Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part V
Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part V
Augustinus, Sextus tomus operum, Venice, 1551, Roman binding for Pope Pius V by the Vatican bindery
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December 10, 10:30 AM GMT
Estimate
3,000 - 4,000 GBP
Bid
2,600 GBP
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Description
AUGUSTINUS, AURELIUS. Sextus tomus operum divi Aurelii Augustini Hipponensis episcopi, continens τα πολεμικα, hoc est, decretationes adversus haereses, praecipue Iudaeorum, Manichaeorum, Priscillianistarum, Origenistarum, Arrianorum & Ioviniani. Venice: ad Signum Spei, 1551
One volume from a set of eleven containing the complete works of St Augustine, printed between 1550 and 1552, attributed to the Vatican Bindery. The other volumes are now dispersed; several entered the collection of Jean Fürstenberg and several were offered for sale by Martin Breslauer.
The same border and cornerpieces are found on other bindings for Pius V; see Legature romane barocche 1565-1700, plate 2, on a manuscript dated 1569-1574, and Legature papali, no. 114, plate LXXXIX, also with the corner bosses, on a book printed in Venice in 1574. The same border, cornerpieces and triple dot stamps were used on the box containing Capocaccia’s wax portrait of Pius V, dated to 1566-1568 (Bibliotheca Brookeriana I, New York, 11 October 2023, lot 72).
4to (251 x 172 mm). Roman type, 65 lines plus headline, double column. collation: a-z8 A6: 190 leaves. Woodcut printer’s device on title-page, Erasmus’ prefaces on verso of title-page and elsewhere painted over (as befitting the Pope’s copy), faint printing at foot of e8. (Head of title-page slightly stained, other occasional light staining, small marginal wormholes, n5 with small marginal tear.)
binding: Near-contemporary Roman red morocco richly gilt (255 x 183 mm), central arms of Pius V within an oval with lettering PIVS V above and POM below, outer border of an interlaced leafy stamp, large leafy cornerpieces, infilled with small leafy and triple dot stamps, lower cover with title gilt at head S AVGVSTINI OPERVM T VI (on a cut-out piece of morocco inserted into the upper border), four bosses on each cover, spine with similar gilt decoration, edges painted, gilt and gauffered incorporating the arms of Pius V, two clasps. (Ends of spine repaired, some board edges repaired, a few small wormholes in binding, lacking catchplate on lower cover.)
provenance: Pius V (Antonio Ghislieri, pope from 1566 to 1572), arms on binding — Library of the Dominican Convent of Santa Croce, in Bosco Marengo (Pius’s home town near Alessandria, convent founded by him in 1566), later manuscript label on inside front cover — Dominican Convent of St Catherine, Trino (Vercelli), ink stamp on title-page. acquisition: Purchased in 1997 from Librairie Rossignol, Paris. references: Edit16 3412 (the whole set); Ugo Rozzo, “Pio V e la biblioteca di Bosco Marengo” in Pio V e Santa Croce di Bosco. Aspetti di una committenza papale (Alessandria, 1985), pp. 315-340; Franceso Malaguzzi, "Libri e legature per Michele Ghislieri e la Biblioteca di Bosco" in Il tempo di Pio V, Pio V nel tempo : atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, Bosco Marengo, Alessandria, 11-13 marzo 2004 (Alessandria 2006), pp.287-302 (this copy mentioned on p.290)