Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part V

Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part V

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 998. Achilles Tatius, Narrationis amatoriae, Lyon, 1544, contemporary Parisian binding for Thomas Mahieu.

Achilles Tatius, Narrationis amatoriae, Lyon, 1544, contemporary Parisian binding for Thomas Mahieu

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December 10, 04:10 PM GMT

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30,000 - 40,000 GBP

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Lot Details

Description

ACHILLES TATIUS. Narrationis amatoriae fragmentum e Graeco in Latinum conversum, L. Annibale Cruceio interprete. Lyon: Sébastien Gryphe, 1544


A simple and elegant Parisian binding made for Thomas Mahieu. The Salel Binder was active in the 1540s, executing fine and elaborate bindings for François I as well as simpler commissions such as the present binding.


For more details of Mahieu bindings, see Bibliotheca Brookeriana I, 11 October 2023, lot 40 (preceded by Isabelle de Conihout’s essay on Mahieu bindings); The Aldine Collection A-C, 12 October 2023, lots 258 and 331; part III, 9 July 2024, lot 440. Anthony Hobson's updated census of Mahieu bindings, "Les livres reliés pour Thomas Mahieu: I", Bulletin du Bibliophile (2004), 239-270, lists this binding as number 3, under the bindings "relies a grand decor". A similar fleuron was used by Claude de Picques (Nixon, Grolier Bindings, plate C, item 12, in reverse).


“The simplest of all Mahieu’s bindings” (Abbey catalogue). It is quite plausible that this was an early foray into book collecting for Mahieu; a Quaritch catalogue in 1889 speculated that the author’s name (“Clitophon”) written in manuscript at the head of the title-page might be in Grolier’s handwriting.


First edition of Achilles Tatius, but only containing books 5-8 of his novel Leucippe and Cleitophon; the full text was first printed in 1551, and the authorship of Achilles acknowledged shortly afterwards. The text is dedicated by the translator, Luigi Annibale della Croce, to Diego Hurtado de Mendoza.

8vo (168 x 105 mm). Italic type, 31 lines plus headline. collation: A-F8: 48 leaves. Woodcut printer’s device on title-page and final verso (otherwise blank), woodcut initials, ruled in red. (Small section of title-page beneath imprint repaired, head of front pastedown excised, occasional light damp-staining or browning.)


binding: Contemporary Parisian black morocco gilt (172 x 110 mm), attributed to the Salel Binder, two frames of double gilt fillets, lettered NARRATIOES AMATORIE at head of upper cover and T. MAIOLI ET AMICORUM at foot, without lettering on lower cover, spine with small gilt fleuron stamp in compartments, gilt edges. In a later morocco pull-off case lettered “Maioli’s copy, probably a present from Grolier”. (Binding very slightly rubbed, corners slightly bumped.)


provenance: Thomas Mahieu (ca 1515/1527-after 1588), name on binding — Abbé Fauvel (noted antiquarian and book collector), eighteenth-century armorial bookplate, [according to G.D. Hobson, sale, Paris, 1856, lot 1214] — Robert Samuel Turner (1818-1887), sale, Sotheby’s, London, 18 June 1888, lot 789, £9, to Quaritch — William Amhurst Tyssen-Amherst (1835-1909), Lord Amherst of Hackney, sale, London, 3 December 1908, lot 3, to Quaritch — Librairie Damascène Morgand [Édouard Rahir], Bulletin mensuel for November 1909, item 1 — Cortlandt F. Bishop (1870-1935), bookplate, sale, American Art Association, New York, 14 November 1938, lot 2209, $350 — John R. Abbey, green morocco gilt booklabel and his note "J.A. 1923" on inside lower cover, sale, Sotheby’s, London, 21 June 1965, lot 2 — Georges Heilbrun, catalogue 36 (Paris, 1971), item 1 — Michel Wittock (1936-2020), red morocco gilt booklabel, sale, Christie’s, London, 7 July 2004, lot 1. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: USTC 149212; von Gültlingen XV: Gryphe 813; A. Hobson and P. Culot, Italian and French 16th-Century Bookbindings, no. 38; exhibited: Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of bookbindings (London, 1891), case F, no.22

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