Demosthenes, Logoi, duo kai exekonta, Venice, Aldo, 1504 [but ca. 1520-1527], contemporary Italian light brown goatskin morocco alla greca

Demosthenes. Δημοσθενους Λογοι, δυο και ἐξεκοντα. Λιβανιου σοφισου, ὐποθεσεις εἰς τους αὐτους λογοις. Βιος Δημοσθενους, κατ'αυτον Λιβανιον. Βιος Δημοσθενους, κατα Πλουταρχον. Demosthenis Orationes duae & sexaginta. Libanii in eas ipsas orationes argumenta. Vita Demosthenis per Libanium. Eiusdem vita per Plutarchum. Venice: Aldo Manuzio, November 1504 [but in the house of Aldo and Andrea Torresano, October 1520-March 1527]

Second edition, completely reset line-by-line, with corrections, by Torresano. This printing retains the colophon of the 1504 printing, but employs a version of the anchor and dolphin device not cut until some twenty years after the editio princeps. The Brooker copy is preserved in a fine contemporary (and probably original) Italian alla greca binding of light brown goatskin over wooden boards, likely Venetian or Paduan. For another alla greca binding, see Bibliotheca Brookeriana, sale, 11 October 2023, lot 33.

4to (283 x 185 mm). Greek types, with some roman, 46 lines plus headline. collation: π¹⁰ aa⁴ bb-xx⁸ A-S⁸ T⁴: 322 leaves (T4 blank). Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and aa1r, numerous 3- and 6-line initial spaces with guide letters. (A few neatly filled wormholes at beginning and end, occasional light browning, very short marginal tear to E4.)

binding: Contemporary Italian (A. Hobson believes Venice or Padua; T.K. Brooker also suggests Rome) alla greca binding of light brown goatskin over grooved wooden boards (300 x 184 mm), covers paneled in blind and gilt fillets, corners

mitered, central gilt tabula ansata gilt-lettered with author's name in Greek, flat spine cross-hatched in blind to an overall diaper pattern, three original tri-braided leather clasps intact, with remnants of a fourth, catching on upper cover, edges mottled in red, title in large Greek majuscules lettered on fore-edge. (Some minor scuffs and repair to covers, some darkening and restoration to spine, one braid of one clasp broken.) Housed in a fitted brown buckram folding-case.

provenance: St. Anna im Lehel, Munich (Franciscan monastery, latterly a Capuchin convent), supralibros, circular stamp "STA , M" branded on top-edge, seventeenth-century inscriptions, "Ad PP. Franciscanos Monachij Bibl." and "Loci Capuccinorum monachij" — unidentified owner, "L" stamped or written at foot of spine in black ink — Charles Joseph Barthélemy Giraud (1802–1881); Fournel & Antoine-Laurent Potier, Livres rares et précieux composant la bibliothèque de M. Ch. G*****, Paris, 26 March-28 April 1855, lot 897; purchased by — unidentified owner (FF 140) — Pierre Guy-Pellion (1845– 1910), armorial bookplate; Maurice Delestre & Adolphe-Jules Durel, Catalogue des livres rares et précieux composant la bibliothèque de M. P.G.P., Paris, 6-11 February 1882, lot 119; purchased by — Henry Houssaye (1848–1911), bookplate (FF 155); André Desvouges & Édouard Rahir, Bibliothèque de M. Henry Houssaye. Première partie, Paris, 2-4 May 1912, lot 85; purchased by — unidentified owner (FF 400) — Librairie Damascène Morgand, Bulletin, Nouvelle série, No. 15 (Paris 1912), item 696 (FF 800) — Jacques Rosenthal, Munich, Katalog 87 (1927), item 208 (illustrated; price RM 2000); purchased by — Walter Petschek (1899–1998), in 1927 (according to Rosenthal shop copy of the catalogue, sold to "16.2.27 Petschek, Prag"); Christie’s New York, 9 June 1999, lot 27 (as "Property of an East Coast Estate," but among other books consigned by this Estate were binding reference books bearing the ex libris "Walter Petschek"); purchased by — Joseph A. Freilich (1952- 2018), but not part of the sale of his library at Sotheby’s New York, 10-11 January 2001. acquisition: Purchased from Freilich via Robin Halwas. references: UCLA 191; Adams D260; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 89b; Cataldi Palau 58; Edit16 16733; Renouard 47/7; USTC 826497; for the binding, see De Marinis, La Legatura in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI (Florence 1960), no. 2709 & pl. 478