Appianus Alexandrinus, Delle guerre civili, Venice, 1538, contemporary calf gilt for Sir William Pickering

Appianus Alexandrinus. Civili. Appiano Alessandrino delle guerre civili de Romani tradotto da M. Alessandro Braccio secretario fiorentino ricorretto, & nuovamente con somma diligentia impresso. Venice: (Pietro Nicolini da Sabbio [for Federico Torresano], April 1538)

The handful of annotations in Italian could plausibly be in the hand of Sir William Pickering, who was fluent in French and Italian; he had spent time in Paris as ambassador for Edward VI and later travelled in Germany and Italy, where he purchased numerous books (I.G. Philip, "Sir William Pickering and his books," The Book Collector 5 (1956) pp. 231-238).

8vo (154 x 99 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: A-Z⁸ AA-NN⁸: 288 leaves (last leaf blank). Woodcut title- page border incorporating Federico Torresano's printer's device. Ruled in red (including final blank). A few early manuscript annotations in Italian.

binding: Contemporary (French?) calf with double gilt fillet border and small corner fleurs-de-lys (162 x 105 mm), central arms gilt of Sir William Pickering (British Armorial Bindings, stamp 2), later spine with red morocco lettering-piece and small gilt stamp in each compartment, gilt edges, stubs from four pairs of ties, manuscript fragments in binding (from a French thirteenth-century manuscript of the sermons of William of Auvergne), a few deckle edges, in modern blue buckram drop-backed box by James Brockman. (Binding restored at edges and rebacked, just touching edge of armorials closer to the spine.)

provenance: Sir William Pickering (1516-1575), arms on binding (his library inherited by his daughter Hester who married Thomas Wotton's son Edward, and their library was inherited by their granddaughter Catherine, who married Henry, Lord Stanhope, the son of the Earl of Chesterfield) — Earl of Chesterfield, engraved armorial bookplate, and old ink shelfmark G.5 — Maggs Bros, London, catalogue 407 (1921), item 19, £21 — Replica Shoes & Co., sale, London, 19-20 June 1933, lot 211, 12s, to P.J & A.E. Dobell — Replica Shoes & Co., sale, London, 4-5 March 1935, lot 266, £1, to Stonehill — J.W. Robinson & Co, Los Angeles, bookseller's label on inside front cover — Kenneth John Hewett, booklabel at end. acquisition: Purchased from Patrick King, Stony Stratford, 1999. references: Cataldi Palau 155 (with this title-page border); Edit16 2204 (with different title-page border, without Torresano device); Renouard 116/2