Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part V

[Aristotle], Ex Platonis Timaeo particula, Basel, 1542, Roman black morocco by Niccolò Franzese

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December 10, 04:10 PM GMT

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[ARISTOTELES] PLATO and ARATUS OF SOLI. Εκ Πλατωνος Τιμαοιυ τμημα το τῳ Κικερωνου περι παντος βιβλιῳ συμφωνουν. Ex Platonis Timaeo particula, Ciceronis de universitate libro respondens. Quo duo libri inter se coniuncti & respondents, nunc primum opera Ioachimi Perionii Cormoeriaceni proferuntur in lucem, una cum eiusdem Annotationibus (Αρατου Σολεως φαινομενα. Ciceronis in Arati Phaenomena interpretatio). Basel: [Robert Winter, March 1542]

This volume contains just the third part of an edition of Aristotle’s Ethics, containing Plato’s Timaeus and Aratus’s Phaenomena, both with Cicero’s commentary, edited by the scholar Joachim Périon, which was presumably bound in three small volumes.

The elegant Roman binding can be attributed to Niccolò Franzese from the use of the double volute stamp at the inner corners of the frame (illustrated in Hobson, Apollo and Pegasus, fig. 34) and it features in his list C of books bound by Niccolò Franzese, item 27. The lower cover is also illustrated in Giuseppe Fumagalli, “Di Demetrio Canevari medico e bibliofilo genovese”, La Bibliofilía 4 (1902-1903), pp.300-316, plate 1.

8vo (165 x 98 mm). Greek and italic type, 26 lines plus headline. collation: a-m⁸ n⁴ o-p⁸: 116 leaves. Woodcut initial.

binding: Contemporary Roman dark brown morocco gilt (171 x 108 mm), by Niccolò Franzese, an outer border of tan morocco surrounded by a frame of gilt and blind fillets, a curved leafy stamp used to form a centrepiece and for decoration along the border, with other small leaf and flower stamps, spine with title lettered along the spine (to be shelved flat), gilt edges with a dotted gauffered border, partial watermark of a ladder within a circle surmounted by a star in endleaf. (Binding slightly rubbed, corner slightly bumped, head of spine starting to tear, a few very small wormholes.)

provenance: Leo S. Olschki (1861-1940; his ownership noted by Fumagalli) — Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, 10 December 1917, lot 130 (under Cicero) — Librairie Vénot, Lyon, sold to — Maurice Burrus (1882-1959), bookplate dated 1937, and his purchase note at end dated 1935 — Thierry de Maigret, sale, Paris, 18 November 2008, lot 32. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: VD16 A 3420 (the whole work); Fairfax Murray, German 121 (this copy)