Bibliotheca Brookeriana VIII

BILLON, FRANÇOIS DE. [Le Fort inexpugnable de l’honneur du Sexe Femenin, construit par Françoys de Billon Secretaire. Paris: Jean Dallier, 1 April 1555]

BILLON, FRANÇOIS DE. [Le Fort inexpugnable de l’honneur du Sexe Femenin, construit par Françoys de Billon Secretaire. Paris: Jean Dallier, 1 April 1555] A splendid binding for Peter Ernst, Graf (after 1594, Fürst) von Mansfeld-Vorderort (1517–1604), the covers decorated with his armorial insignia, a motto (of unexplained meaning) “Force m’est trop,” his name (Mansfelt), a capital M, and a variety of daisies, these perhaps a reference to his wife, Marguérite de Bréderode, who had died in 1554. The date 1555 is lettered at the foot of the spine. A soldier and then imperial Governor of the provinces of Luxembourg and Namur, Mansfeld was captured by French troops during the siege of Ivoix (Carignan), and imprisoned in 1552 by Henri II and the Connétable Anne de Montmorency in the tower of the castle of Vincennes. Charles V refused to pay his ransom, and Mansfeld remained there for five years. With the presumed help of his valet de chambre, Jehan-Henri, he diverted himself by collecting books, each luxuriously bound for him in Paris. Once rehabilitated by Philip II, Mansfeld seemingly lost all interest in luxurious bindings, and engrossed himself in building a palace at Luxembourg-Clausen (still unfinished upon his death in 1604, now demolished). Altogether, twenty-two volumes from Mansfeld’s library are known. Nineteen of these were published in 1978 by Émile Van der Vekene and Howard Nixon, with the latter crediting them all to a single craftsman, dubbed the “Mansfeld Binder.” (Paul Needham doubts that the bindings can be credited to a single shop; see Twelve Centuries of Bookbindings 400–1600, pp. 206–208.) The shop was patronized by the leading Paris bibliophiles of the day: Henri II, Jean Grolier, Thomas Mahieu, and Marc Laurin. In 1982, Van der Vekene, published two more bindings, one from the shop of the Mansfeld Binder, the other perhaps bound by Claude de Picques, and in 2006, a binding was discovered by Jean-Marc Chatelain in the Bibliothèque Méjanes. Only two of these twenty-two volumes are in private ownership: the present binding, and one at Wormsley in the Getty Library (acquired in our rooms, 5 December 1991, £308,000). Two of Mansfeld’s books are in Latin, and the rest, mostly histories or chronicles, are in French. This volume contains the first edition a defense of women by the so-called “historian” of the Querelle des femmes, a work renowned for the extreme misogyny that Billon attributes to Rabelais. The author (1522–1566) was secretary to the diplomat Cardinal Jean du Bellay-Langey and signs the dedicatory epistle to Catherine de’ Medici, at Rome, 1550. The privilege is dated 1 April 1555 (style de Pâques) and although dated “1555” on the spine, the year of printing and binding was 1556. Nixon organized the volumes he bound for Mansfeld in three groups, placing the present volume in the third, and “most interesting,” group, as it foreshadows the development of the fanfare style. The binding features the simpler of three armorial blocks (Nixon I), without a crest, and with the head of the sheep pointing correctly to the left. Fabienne Le Bars has compared some of the tools used with those employed on three bindings executed 1546–1549 in a shop working for Thomas Wotton. 4to (248 x 167 mm). Roman type, italic shoulder notes, 37 lines plus headline. Collation: A4 (-1A1.4) e2 A-Z4 AA-ZZ4 AAa-TTt4 (-TTt 4, blank): 263 (of 266) leaves (lacking 1A1.4, title-page and conjugate leaf, & TTt4 blank). Woodcut portrait of the author, aged 33, with the emblems of the secretary, pens and knives (f. 117 v), full-page woodcut representing the fortress of feminine honor (5 times repeated), woodcut “L’Allocution Pennae” (once repeated), woodcut page border (repeated). Ruled in red. (Lacking title and conjugate A4, 100 x 82 mm hole (repaired) in first leaf, where an early inscription was probably removed, possibly the author’s signature, as some copies were signed by him.) Binding: Parisian tan calf (255 x 180 mm), 1556, for Peter Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld-Vorderort, probably by the eponymous Mansfeld Binder, 3 gilt fillets around sides, black painted band between two of these, interlaced double gilt fillets, filled with black paint, forming 12 rectangles, each containing a gilt marguerite polychromed in red and brown, central oval cartouche containing arms of Mansfeld painted red and silver within the collar of the Toison d’Or, surmounted by a rectangle containing “. M . | FORCE . MEST . | TROP .” and below, in a smaller partial rectangle, “MANSFELT .,” in the interstices a sémé of 3 gold dots, spine with 6 full and 2 half bands, richly gilt, title of 3 lines in compartment below upper half band “FORT … |… SEX … |… EME …”, the date “.1.5.5.5.” in compartment above lower half band, original edges of boards with alternating gilt fillet and gilt hashes pulled up to edges of cover as if the binding has shrunk, edges gilt and gauffered to an arabesque design. (Binding worn and restored at edges, joints, and spine-ends, front endpapers renewed.) Marbled slipcase, half brown morocco chemise. Provenance: Peter Ernst, Graf (after 1594, Fürst) von Mansfeld-Vorderort (armorial supralibros, lettered with his name and motto) — effaced early manuscript inscriptions on first leaf (unidentified; one possibly of the Frères Mineurs of Luxembourg, to whom Mansfield gave part of his library) — Dr. Georges De Capmaker, Schaerbeek, Belgium — Pierre Berès, Paris (ticket on upper pastedown) — André Rodocanachi (1914–2001) — Pierre Foullon (fl. 1920–1965; given to his godson:) — Vicomte Jacques Couppel du Lude (1918–2008; Alde & Dominique Courvoisier, Paris, 23 November 2009, lot 3 (€80,000). Acquisition: Purchased at the Couppel du Lude sale through Thomas-Scheler. References: FB 5642; USTC 1126; cf. for the binding: Gothieke en Renaissance Boekbanden uit private verzamelingen tentoongesteld in het Museum Plantin-Moretus 12–27 November 1938 (Antwerp) p. 39, no. 132; Société de la reliure originale, Catalogue de l’exposition la Reliure originale ([Paris], 1947), p. 45 and Pl. VI; Nixon, Sixteenth-Century Gold-Tooled Bookbindings in the Pierpont Morgan Library (1971), p. 123 (no. 9 in list of 12 bindings in Mansfeld’s library); Van der Vekene, Les reliures aux armoiries de Pierre Ernest de Mansfeld (Luxembourg, 1978), pp. 102–103 no. XIV; Van der Vekene, “Deux reliures peu connues aux armes de Pierre-Ernest de Mansfeld,” in Revue française d’histoire du livre 36 (1982), pp. 427–433; Le Bars, “Un luxe éphémère: les reliures aux armes de Pierre-Ernest de Mansfeld” in Un prince de la Renaissance : Pierre-Ernest de Mansfeld (1517–1604) (Luxembourg, 2007), II, pp. 157–167 (pp. 162, 164–165), 463–473 nos. 70–77

