Manuzio, Eleganze della lingua, Venice, Manuzio, 1556, nineteenth-century green straight-grained morocco, Butler-Powis copy

Manuzio, Aldo II. Eleganze della lingua toscana e latina, scielte da Aldo Manutio, utilissime al comporre nell'una e l'altra lingua. Tauola copiosissima … Venice: [Paolo Manuzio], 1556.

First edition. The Butler-Powis copy.

Edward Herbert, 2^nd Earl of Powis, also known as Viscount Clive (1785-1848), was a British peer and politician.

8vo (150 x 97 mm). Italic type, 29 lines plus headline. collation: A-I⁸ K¹⁰: 82 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page. (Small hole to A5, ink stain to A6, small stain on sig. H3 recto slightly affecting the text.)

binding: Nineteenth-century green straight-grained morocco (158 x 102 mm), three gilt fillets around sides, spine gilt, gilt leafy design on turn-ins, green endleaves, gilt edges. (Spine rubbed.)

provenance: Samuel Butler (1774-1839), Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, inscription — Christie's London, 1-10 June 1840, lot 1255 — Edward Clive Herbert, 2nd Earl Powis (1785-1848), inscription, "A Catalogue of books printed by Aldus Manutius and his successors 1495-1597 in the possession of Lord Viscount Clive London 1825" (London, British Library, Add Ms 54176, f.57: "Eleganze de Ald. Man. 8°") [later hand] — George Herbert, 4th Earl Powis (1862-1952) — Sotheby's London, 20- 22 March 1923, lot 547 — Bernard Quaritch (London 1929), p. 56; Catalogue 457 (London 1932), item 65 — inscription, "Pâques 1946," on endleaf (a name, or Easter 1946?). acquisition: Purchased from William Salloch, Ossining, NY, 1980. references: UCLA 497; Renouard 1673; Edit16 56362; USTC 840342