Eustathius, Archbishop of Thessalonica.

First edition, volume 1 only (of 4), folio (327 x 223mm.), woodcut device on title-page, a few woodcut diagrams, with 2 blank leaves [pp.506-509], contemporary alla greca binding, morocco gilt over wooden boards, outer frame of covers gilt with azured tools, enclosing an inset border of blue silk overlaid with gilt leather arabesque filigree, central morocco panel tooled in blind with interlacing strapwork and dotted grounds within a wooden frame, smooth spine richly gilt, grooved board edges, plaited leather clasps, edges gilt and gauffered with pointillé tools, binding worn, sides rubbed and with short tears, spine damaged at head and foot, lacking one plaited-leather clasp

Marcus Fugger (1529-1597), signature inside upper cover; Princes von Oettingen-Wallerstein, sold Karl & Faber, Munich (Fugger II), 6 November 1933, lot 239; Constantin Carathéodory (1873-1950), bookplate

P. Needham Twelve Centuries of Bookbindings (1979) nos. 60 and 63; A. R. A. Hobson, Humanists and bookbinders (1989), p.204; M.-P. Laffitte and F. Le Bars, Reliures royales de la Renaissance: la librairie de Fontainebleau, 1544-1570 (1999), no. 73.

An important and rare alla greca binding from the library of Marcus Fugger. The dozen or so all greca bindings made in Paris for Fugger in the early to mid 1550s comprise the most luxurious portion of his famous collection. They were probably created in the royal bindery and were clearly modelled on the finest work of that shop for Henri II. This is one of two bindings from the Fugger group whose design incorporates fine leather tracery over silk grounds, again in the manner of bindings made for Henri II.