View 1 of Lot 46: Billon, Le fort inexpugnable de l'honneur, Paris, 1555, Parisian calf gilt for Peter Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld

billon, le fort inexpugnable de l'honneur, paris, 1555, parisian calf gilt for peter ernst, graf von mansfeld

COLONNA, FRANCESCO. Hypnerotomachie, ou Discours du songe de Poliphile, deduisant comme Amour le combat à l’occasion de Polia. Soubz la fiction de quoy l’aucteur monstrant que toutes choses terrestres ne sont que vanité, traicte de plusieurs matieres profitables, & dignes de memoire. Nouvellement traduict de langage Italien en François. Paris: Louis Blaublom (Cyaneus) for Jacques I Kerver, 20 August 1546

COLONNA, FRANCESCO. Hypnerotomachie, ou Discours du songe de Poliphile, deduisant comme Amour le combat à l’occasion de Polia. Soubz la fiction de quoy l’aucteur monstrant que toutes choses terrestres ne sont que vanité, traicte de plusieurs matieres profitables, & dignes de memoire. Nouvellement traduict de langage Italien en François. Paris: Louis Blaublom (Cyaneus) for Jacques I Kerver, 20 August 1546 First edition of the first French translation of this famous archaeological-architectural romance, lavishly illustrated with woodcuts based on those designed for the first edition (Venice, 1499; see lots 381 and 382 in the sale of Bibliotheca Brookeriana, 12 October 2023), and fourteen new subjects. It is often considered one of the most beautiful books of the French Renaissance. The genesis of the translation (in fact, a condensed adaptation) is obscure. The editor, Jean Martin (ca. 1507–1553), claims in his dedicatory letter to Henri de Lenoncourt, that it was made by a “Gentilhomme vertueux, & de bon savoir,” adding, in the book’s preface, that he had needed to give it only finishing touches. Jacques Gohory, in a bitter preface to the second edition, published after Martin’s death by Kerver (1554; reprinted 1561), identifies the translator as “a knight from Malta, a cultured and talented man,” and insists that the translation was in his hands before Martin’s, who botched the job (Duché-Gavet, “Jacques Gohory’s copy of the Poliphile (1546): A first analysis of his handwritten marginalia,” in Marginal Notes: Social Reading and the Literal Margins [2000], pp. 21–40). Some modern critics doubt the existence of this Eques Meltensis, and credit Martin with crafting the entire book; others persist in uncovering his identity: the Lyonese humanist, Jean de Vauzelles (or his brother George), are the latest contenders. Martin, a self-styled “studieux d’architecture”, most certainly shaped the book. He was working, almost simultaneously, on French translations of the treatises on architecture by Serlio, Vitruvius, and Alberti, and he explicates here much architectural terminology, adds printed glosses and scholia in the margins (found on twenty-eight pages, and absent in the original), and strips from the text many non-architectural descriptions. New woodcuts of buildings and formal gardens are incorporated, and architectural or antique elements are placed in some others. The book nourished antiquarian fantasies and became a sort of model book for designers of ephemeral architecture and garden art. The blocks were cut by multiple cutters (Mortimer recognized four hands), one of whom might be Jean Goujon, the illustrator of Martin’s translation of Vitruvius (1547). A preparatory drawing for the title-block is associated with the Fontainebleau designer Luca Penni. This copy was bound for Marcus Fugger (1529–1597), the eldest son of Anton Fugger, head of the powerful textile trading, banking, and mining family based in Augsburg. Marcus matriculated in June 1546 at the Collegium Trilingue in Louvain, and began there to build a library, acquiring books both new and second-hand, sometimes inscribing on the pastedown of the upper