Zantani, Le imagini con tutti i riversi trovati, [Venice], 1548, red morocco gilt by Gomar Estienne for Jean Grolier

Zantani, Antonio. Le imagini con tutti i riversi trovati et le vite de gli imperatori tratte dalle medaglie et dalle historie de gli antichi. Libro primo. [Venice]: Enea Vico, 1548

A third copy, in an elegant binding by Gomar Estienne for Jean Grolier. Grolier was a coin collector as well as a book collector; not surprisingly, there were a number of numismatic works in his library. As a treasurer of France he also had a professional interest in coinage; see lot 487 for a manuscript report assessing foreign coins, carried by royal commission, which included Grolier himself. By the 1550s his coin collection was considered perhaps the best in France; after his death it was acquired by the king. 

Grolier commissioned bindings from Gomar Estienne, the royal binder, in the mid-1550s; Hobson's list of Grolier bindings assigns 26 to Gomar Estienne (Hobson, Renaissance Book Collecting, appendix I). Gomar Estienne also produced bindings for Thomas Mahieu and Marcus Fugger as well as cardinals, princes and other royalty. His binding work seems to stop in 1557.

4to (230 x 160 mm). Roman type. 57 leaves (of 60, lacking text leaf about Domitian and first two leaves of engravings for Domitian). Engraved title with architectural border, 12 sectional titles within engraved borders with medallion portraits, 58 (of 62) full-page engraved illustrations, final leaf with printer’s device (otherwise blank). (Lacking 3 leaves.)

binding: Red-brown morocco gilt (235 x 163 mm), by Gomar Estienne for Jean Grolier, upper covers with interlacing fillets within a double gilt fillet frame, centre of covers with small arabesque stamps around the lettering, with the title DVODECIM CAESARVM NVMISMATA on upper cover and Grolier's motto PORTIO MEA DOMINE SIT IN TERRA VIVENTIVM, and Grolier's name IO. GROLIERII ET AMICORUM at foot of upper cover, flat spine with gilt fillet bands, gilt edges, pastedowns with watermark of a crowned eagle (similar to Briquet 146; Eltville, Frankfurt, 1550s-1560s) in a two-part olive morocco slipcase by Bedford. (A few small stains to covers, joints starting to crack.)

provenance: Jean Grolier (1489-1565), binding with his mottoes — La Bourdaizière, early signature on title-page (a Philibert Babou de La Bourdaisière, died 1570, was ambassador to Rome in the 1550s) — Léon Cailhava (1795-1863), sale, Paris, 21 October 1845, lot 803, ff500 — Pierre Adolphe du Cambout, Marquis de Coislin (1801-1873), sale, Paris, 29 November 1847, lot 544, ff400 — Guglielmo Libri (1802-1869), sale, Sotheby’s, 12 February 1849, lot 932, £15 10s, to Payne — [George Nicholson, according to Austin and von Arnim] — Felix Slade (1788-1868), sale, Sotheby’s, 3 August 1868, lot 1100 — Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (1813-1894), exhibition loan label dated 1874, sale, Sotheby’s, 14 March 1902, lot 203, £162, to Quaritch — Adolphe Bordes (d. 1883, of Bordeaux), library sold by heirs to Librairie Giraud-Badin — Maurice Loncle (ca. 1880-ca. 1965, he sold many books to H.P. Kraus) — H.P. Kraus, sold in 1961 to — Otto Schäfer (1912-2000), OS stamp at end. acquisition: Purchased in 2018 from Stéphane Clavreuil, London. references: Edit16 40081; Dekesel V15; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 556; binding: Austin 528; von Arnim, Europäisches Einbandkunst 40