Benedetti. Diaria de bello Carolino, Venice, Aldus, 1496, red and navy morocco gilt, Syston Park-Clark copy

Benedetti, Alessandro. Diaria de bello Carolino. [Venice: Aldo Manuzio, after 27 August 1496]

Rare. Like Bembo’s De Aetna (lot 176), this edition was printed by Aldo on commission, using his "Bembo" font. A privilege was granted by the Venetian Senate on 26 August 1496 to Benedetti himself. It is a contemporary account of the expedition of Charles VIII into Italy, which Benedetti witnessed in his role as medical officer to the Italian army, and he was present at the Battle of Fornovo. Benedetti had studied at Padua and he returned there to teach medicine; he also wrote a significant work on anatomy.

Numerous corrections were made to the text during and after the printing, varying from copy to copy; in this copy there are traces of a manuscript correction on b4v (Curt Bühler, "Stop-press and manuscript corrections in the Aldine edition of Benedetti's "Diaria de bello Carolino"," PBSA 43 (1949), 365-373).

4to (212 x 142 mm). Roman type, 24 lines. collation: a-h⁸ i⁴: 68 leaves, unfoliated. (Washed, h4 with small marginal repair, i2-3 repaired at fore-edge, a few repairs to final leaf.)

binding: Nineteenth-century red morocco gilt (by Storr of Grantham) (218 x 154 mm) with large central navy morocco panels with Aldine device stamped in gilt (which appears on other Storr bindings for Thorold), flat spine gilt, cream watered silk endleaves with gilt borders, gilt edges.

provenance: Sir John Hayford Thorold (1773-1831), with his monogram bookplate and Syston Park bookplate, and his note of purchase "Thorpe 1824", sale, Replica Shoes , Wilkinson & Hodge, 12-19 December 1884, lot 262, to James Bain — Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904), bookplate (loose), sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, 10-12 November 1919, lot 86 — Charles W. Clark (1871-1933), The Library of Charles W. Clark (San Francisco, 1920), vol. 6, pp.10-11. acquisition: Purchased from John Fleming, New York, 1972. references: UCLA 9; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 10; BMC v 555; Goff A389; GW 863; ISTC ib00320400; Renouard 260/9