cover his name or initials MF, a date, the adage O.R.V.E. (Omnium Rerum Vicissitudo Est, from Terentius Afer’s Eunuchus), and a drawing of the family arms. A few years later, Marcus was buying heavily in Paris, commissioning (until about 1552) large numbers of standard bindings, in brown calf, these simply decorated, often with the small tool of a hand holding a branch, upon which perches a bird, or a crowned double-headed eagle (for reproductions of three such bindings, see Hobson & Culot, Italian and French 16th-century Bookbindings, no. 41). He also commissioned exquisite bindings from the royal binder, Gomar Estienne, from Claude de Picques, and from a shop known as “Wotton Binder C”. He habitually wrote his name (“Marx Fugg.,” “Marcus Fugger,” or similar) on the paste-down of the upper cover, and some of his luxury bindings are tooled in gold with the letters O.R.V.E. and his initials. After his father’s death, in 1560, Marcus became leader of the firm, and thereafter his book purchases dwindled. Folio (331 x 214 mm). Roman type, with some italic including shoulder-notes, 45 lines plus headline. Collation: ã*6 A-Z6 Aa-Bb6 CC8: 164 leaves. Woodcut title-border signed with Jacques Kerver’s initials and the turtle symbol of Louis Blaubom, 181 woodcut illustrations (including 13 full-page), variously attributed to Jean Cousin and Jean Goujon, 10-line woodcut floriated initials, Kerver’s woodcut device on Cc8v. (Occasional very light marginal spotting, marginal restoration to upper fore-edge corner of Aa6.) Binding: Parisian tan calf over pasteboards (339 x 224 mm), ca. 1550, by Wotton Binder C, gilt fillets around sides, double gilt fillets framing an interlaced rectangle and lozenge with loops at angles of rectangle, gilt quatrefoils at outer angles, central cartouche composed of circles of an open leaf and tendrils, with azured stirrup tool at first sides, in center “DISCOURS. / DV. SONGE. DE. / POLIPHILE.,” spine with 6 full and 2 half bands, gilt quatrefoil in each compartment, gilt edges. (Corners, joints, and second spine compartment restored.) Black morocco folding-case. Provenance: Marcus Fugger (signature “Marcus Fuggerus” on front pastedown), by descent to — Philipp Fugger (1567–1601), by descent to — Marcus Philipp Fugger (1598–1620), by descent to — Marquard Fugger, Graf von Kirchberg und Weissenhorn (1596–1655) — Öttingen-Wallerstein, family library at Schloss Maihingen (armorial ink-stamp on title-page — Eugen Wolfgang Karl Friedrich Joseph Notger, Fürst zu Öttingen-Öttingen und Öttingen-Wallerstein (1885–1969; Karl & Faber, Munich, 6–7 November 1933, lot 170) — Raphaël Esmerian (1903–1976; Antoine & Étienne Ader, Jean-Louis Picard, Jacques Tajan & Claude Guérin with Georges Blaizot, 6 June 1972, lot 50), purchased by — unidentified owner (FF 116,000) — Fernand Pouillon (1912–1986; Ader Picard Tajan & Claude Guérin, Monte Carlo, 1 July 1986, lot 172) — François Ragazzoni (Tajan, Paris, 13 May 2003, lot 9) — Livio Ambrogio (bookplate). Acquisition: Purchased from Stéphane Clavreuil Rare Books, London, 2019. References: BP16 112393; USTC 12610; P. Renouard, ILP, IV: no. 160; Mortimer, French, no. 145; for the binding see: Foot, “Thomas Wotton and his binders,” in The Henry Davis Gift: … Volume I: Studies in the History of Bookbinding (London, 1978), p. 153 (Appendix V: Bindings by Wotton’s binder III [Wotton’s binder C] for other collectors, no. 23); for the translator of this edition see: Elsa Kammerer, Jean de Vauzelles et le creuset lyonnais: un humaniste catholique au service de Marguerite de Navarre entre France, Italie et Allemagne (1520–1550) (Geneva 2013), pp.399–403

View 1 of Lot 90: Francesco Colonna, Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1546, Parisian calf by Wotton Binder C for Marcus Fugger

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