Cicero, Opera, Lyon, 1546, 7 volumes, contemporary French gilt-tooled calf, probably by Picard
Auction Closed
December 10, 04:10 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 GBP
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Description
CICERO, MARCUS TULLIUS. A seven-volume set of his works, comprising:
(1) De officiis, M. T. Ciceronis libri tres. Eiusdem de amicitia, de senectute dialogi duo, cum paradoxis & somnio Scipionis. Lyon: Sébastien Gryphe, 1546
(2) Orationum M. T. Ciceronis, volumen II. Lyon: Sébastien Gryphe, 1546
(3) Orationum M. T. Ciceronis, volumen III. Lyon: Sébastien Gryphe, 1546
(4) Marcii Tullii Ciceronis de philosophia tomus primus. Lyon: Sébastien Gryphe, 1546
(5) M. T. Cic. Rhetoricum ad Herennium libri quatuor. Eiusdem de invention libri duo. Lyon: Sébastien Gryphe, 1546
(6) M. Tullii Ciceronis Rhetoricorum tomus secundus. Lyon: Sébastien Gryphe, 1546
(7) M. T. Cic. Epistolarum, ut vocant, familiarum libri XVI. Lyon: Sébastien Gryphe, 1546
A set of seven small format volumes of Cicero in uniform bindings, quite plausibly part of a travelling library. One of the volumes has had Grolier’s name added to the foot of the upper cover, in the manner of many Grolier bindings, which was plausibly added during the nineteenth century.
The binding tools can be linked with the workshop of Jean Picard, a binder and bookseller active in Paris in the 1540s, who was the agent for the Aldine firm in Paris until 1547. Davis Gift 25 is an Aldine octavo in a binding with gilt interlacing and the same small stamps. These stamps were previously attributed to Claude de Picques and feature on some (genuine) Grolier bindings made by Jean Picard; as the Aldine representative in Paris, he provided more than 200 volumes for Grolier’s library in the early 1540s.
Sébastien Gryphe printed many of these small format editions of Cicero in the 1540s; see lots 1059, 1060 and 1063-1065.
7 volumes (of 10), 16mo (125 x 70 mm). Italic type, 29 lines plus headine. collation: (1) a-u8: 159 leaves (of 160, without final blank leaf). (2) aa-zz AA-YY8: 360 leaves. (3) Aa-Zz aA-xX8: 352 leaves. (4) a-z A-Q8: 312 leaves (last two leaves blank). (5) a-x8 y4: 172 leaves (last leaf blank). (6) aa-zz AA-QQ8 RR4: 316 leaves. (7) a-z A-Q8: 311 leaves (of 312; Q7-8 blank, without final blank). Woodcut printer’s device on title-pages, woodcut initials, ruled in red, some deckle edges. (Some light browning.)
binding: Contemporary French gilt-tooled calf (130 x 78 mm), probably by Jean Picard, covers with gilt interlacing with a six-pointed star within a circle and azured leafy tools, the first volume with a different interlaced design and some of the same azured tools, spines with small gilt fleuron in compartments, a few volumes with remains of spine titles in second compartments, gilt edges. In modern crushed brown morocco case. (Bindings restored with some loss at edges, in particular the spines, later pastedowns, a few small wormholes, inside lining of modern case worn.)
provenance: Bernard Quaritch, London, sold before 1886 to — John Boyd Thacher (1847-1909), sale, Anderson Galleries, part II, 8-9 January 1914, lot 69 — Maggs Bros, catalogue 324 (London, 1914), item 19 (as genuine Grolier bindings). acquisition: Purchased in 2014 from A Venue for Art, London. references: von Gültlingen V: Gryphe 919, 921, 922, 923, 925, cf. 972 (dated 1547); A.-J. Le Roux de Lincy, Researches concerning Jean Grolier, his life and his library, translated and revised by Carolyn Shipman (New York 1907), nos *122-128 (located with Thacher, "Unknown to Le Roux de Lincy", as Grolier's copies); Gabriel Austin, The library of Jean Grolier, 122-128 (unlocated, "Fake?")
