Cicero, Epistolae ad Atticum, Venice, Aldus, 1513, contemporary Sienese morocco gilt

Cicero, Marcus Tullius. M. T. Ciceronis epistolarum ad Atticum, ad Brutum, ad Quintum fratrem, libri XX. Latina interpretatio eorum, quae in iis ipsis epistolis graece scripta sunt ubi multa & mutata, & addita sunt. Admonemus igitur lectorem, ut inde sibi librum corrigat suum. (Venice: in the house of Aldo Manuzio and Andrea Torresano, June 1513)

A Sienese binding plausibly commissioned by Alessandro Guglielmi; for another similar binding, see lot 139 (Apuleius).

8vo (172 x 97 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: AA-BB⁸ a-z⁸ aa-ss⁸ tt⁴: 348 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso (otherwise blank), numerous early annotations in a fine humanist hand (perhaps by Alessandro or Scipione Guglielmi?).

binding: Contemporary black morocco gilt (175 x 103 mm), plausibly a Sienese binding commissioned by Alessandro Guglielmi, double interlaced gilt fillet border with lettering C EPIST on upper cover and AD ATT on lower cover, lettering within a central compartment formed from fillets, spine with blind ruling, red edges, stubs from four pairs of ties. (Upper joint cracked.)

provenance: Hippolyte Rubin de La Grimaudière (1835-1920), bookplate of the Bibliothèque de La Hamonais — Robert Danon, sale, Laurin Guilloux Buffetaud & Pierre Berès, Paris, 21 March 1973, lot 24, FF 3,300 — Costia Zafiropulo (1917-2001), sale, Ader Tajan & Pierre Berès, Paris, 3 December 1993, lot 6. acquisition: Purchased from preceding sale via Thomas-Scheler. references: UCLA 113; Edit16 12190; Renouard 61/3; A. Hobson, "A central Italian bookseller and bookbinder", Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 2010, 215-220, no.2