Machiavelli, Discorsi, Venice, Sons of Aldo, 1540, modern blue morocco, Cardinal Granvelle's copy

Machiavelli, Niccolò. Discorsi di Nicolò Machiauelli, firentino [!], sopra la prima deca di Tito Liuio. Nuouamente corretti, & con somma diligenza ristampati. Venice: Sons of Aldo Manuzio, 1540

From the library of Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, at the Granvelle Palace in Besançon. Home to one of the most extensive collections of its time, the library served as a cultural hub where Granvelle frequently invited scholars.

8vo (146 x 90 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: *⁸ A-Z⁸ AA-DD⁸: 224 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title- page and final verso. (Very light scattered spotting.)

binding: Twentieth-century blue morocco (151 x 104 mm), gilt fillet around sides, spine with semi-raised bands in five compartments, gilt spine and turn-ins, edges gilt.

provenance: Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517-1586), armorial inkstamp on verso of title-page — Inventaire du mobilier, de la bibliothèque et de la galerie du Palais Granvelle à Besançon, 1607 (Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale, Ms 1627, ff. 38- 80: f. 61 "Discorsi di Nicolo Marchiavelli [sic] / 6 gros"; Marie-Claire Waille, op. cit., p. 154 no. 1306) — Thomas Thorpe, London 1839, II, p. 167, item 1604 — Thomas Thorpe, London 1842, p. 424, item 4334 — Francis Richard Charles Grant (1834-1899), bookplate — Samuel Ashton Thompson Yates (1842-1903); his sale, Liverpool 1896, p. 19 no. 108 — Allan Heywood Bright (1862-1941); his sale, Christie's London, 16 July 2014, lot 313. acquisition: Purchased at Christie's via Robin Halwas. references: UCLA 292; Renouard 120/5; Edit16 26687; USTC 839328; Bibliografia Machiavelliana 45