View full screen - View 1 of Lot 623. Strada, Simbola Romanorum Pontificum, Imperatorum, [Prague, 1597], manuscript, later French morocco.

Strada, Simbola Romanorum Pontificum, Imperatorum, [Prague, 1597], manuscript, later French morocco

Auction Closed

July 9, 02:57 PM GMT

Estimate

7,000 - 10,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Strada, Ottavio. Simbola Romanorum Pontificum, Imperatorum Occidentalis, et Orientalis, Regumque Hispaniarum, Galliarum, Anglorum, Scotorum, Portugalensium, utriusque Sicilae, Jeruselimitarum, Sicambrorum, Metensiorum, Ungarorum, Bohemorum, Polonorum, Daniarum, Suevorum, Austriarum, Burgundiorum, Navarorum, etc. Nec non Cardinalium, Principum Electorum, Arciducum, Magnorum Ducum, Ducum, Marchionum, Archiepiscoporum, Episcoporum, Comitum, atque aliarum Illustrium omnium nationum personarum. [Prague, ca 1597]


A fine emblematic manuscript made for presentation by Ottavio Strada, one of around 30 similar manuscripts known, each with a dedication to a significant person or entity. Strada (1550-1612), the son of the antiquarian Jacopo Strada (lots 619-622), followed in his father's footsteps and became an antiquarian and book dealer as well as a professional scribe. He also held official posts at the court of Rudolf II, settling in Prague in 1583, where this manuscript was doubtless composed. Strada signs the dedication as "civis romanus", an epithet he used from probably 1597, or at least after the death of his father in 1588. The manuscript comprises numerous neatly-drawn roundels with captions giving the relevant name and honorific, together with an alphabetical index; some people have several emblems (François I, for instance, has four emblems, including two with salamanders). Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle's emblem of a ship with the motto "Durate" appears on leaf LXVI.


Strada produced numerous manuscript copies for presentation, some containing just relevant sections rather than the whole text; a copy with the arms of Rudolf II on the binding was sold by Replica Shoes 's in 1957, and one with a dedication to Philip II was in the library of William Bragge (sold by Replica Shoes 's in 1876). The text was subsequently printed in Prague in 1601-1603, with engravings by Aegidius Sadeler and notes by Jacob Typot and Anselmus de Boodt.


Carlo Emanuele became Duke of Savoy in 1580. He was allied with the Habsburgs; in 1585 he married Catalina Micaela, the daughter of Philip II.


Folio (252 x 176 mm). Manuscript on paper, written in purple ink. Title-page, two leaves of dedication, 75 leaves of symbols (with four roundel illustrations per page, rectos only), 30 leaves of index (written on rectos only). Watermark of a gateway with two towers [Wasserzeichen Informationssystem, dated to Prague, 1580]. (Erased word beneath manuscript title.)


binding: Eighteenth-century French (faded navy?) morocco (260 x 188 mm), in the style of Derome, triple gilt fillet border, spine gilt in compartments, gilt and marbled edges. (Binding slightly rubbed.)


provenance: [presumably] Carlo Emanuele, duke of Savoy (1562-1630), manuscript dedication — Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773-1843), armorial bookplate, sale, Evans, part II, 31 July 1844, lot 475, £5-15-6, to Thorpe — Henry Huth and Alfred Huth, morocco booklabel "Ex musaeo Huthii", sale, Replica Shoes , Wilkinson & Hodge, the seventh part, 1 July 1918, lot 7104 (described as citron morocco), £36, to — Bernard Quaritch Ltd, letter (loosely inserted) dated 11 July 1918, addressed to "Alan H. Bright", offering him this book for £42 — Allan Heywood Bright, bookplate dated 1912, sale, Christie's, 16 July 2014, lot 245. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale.