Alciati, Emblemata, Lyon, 1551, Louvain binding with Spes panel stamp, Knyvett copy

Alciati, Andrea

Emblemata D. A. Alciati, denuo ab ipso Autore recognita, ac, quae desiderabantur, imaginibus locupletata. Accesserunt nova aliquot ab autore Emblemata suis quoque eiconibus insignita. Lyon: Macé Bonhomme [for Guillaume Rouille], 1551 [bound with:]

VERINO, MICHELE. Michaelis Verini Distichorum liber. Louvain: Jacob Bathen for Martin Raymakers, 1551

The text of Alciati is now accompanied by illustrations for every emblem, a total of 211, attributed to Pierre Eskrich. Copies are also recorded with Rouille's name on the title-page.

Michele Verino (or di Vieri, 1469-1487, a fellow pupil of Machiavelli's in Florence), wrote these moralising verses as a child, and they were first published in the year of his death at the age of 18. This is one of numerous editions printed as it became a popular school book, which perhaps explains why only one other copy of this particular edition is recorded.

One of many Louvain bindings made using a popular panel stamp depicting Hope (Spes), with a text from Psalm 90 around the edge; this version is recorded in Fogelmark, Flemish and related panel-stamped bindings, plate XLII and Davis Gift 302. Fogelmark has identified more than 130 volumes using this panel stamp, and even more of the similar Spes panel signed I.P., which (he opines) was copied by Bathen. While the two texts in this binding were printed in different cities, they use the same woodcut borders.

This copy was once in the library of Robert Hoe III (1839-1909), first president of the Grolier Club and renowned collector of rare books and manuscripts. His substantial collection of emblem books was described by Carolyn Shipman, Catalogue of books of emblems in the library of Robert Hoe (New York, 1908), where this copy is listed on p.101.

2 works in one volume, 8vo (187 x 118 mm). Roman and italic type. collation: Alciati: A-O⁸ P⁴: 232 leaves. Title within woodcut border, woodcut initials and illustrations, each page within a decorative woodcut border; Verino: A-E⁴: 20 leaves. Title within woodcut border, each page within a decorative woodcut border. Engraved portrait of Alciati from another work bound at front. (A few borders cut close.)

binding: Contemporary Louvain calf (193 x 128 mm), Spes panel stamp with monogram I.B. (Jacob Bathen), spine with later blind-tooled lettering (from a lettering-piece now missing?), title lettered across foredge, manuscript pastedowns (one paper, one vellum). (Joints cracked, extremities slightly rubbed.)

provenance: Lodivicus Willon, Serooskerke (Zeeland), early inscription on flyleaf — Sir Thomas Knyvett, of Ashwellthorpe (ca. 1539-1618), signatures on title-page, and shelfmark "3: Cl: Dext: - 63" at end of second work (assigned shortly after his death), and later manuscript notes in English on verso of flyleaf about him — Robert Hoe (1839-1909), red morocco booklabel, sale, part IV, Anderson Auction Company, 11 November 1912, lot 285 (extract from sale catalogue loosely inserted) — Sotheby's, London, 5 June 1998, lot 4, £6,000 (extract from sale catalogue loosely inserted). acqusition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: Alciati: Adams, Rawles and Saunders F.031; Green, Alciati 48; Mortimer, Harvard French 16; USTC 154134; von Gültlingen VIII, p.91; Verino: USTC 408730 (listing one copy only, in the Bibliothèque royale, Belgium); D. McKitterick, The Library of Sir Thomas Knyvett (Cambridge, 1978), no. 1008; binding: Goldschmidt, no. 181