Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part V
Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part V
Thucydides, L'Histoire de la guerre, Paris, 1559, Parisian limp brown morocco richly tooled in silver for Henri III
Auction Closed
December 10, 04:10 PM GMT
Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 GBP
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Description
THUCYDIDES. L'histoire de Thucydide Athenien, de la guerre qui fut entre les Peloponnesiens et Atheniens, translatee de Grec en François par feu Messire Claude de Seyssel Evesque de Marseille, & depuis Archevesque de Turin, reveue et corrigee sur l'exemplaire grec. Paris: Michel de Vascosan, 1559
A magnificent contemporary silvered binding in limp morocco made for Henri III, probably by the Ève bindery, who bound many books for Henri and also used the cornerpiece on other bindings (Davis Gift 109, for example, also with the semé of fleurs-de-lys). A similar silver-tooled limp binding made for Henri III is in the Morgan Library, PML 18388, attributed to Clovis Ève; PML M.927 has a similar overall design but tooled in gold rather than silver (Nixon, Sixteenth-century gold-tooled bookbindings, item 57).
The text is a reprinting of Claude de Seyssel's translation of the Peloponnesian Wars, elegantly printed by Michel de Vascosan. It is one of several translations of classical historical texts made by Seyssel in the early sixteenth century, but they were only printed after his death, on the orders of François I. Seyssel did not read Greek but was helped by Janus Lascaris who provided him with Latin versions to translate.
Folio (326 x 210 mm). Roman type, 43 lines plus headline. collation: a6 [2]a6 A-Z Aa-Rr6 Ss4: 256 leaves. Woodcut initials and headpiece, ruled in red. (Lightly browned, small area of rubbing on title-page from removal of a signature.)
binding: Contemporary Parisian supple brown morocco tooled in (oxidised) silver (327 x 224 mm), made by the Ève bindery for Henri III, his arms of France and Poland-Lithuania at centre [Olivier 2491 fer 3] on a semé of fleurs-de-lys, his monogram [fer 9] stamped at centre of each side, leafy cornerpieces, flat spine with the monogram on a semé of fleurs-de-lys with title lettered near head of spine, dark blue(?) edges, two pairs of later green silk ties (with just one tie remaining). In modern crushed green morocco drop-backed box. (Extremities very slightly rubbed, a few small repairs to corners and ends of spine.)
provenance: Henri III of France (born 1551, ruled 1574-1589), arms on binding — Raoul Léonor, comte de Lignerolles (1817-1893), sale, Maurice Delestre and Charles Porquet, Paris, 16-26 April 1894, lot 2440 — Alfred-Louis Lebeuf de Montgermont (1841-1918), sale, Librairie Damascène Morgand, Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de M.L. de Montgermont (Paris, 1914), item 481 — Édouard Rahir, bookplate, sale, Henri Baudoin and Fernand Lair-Dubrueil, Paris, 7-9 May 1930, lot 237 — Anton W.M. Mensing (1866-1936), sale, Sotheby's, 15-17 December 1936, lot 572 — Maurice Burrus (1882-1959), his note of acquisition from Sotheby's in 1936 at end, sale, Alde and Isabelle de Conihout with Pascal Ract-Madoux, Paris, 17 October 2017, lot 74. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: USTC 30286