, Beckford-Douglas copy

Lucretius Carus, Titus. Lucretius. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, January 1515

Second Aldine edition, edited by the Italian poet Andrea Navagero, the final book published shortly before Aldo died in February. This improved version clarified vital aspects of the poet's often elusive composition; Aldo states in the preface “Lucretius can finally be read with understanding.”

William Beckford amassed a vast library and art collection but was plagued by debt, often selling and then rebuying pieces. The collection that was left following his death was inherited by his daughter Susanna and her husband, Alexander Hamilton, 10^th Duke of Hamilton. The 1882 Sotheby's auction of his paintings, books and manuscripts was one of the most significant sales of the century in both volume and value.

The Cardinals' Shop produced bindings for Cardinals Salviati and Ridolfi as well as Clement VIII.

8vo (161 x 95 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: *⁸ a-q⁸: 136 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device to title-page and final verso (otherwise blank). (Very occasional light damp staining.)

binding: Roman green morocco (167 x 101 mm), by the Cardinals' Shop, before 1527 (see A. Hobson), frame of gilt fillets, LVCRETIVS at top, flame at outer angles, inner frame of repeated arabesque, flame at corners, in center flaming pot surrounded by four flame tools, knot tools above and below, three full and four half bands, compartments blind tooled with gilt five-petalled flower, gilt and gauffered edges, traces of ties. Housed in a morocco box). (Refurbished with restoration to head and foot of spine.)

provenance: Unidentified owner, inscription, "Mr. Payne," perhaps recording purchase from the bookseller Thomas Payne (1719-1799), his son Thomas Payne (1752-1831), or else John Thomas Payne, the latter's nephew — William Beckford (ca. 1760-1844) — Alexander Douglas, 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852) — Sotheby's London, 11-22 December 1882, lot 1948 — J. Pearson & Co., London, purchased in previous sale — Librairie Damascène Morgand, Paris 1910, item 5 — Librairie Damascène Morgand, No. 20, Janvier 1920, Paris 1920, item 383 — Édouard Rahir, Paris, bookplate — Henri Baudoin & Fernand Lair-Dubreuil with Francisque Lefrançois, Paris, 7-9 May 1930, lot 147; purchased by — Anton W.M. Mensing (1866- 1936) — Sotheby's London, 15-17 December 1936, lot 368; purchased by — Meijer Elte, Amsterdam — Sotheby's London, 15- 17 November 1937, lot 542; purchased by — Bernard Quaritch, London — Raphaël Esmerian (1903-1976) — Dorothy Miner, The History of Bookbinding 525-1950 AD, An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art 12 November 1957-12 January 1958 (Baltimore: 1957), no. 218 ("Mr. Raphael Esmerian") — Antoine & Étienne Ader, Jean-Louis Picard, Jacques Tajan & Claude Guérin with Georges Blaizot, 6 June 1972, lot 89. acquisition: Purchased at Ader Picard Tajan by T. Kimball Brooker. references: UCLA 130; Renouard 74/11; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 132; Edit16 37499; USTC 838803; for binding, Anthony Hobson, "Two early sixteenth-century binder's shops in Rome" in De libris compactis miscellanea, edited by G. Colin (Aubel- Brussels 1984), pp. 79-98 (p. 91 no. 10: "Chicago, T. Kimball Brooker")