Landulfus Sagax, Romana historia, Basel, 1532, North Italian olive brown morocco with fore-edge painting, Pillone library
Auction Closed
December 10, 04:10 PM GMT
Estimate
50,000 - 70,000 GBP
We may charge or debit your saved payment method subject to the terms set out in our Conditions of Business for Buyers.
Read more.Lot Details
Description
LANDALFUS SAGAX. Eutropii insigne volumen quo romana historia universa describitur, ex diversorum authorum monumentis collecta. Quanto vero maior codicum sinceritas eo tempore fuit, quam est hodie. Itaque non pauca leguntur hic emendatius multo quam in aeditionibus quorundam historicorum quae vulgo circumferuntur. Id docebit vel Sex. Aurelii Victoris libellus, ut de epitome Eutropii ad Valentem Aug. sileantur. Additae sunt Graecorum imperatorum vitae, de rebus in Oriente & Constantinopoli, persia, Arabiaque gestis, de quibus hactenus Latinis parum constabat. Quidam Annales Constantinopolitanos appellant. Opus indignum certè quod in tenebris tam diu delituerint. Pauli Diaconi Aquileiensis de gestis Langobardorum Libri VI. Basel: Hieronymus I Froben & Nikolaus I Episcopius, 1532
A volume from the renowned Pillone library, with a fore-edge painting of three Roman Emperor busts by Cesare Vecellio (1530-1601). This is one of ten Pillone bindings in the Bibliotheca Brookeriana (see part I, 11 October 2023, lot 52).
This volume is particularly remarkable, being the only binding of its kind in the collection, both through the use of gilt tools and by the composition of the fore-edge paintings (Pierre Berès, Bibliothèque Pillone, Préface de Lionello Venturi (Paris, 1957), no. 75). On the other volumes, Cesare Vecellio depicts a solitary, boldly coloured figure, such as the author, engaged in the act of writing, or occasionally multiple figures in dialogue, composing scenes suggestive of the volume's contents. He often worked from strict instructions from Odorico Pillone, some of which have survived as notes on the inside upper cover in certain volumes (A Hobson, ‘The Pillone Library’, The Book Collector 7 (1958), pp.29-37). Here, Vecellio, perhaps following Odorico's wishes, paints three busts of Roman emperors, reflecting the contents rather than the multiple and elusive authors.
For other examples in this sale, see lots 1018 (Augustinus), 1050 (Castro), 1111 (Gregorius Nazianzenus), and 1168 (Origenes).
Folio (305 x 200 mm). Roman and italic type, 41 lines plus headline. collation: ✝4 a-z6 A-E6 F8 G-L6 M-N8: 226 leaves. Woodcut printer's device on title-page and final verso, woodcut initials. (Some initials infilled in gold, marginal worming.)
binding: North Italian olive brown morocco (315 x 220 mm), ca. 1570, multiple blind fillets around sides, gilt fleuron at outer angles, frame composed of gilt fillet flanked by broad blind lines, gilt rosette in corners, central lozenge formed by broad blind lines containing gilt leafy square repeated 4 times, spine with 4 bands, compartments diapered in blind, traces of 2 pairs of fabric ties, fore-edge painting of 3 portrait busts, other edges marbled pink and red. (Binding somewhat rubbed and scraped, ends of spine chipped, joints cracking, some wormholing to binding, new endpapers.)
provenance: Odorico Pillone (1503-1594), by family descent to — Giorgio Pillone (1539-1611) — Paolo Maresio Bazolle (fl.1874) — Sir Thomas Brooke, 1st Bt (1830-1908), engraved armorial exlibris, by family descent to — Humphrey Brooke (1914-1988), consigned — Alan Keen Ltd, The Venetian Library Collected at the Close of the XVI Century by Doctor Odorico Pillone and the Sides and Edges Painted by Cesare Vecellio, London, 1947, item 64 — Pierre Berès (1913-2008), Paris, commemorative exlibris, sale, Bibliothèque Pillone, Paris, 1957, item 75 — Bartolomé March Servera (1917-1998), exlibris — Christie Manson & Woods, Valuable printed books and manuscripts: including … a fine group from the Pillone Library, London, 1998, lot 61. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: USTC 654914; VD16 L 242