Lucianus Samosatensis, Opuscula Erasmo Roterodamo interprete, Venice, Heirs of Aldo & Torresano, 1516, Parisian black morocco, 1540s, by Salel Binder, Sykes-Payne-Fortescue copy

Lucianus Samosatensis. Opuscula Erasmo Roterodamo interprete. Toxaris, siue de amicitia. Alexander, qui et Pseudomantis. Gallus, siue Somnium. Timon, seu Misanthropus. Tyrannicida, seu Pro tyrannicida. Declamatio Erasmi contra tyrannicidam. De ijs, qui mercede conducti degunt. Et quaedam eiusdem alia. Eiusdem Luciani Thoma Moro interprete, Cynicus. Menippus, siue Necromantia. Philopseudes, seu Incredulus. Tyrannicida. Declamatio Mori de eodem. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1516

A rarity. The first Aldine edition, edited by Erasmus of Rotterdam and Saint Thomas More, following the first edition of his Dialogues published in Florence in 1496. Lucian, known as the "scoffer at the gods,” was already immensely popular by the time the Aldine edition came out."

The Salel Binder, previously called The Fontainebleau Binder, was renamed after a series of manuscripts by Hugues Salel to François I which were bound by this shop. Often compared in style to the royal binder Etienne Roffet, he was active from about 1540 to 1545 in Paris.

8vo (161 x 91 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a-z⁸ aa-ff⁸ gg⁶: 238 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title- page and at end, initial spaces with guide-letters, page numbers added in early manuscript to contents. (Instances of spotting, lacking small corner of title-page.)

binding: Parisian black morocco, 1540s, by Salel Binder (166 x 97 mm), LVCIANI in gilt on covers surrounded by four gilt fleurons within a double ruled gilt frame with floral cornerpieces, vellum pastedowns, gilt edges. Housed in cloth box. (Slightly rubbed, particularly to spine.)

provenance: Early inscription to rear pastedown (possibly Petrus Rudavellus, Diocèse of Uzès, matriculated Montpellier in medicine) — early inscriptions, "Ex Libris Jacobi Lambini" and "Datuce 1633," on pastedown — Sir Mark Masterman Sykes, 3rd Bt. (1771-1823), inscription on pastedown; his sale, R.H. Evans, London, 28 May-3 June 1824, lot 298; purchased by — Thomas Payne, London — Hon. George Matthew Fortescue (1791-1877) — George M. Fortescue (Dropmore); by descent to — John Bevill Fortescue (1850-1938); by descent to — John Grenville Fortescue (1896-1969); by descent to — John Desmond Grenville Fortescue (1919-2017) — Christie's London, 24 March 1971, lot 58 — Harry A. Levinson, Los Angeles, purchased in previous sale. acquisition: Purchased from Harry A. Levinson, Los Angeles, 1976. references: UCLA 145; Renouard 76/2; Edit16 36166; USTC 838768