Martialis, Venice, Heirs of Aldo & Torresano, 1517, French straight-grained red morocco by Pierre-Joseph Bisiaux, tall, Renouard's copy, fine paper

Martialis, Marcus Valerius. Martialis. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, December 1517

A fine-paper copy, from the library of Antoine-Augustin Renouard.

8vo (170 x 90 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: A-Z⁸ &⁸: 192 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and verso of final leaf. (Inscription washed from title, occasional foxing.)

binding: French straight-grained red morocco (178 x 101 mm), bound by Pierre-Joseph Bisiaux (active 1777-1801), gilt tooled border composed of central roll of open cinquefoil flanked by double gilt fillets and leafy roll, flat spine in seven compartments formed by gilt bands, second and seventh gilt-lettered, sixth with Renouard's gilt cipher, others with repeat gilt oval floral device, inner dentelles gilt, yellow silk endleaves and pastedowns, additional vellum endleaves, edges gilt. (Rubbing to extremities, upper corners just bumped.)

provenance: Antoine-Augustin Renouard (1765-1853), supralibros, his gilt cipher on the spine, signature and inventory number, "No. 1248," on vellum flyleaf — George John Warren, 5th Baron Vernon (1803-1866), the catalogue of the library at Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire (ca. 1836-1840?) — Robert Stayner Holford (1808-1892) — Lt. Col. Sir George Lindsay Holford (1860-1926), his sale, Sotheby's London, 5-9 December 1927, lot 495 (part) — Fletcher, London, purchased in previous sale — Mrs. A.A. Stevens, 48 Endwell Road, Brockley, consignor, Sotheby's London, 7-9 November 1932, lot 66 — Maggs Bros., London, purchased in previous sale — Arthur Rau, Paris, catalogue 1, item 72 — Elsie L. Kerney (née Regan) — Sotheby's New York, 24 September 1986, lot 101 (part). acquisition: Purchased at Sotheby's via E.K. Schreiber. references: UCLA 161; Renouard 81/11; Edit16 37562; USTC 841155