Martialis, Venice, Aldo, 1501, English olive morocco by Charles Lewis for Theodore Williams, printed on vellum with illuminated first leaf

Martialis, Marcus Valerius. Martialis. (Venice: Aldo Manuzio, December 1501)

First Aldine edition of Martial's Epigrammata; a third copy, printed on vellum and illuminated for an early Italian, perhaps Florentine, owner.

8vo (152 x 89 mm). Italic types, 30 lines plus headline. Printed on vellum. collation: A-Z⁸ &⁸: 191 (of 192) leaves (lacking terminal blank &8). 6- and 7-line initial spaces with guide-letters, initials illuminated in gold or silver against red or blue background, colophon (&7r) includes printer's warning against piracy. First text page illuminated with painted armorial incorporated into a border of floral swags, garlands, and putti, possibly Florentine (the Tajan sale catalogue of the Chandon de Briailles library proposed Gualterotti, impaled by Petrucci); a diamond ring with feathers suggests, perhaps, a Medici connection. (Occasional natural discoloration to vellum, some light soiling to title and last page.)

binding: English olive morocco (157 x 97 mm) by Charles Lewis (1786-1833, shop continued by his widow until 1854), with his ticket, front cover with central gilt-stamp of initials TW within garter, rear cover with central gilt-stamp of the arms of Theodore Williams, doublure of orange morocco with interlaced strapwork design, edges gilt and gauffered, spine in six compartments, gilt-lettered in second through fifth. (Extremities rubbed, uniformly faded to light brown.)

provenance: Unidentified owner, painted armorial on first text page — likely Samuel Butler, Bishop of Lichfield & Coventry (1774-1839), with his (?) inscription on endleaf quoting from Renouard 1825 edition; Christie’s London, Bibliotheca Butleriana, 1-10 June 1840, lot 1291 ("Printed upon vellum, the first leaf and capitals illuminated. It is printed on very delicate vellum, and though the copy is not tall, it is very perfect and genuine, elegantly bound in Venetian morocco, with gilt tooling, with richly gilt red morocco lining"); purchased by — unidentified owner (£34 13s 6d) — Theodore Williams (1785?-1876), supralibros; Stewart Wheatley & Adlard, A catalogue of the splendid and valuable library of the Rev. Theodore Williams, London, 5 April-2 May 1827, lot 1184; purchased by — Longman, London (£42 10s) — George John Warren, 5th Baron Vernon (1803–1866) — Robert Stayner Holford (1808–1892); by descent to — Lt. Col. Sir George Lindsay Holford (1860-1926); Sotheby’s London, 5-9 December 1927, lot 493; purchased by — Bernard Quaritch, London (£128); Quaritch, Catalogue of a most important collection of publications of the Aldine Press (London: 1929), p. 18 — Henri, Comte Chandon de Briailles (1898-1937); by descent — François, Comte Chandon de Briailles (1892-1953); Tajan & Bertrand Meaudre, Paris, 25 November 2003, lot 112. acquisition: Purchased at Tajan via Halwas. references: UCLA 47; Adams M689; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 49; Edit16 36108; Renouard 30/7; USTC 841150; Van Praet, Catalogue de livres imprimés sur vélin de la Bibliothéque du Roi IV: 115