Ammonios Hermiae, Commentaria, Venice, Aldus, 1503, contemporary French calf

Ammonios Hermiae. Αμμωνιου του Ερμειου υπομνημα... (Venice: Aldo Manuzio, June [not before 17 October] 1503)

A second copy, the paper fresh. This copy is in the second state with the dedication Alberto Pio of Carpi on the verso of the title-page. The dedication cites all four texts in the volume.

An early owner of this copy was Jacques Ribier (Ribière; d. 1636), Maître des Requêtes de l’hôtel du roi, conseiller d’État. Ribier collected a large library (apparently, 5000-6000 volumes, valued posthumously at 9000 livres) which he kept in his house in Paris, in the Rue des Males-Paroles, Saint-Germain-L’Auxerrois. An inventory was made in 1612 by or for his friend, Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (“Index Librorum bibliothecae Riberii, regii in Parisiensi curia senatoris”, Carpentras, Bibliothèque Inguimbertine, Ms 1769, ff.481-572). Jacques had married, in 1602, Françoise Aleaume (d. 1645), and they inherited on the death of her father in 1634 the valuable library of the Garde des sceaux, Guillaume du Vair (1556-1621).

Jacques kept that library (3000-4000 volumes) in a separate gallery. After his death, the Du Vair library passed to his son, Nicolas, who later sold it to his brother Jacques II, after whose death in 1653 it was sold by the latter’s widow to the booksellers Villery and Dumesnil. The Ribier library was inherited by another son, Louis, whose creditors sold it to his brother Guillaume in 1654 for 16,000 livres. Its fate is unknown.

A document prepared in 1654 describes the Ribier library as comprising “livres, tant de theologie, jurisprudence, histoires eclesiastiques et prophanes, philosophie, humanitées, medecines, mathematicques, historiens, prelatz grecz et lattins, manuscripts que aultres oeuvres, tant infolio, inquarto, inoctavo que aultres sortes de vollumes, grandeurs, reliures et couvertures…”. Ribier’s books may be identified now by his inscription, often (if not invariably) using the “et amicorum” formula (we are unaware of any binding executed with his name, a monogram, or arms on the covers). Ribier possessed several Greek manuscripts, including one of those which Jean Hurault de Boistaillé had acquired in Venice from Domenico Grimani (now Paris, BnF, grec. 1771, via Colbert). Ribier evidently was both learned and a bibliophile, possessing books from the libraries of Henri II and Thomas Mahieu, the first edition of Vesalius, and other texts in esteemed editions.

Folio (288 x 182 mm). Greek type, 54 lines plus headline. collation: A-G⁸ H⁴ I-K⁸ Λ4 M⁸ N-O⁶ AA-EE⁸ FF⁶: 146 leaves (H4 and Λ4 blank), with preface on verso of title-page. Woodcut small Aldine device on title-page, woodcut diagrams, a few early annotations in Greek, and two additional items listed in Latin on the title-page.

binding: Contemporary French calf gilt (295 x 187 mm), double gilt fillet border with corner fleurons, small centerpiece made from four azured fleurons in a diamond-shaped gilt fillet box, spine gilt in compartments, plain edges. (Spine and joints repaired, binding slightly tight.)

provenance: I. Malerius, early signature on inside lower cover — Jacques Ribier, (d. 1636), friend of Peiresc and avid book collector: inscription at foot of title-page, "Jac. Ribierii & amicorum" — Léopold Gravier, armorial bookplate. acquisition: Purchased from E.K. Schreiber, New York, 1984. references: UCLA 76 (with preface); Aldo Manuzio tipografo 78; Edit16 1595; Renouard 40/4