Dürer, De urbibus, arcibus, castellique condendis, Paris, 1535, Spanish morocco with arms of Marques de Moya

Dürer, Albrecht. Alberti Dureri pictoris et architecti praestantissimi De urbibus, arcibus, castellisque condendis, ac muniendis rationes aliquot praesenti bellorum necessitati accommodatissimae: nunc recens è lingua Germanica in Latinam traductae. Paris: Chrétien Wechel, 1535 [bound with:]

Thucydides. Thucydidis Atheniensis historiographi longe clarissimi De bello Peloponnesiaco libri octo: ab Laurentio Vallensi translati, & a doctissimis viris cum grecis collati: cum eiusdem vita & indice amplissimo. Paris: Josse Bade and Jean Petit, (1 September 1528)

First Latin edition in Joachim Camerarius's translation of Dürer’s Unterricht zu Befestigung der Stett (see lot 512), with woodcuts closely copied from the earlier edition, bound with a copy of Valla's Latin translation of Thucydides' history of the Peloponnesian War.

The library of Francisco Pérez Cabrera y Bobadilla, numbering perhaps 400-500 volumes, was bound for him in the late sixteenth century with distinctive title cartouches drawn on the foredge of each volume; the books were given a category by language (L for Latin as here, Italian, Portuguese, French or Romance) along with the date of binding, mostly 1592 or 1593. Some of his books were acquired in Medina del Campo in 1592 from Juan Boyer and bound by Juan Sarría, a bookseller in Alcalà and Madrid. The bulk of the Bobadilla library is now in the Zabálburu library in Madrid, purchased in the late nineteenth century from Pedro Vindel, where it is still shelved with the foredges facing out.

A Don Antonio Vela translated Sepúlveda from Spanish into Latin, printed in Toledo in 1566.

2 works in one volume, folio (317 x 207 mm), Thucydides bound first. Both works in roman type. Dürer: collation: a⁶ b⁴ c⁵ d⁴ e⁶ f⁵ g⁴ h⁵: 40 leaves. Title-page with woodcut printer's device, printer's device on final verso (otherwise blank), numerous woodcut illustrations (of which 10 folding); Thucydides: collation: a⁸ a-m⁸: 104 leaves. Title-page with woodcut printer's device and within woodcut border, woodcut initials. (Final plate of Dürer strengthened at fold, light spotting and marginal dampstaining particularly at beginning and end, endleaves browned and slightly chipped near metal clasps, otherwise a fine copy).

binding: Later sixteenth-century Spanish light brown morocco gilt over wooden boards (326 x 216 mm), for the 6th Marqués de Moya, with his arms gilt on both covers within concentric frames of gilt and blind fillets with corner fleurons, spine with gilt rosette in each compartment, gilt and gauffered edges with "Thucydides" lettered in a cartouche across the foredge with the category L for Latin, two clasps. (Binding rubbed and scraped with slight loss on covers and at extremities, spine ends chipped, front board split and repaired.)

provenance: M. Don Ant.o Vela, 1573, inscription on title-page of both works — Don Francisco Pérez Cabrera y Bobadilla, Marqués de Moya (1565-1627), bound for him in 1592 — manuscript note to verso of rear endpaper, recording that this copy was bought in Madrid on 3 August 1696 "del libr[er]o Diego Ximenez quinez[?]" — erased ownership inscription F.M. Hegener to verso of front flyleaf — Robert Chambers (1802-1871, founder of Chambers Encyclopedia), armorial bookplate — Cyril Ernest Kenney (1898-1973), sale, Sotheby's, 21 October 1968, lot 4300, £170, to Quaritch. acquisition: Purchased in 1997 from Bernard Quaritch, London. references: Dürer: Mortimer, Harvard French 184; USTC 182092; Thucydides: USTC 187322