Caesar, Commentarii, Venice, Aldus, 1513, contemporary Bolognese black morocco gilt, Béraldi-Burrus-Bergé copy

Caesar, Gaius Julius. Hoc volumine continentur haec. Commentariorum de bello Gallico libri... Caesaris commentarios. Venice: Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, April 1513

First Aldine edition in a handsome Bolognese binding. The blocks for the views of Uxellodunum and Massilia were transposed and could no longer be identified by the adjacent text. Rather than go to the expense of paste-on cancels, the woodcuts were captioned in manuscript, allegedly by Aldo himself. The binding tools can all be found on other bindings by the Second Achille Bocchi Binder (see A. Hobson and L. Quaquarelli, Legature bolognesi del Rinascimento, p.14 (mentioning this copy), and nos 9, 10 and 12).

8vo (160 x 95 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: A-B⁸ C⁴ a-z⁸ aa-oo⁸: 316 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page, verso of kk8, and final verso, double-page map of Europe and five full-page woodcuts, two with manuscript captions. (Faint and scattered foxing.)

binding: Contemporary black morocco (164 x 106 mm) by the Second Achille Bocchi Binder of Bologna (active ca. 1508- 1539), gilt leafy arabesque border surrounded by blind fillets, gilt arabesques at corners, flame tool at top and bottom center, central gilt leafy cartouche with title CO/MEN./CES/ARIS on upper cover, and on lower cover a winged Cupid, stubs from four pairs of fabric ties, spine compartments with single gilt fillets, edges gilt and gauffered. Housed in blue morocco box by Léon Gruel. (Bands a trifle rubbed.)

provenance: Henri Béraldi (booklabel to front pastedown), sale, Ader & Carteret, Paris, 29 May-1 June 1934, lot 4 — Maurice Burrus (bookplate to front pastedown) — Ader, Picard, Tajan 7 Guérin, Paris, 15 November 1971, lot 36 — Paul Louis Weiller (bookplate to front free endpaper, largely removed), sale, Paris, 8 April 2011, lot 653, €41,000 — Pierre Bergé, his sale, Paris, 16 December 2020, lot 1005. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale via Robin Halwas. references: UCLA 117; Renouard 60/1