Designer Labels: Shelving the Renaissance Library 

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                <h5><b>by Isabelle de Conihout, Paris </b></h5>

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        </div><br>The Fugger family, established from 1367 in the imperial city of Augsburg, which was one of the most dynamic textile cities in southern Germany, reached the height of its power with Jakob Fugger the Rich (1459–1525) and his nephew Anton (1493–1560). This dynasty of merchants and bankers obtained in Renaissance Europe “the position which the Rothschilds were to hold in the nineteenth century” (Howard Nixon). Thanks to their cloth factories, their control of the silver and copper mining in Central Europe (Hungary and the Tyrol), and the building of a network in major European cities, they became bankers and major creditors to the Habsburg emperors Maximilian I and Charles V, and reached the absolute pinnacle of the world of trade and finance.<br><br>Following the old rule that the first generation creates a business, the second develops it, and the third brings it to ruin, the Fugger heirs depleted their incredible fortune in the best possible way: collecting books. The first signs of this malaise appeared with Anton’s elder brother, Raimund (1489–1535). Though an associate of the Fugger firm, he did not take an active part in its management and devoted much of his time to scholarly and artistic interests, collecting antiquities and building a library.<br><br>The disease got worse with three of his sons, Johann Jakob, Georg and Ulrich, and with his nephew Marcus: the decades from 1540 to 1570 have long since been identified by their historian, Paul Lehmann, as the "heyday of the Fugger book collections".

Meet The Fuggers: A Family of European Bibliophiles 

Apollo and Pegasus Bindings: Fake or Fortune? 

Parts of a Whole: Pieces from the Pillone Library 

From Captive to Collector: Gian Federico Madruzzo  

Changing Times for Books of Hours  

Good Gryphe! Sébastien Gryphe of Lyon 

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Lots 998–1126

Lots 1127–1239

The fifth installment of the magnificent Bibliotheca Brookeriana showcases readers and their books: bindings, inscriptions, manuscript shelfmarks and annotations are all indicators of notable ownership. Significant binders include Niccolò Franzese, the Fugger Binder, the Vatican Bindery, including one volume bound for Pope Pius V, Wotton Binders B and C, and the Mahieu Aesop Binder for Claude de Laubespine. Beautifully decorated fore-edges indicate that numerous volumes belonged to significant sixteenth- and seventeenth-century libraries, including the Pillone library at Belluno. Further noteworthy owners, leaving their marks in various forms, include Marcus Fugger, Thomas Mahieu, Gian Federico Madruzzo, a series of eminent cardinals, Perrenot de Granvelle, Guglielmo Sirleto, Lorenzo Campeggio and Jean du Bellay, and three early female owners, including Marguerite de France.

Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part V