Statius, [Opera], Venice, Aldus, 1502, navy morocco gilt, Renouard's copy

Statius

Sylvarum libri quinque. Thebaidos libri duodecim. Achilleidos duo (Orthographia). (Venice: in the academy of Aldus, November 1502; in the house of Aldus, August 1502)

8vo (165 x 98mm.), Orthographia bound first, text in italics, woodcut Aldine device at end of Orthographia, with blank leaf i8, woodcut of a cornucopia stamped on first title-page, late eighteenth-century French navy morocco with gilt border, the name RENOUARD stamped at foot of lower cover, flat spine gilt, gilt edges, pink silk endleaves, pink silk page marker, vellum flyleaves (one at front and one at back), a few early annotations (presumably by Crescimbenius), extremities very slightly rubbed, spine slightly faded

RENOUARD'S COPY OF THE ALDINE STATIUS. The binding is probably by Bisiaux who bound other books similarly for Renouard (see Henry Davis Gift 190, on an Aldine Athenagoras).

LITERATURE:

Aldo Manuzio tipografo 69; Edit16 36141; Renouard 35/7

PROVENANCE:

Crescius Crescimbenius, early inscription at end, "Crescius Crescimbenius emptum sibi et amicis", and a few notes in his hand; Antoine-Augustin Renouard, name stamped on binding, in his Catalogue de la bibliothèque d'un amateur (1819), vol.2, p.298, and his sale, Bibliotheca Aldina, London, Evans, 26 June 1828; lot 440; Sir Charles Bagot (died 1843), armorial morocco booklabel; Charles W.G. Howard (1814-1879), armorial bookplate, the gift of Sir David Dundas of Ochtertyre, 1877; Giorgio di Veroli, bookplate, sale, Parke-Bernet, 28-29 February 1956, lot 817; Francis Kettaneh, morocco booklabel, sale, Paris, 20 May 1980