Livius, Le deche delle historie romane, Venice, 1547, contemporary tan morocco gilt

Titus Livius

Le deche... delle historie romane. Venice: (heirs of Lucantonio Giunta, March) 1547

folio (314 x 213mm.), woodcut printer's device on title-page and final verso, woodcut initials, with blank leaf 3/6, F8v with a printed line of text pasted to foot of leaf (text which was omitted in the printing), contemporary tan morocco elaborately gilt with initials A.S. in centre of covers, central panel of leafy tools and bird stamps surrounded by concentric decorative rectangles with a fleur-de-lys at each corner of the outer border, spine with small floral stamp in each compartment and a single gilt fillet across each support, gilt edges, in modern drop-backed folding box, front flyleaf and title-page wormed, small stain on 3N4-5, lacking 4 pairs of ties, a few very small wormholes in foot of spine

A fine crisp copy in a handsome contemporary binding. Davis Gift 53 (printed in Rome, 1549) has a binding with the same outer border, also with the initials A.S. within the same pair of stamps. The Davis Gift catalogue is ambivalent about the country of origin of the binding, but states that A.R.A. Hobson thought it to be French.

LITERATURE:

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