Lot 154•
BINDING - SPANISH
LYCOPHRON CHALCIDENSIS. Cassandra iambico carmine ac stylo vetere translata per Josephum Scaligerum, 1590; and 2 other works in 1 vol.
11 November 2015, 13:00 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £3,500 inc. premium
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BINDING - SPANISH
LYCOPHRON CHALCIDENSIS. Cassandra iambico carmine ac stylo vetere translata per Josephum Scaligerum, [Heidelberg], In officina Sanctandreana, 1590--Homerocentra, [extracted from: Poetae Christiani veteres], 74 leaves (of 76, without final blank and penultimate leaf of Latin text [eeee3]), [Ahmanson-Murphy 58; Adams P1685; Renouard 24:1], [Venice, Aldus Manutius, 1501-1502]--MEURS (JOHANNES VAN) Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides. Sive de tragoediis eorum lib. III, Leiden, Godferoy Basson, 1619, 3 works in 1 vol., all with text in Latin and Greek, some staining, mainly affecting first and last few leaves, seventeenth century Spanish red morocco, bound for Felipe Ramirez de Guzman, Duke of Medina de las Torres (c.1600-1668) and his second wife, Anna Carafa, Duchess of Sabbioneta, Mondragone and Trajetto, Princess of Stigliano, the sides with roll tool borders and cornerpieces enclosing their central gilt arms, the lower cover with the legend 'Revoluta foecundant', spine gilt in compartments with raised bands, gilt edges, 4to
Footnotes
A fine Spanish seventeenth century noble binding, containing a trio of works which demonstrate the owner's interest in Greek texts. For a similar binding with the same arms and using the same tools, see Sotheby's, 8 July 2008, lot 18. Other books are also recorded as having been bound in this fashion for Ramirez de Guzman, who was viceroy of Naples from 1637 to 1644. The motto 'Revoluta foecundata only seems to have been used by Guzman after his return to Spain in 1645.
The Homerocentra has been extracted from the first edition of a collection of early Christian poetry (described by Renouard as "infiniment rare et precieuse", with few complete copies remaining). It comprises the Editio princeps of the Homeric Centos of the fifth century East Roman Empress Eudocia. This section was printed using, for the first time, a system developed by Aldus for interleaving the Greek and Latin sheets to give parallel texts.