Dio Cassius, Neruae et Traiani, Venice, house of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1519, French brown morocco by Claude Picques

Dio Cassius, and others. In hoc volumine haec continentur. Neruae et Traiani, atque Adriani Caesarum vitae ex Dione, Georgio Merula  interprete. Aelius  Spartianus. Iulius  Capitolinus. Lampridius. Flauius Vopiscus. Trebellius  Pollio. Vulcatius  Gallicanus. Ab Ioanne Baptista Egnatio Veneto diligentissime castigati … (Venice: in the house of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, August 1519)

Another copy, which once belonged to l'abbé Jean Ballesdens or Balesdens (ca. 1600-1675), Royal Chaplain, secretary to chancellor Pierre Séguier, and member of the Académie française. His library, dispersed in 1677, included 25 Grolier bindings, which he was among the first to systematically collect.

8vo (158 x 90 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: *⁸ a-zz⁸ A-G⁸: 432 leaves (oo8 a blank, D4 a blank except for pagination and foliation). Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso, leaves with ruled border. (Minor browning, stray spots, small hole to title-page margin.)

binding: French brown morocco (163 x 97 mm), ca. 1565, by Claude de Picques, elaborately gold tooled design of interlacing strapwork and fillets and azured and leafy tools, design carried over to spine, all edges gilt, printed leaf of research related to Jean Grolier laid down on rear free-endpaper, housed in a cloth clamshell box. (Spine repaired, some rubbing at extremities.)

provenance: Contemporary index written on front endpapers — Jean Ballesdens (1600-1675), inscription on title-page — Domingo Del Monte y Aponte (1804-1853), bookplate to verso of front free-endpaper — Rev. Charles Lloyd (d. 1862), his sale, Sotheby’s London, 18 June 1862, lot 132 — William & Thomas Boone, London, purchased in previous in sale — Douglas Maxwell Moffat (1881-1956), bookplate to verso of front free-endpaper — J.W. Bolton, Bookseller, New York, stamp to verso of front free-endpaper. acquisition: Purchased from Martin Breslauer Inc., New York, 1986. references: UCLA 181; Renouard 87/8; Edit16 17204; USTC 826911