Antiquariat Jürgen Dinter

Theocritus

Εἰδύλλια … — Rome 1516

Ταδε ἐνεστὶν, ἐν τῇ παροῦσῃ βίβλω[:] Εἰδύλλια … Ἐπιγράμματα … Σχόλια  — (Rome), Zacharias Kallierges, 15 January 1516.

First edition by Kallierges and editio princeps of the scholia.

8vo (164 x 106 mm.) α4 β-λ8μ4Α-Ω, αα-εε4 : (204) leaves (88 for the text, 116 for the scholia).

Title-page ruled in red. 2 parts in one volume, woodcut printer’s device on title-page and on final verso, woodcut headpieces. All edges gilt. Light foxing at beginning and end, for the most part marginal. Leaves α1 and α4 toned and apparently supplied from another copy – what must have been done in the nineties of the 18th century.

Title-page with Kallierges’ double-headed eagle device, last page with Benigno’s caduceus. The book was, as the 1515 Pindar, financed (ἀναλώμασι in the colophon) by Cornelio Benigno, who obtained a loan from the wealthy Sienese banker Agostino Chigi. On the partnership of Kallierges and Benigno see:  S. Folgemark, The Kallierges Pindar … pp. 36ff.

Binding: Eighteenth-century English red straight-grained morocco gilt (according to note on flyleaf bound by Roger Payne), double gilt fillet on covers, gilt edges, extremities slightly rubbed. Wether  the present binding is done by Paine or not I leave to others.

On 25 September 1516 Benigno sold 981 copies to the bookseller Francesco Calvo. About the question, wether 19 copies only had been sold between January and September, or more, because the number of copies printed was higher then one thousand, see Fogelmark, The Kallierges Pindar, pp. 48ff.

Adams T 460; Moreau 533.; Legrand BH I, p. 134 no. 49: Édition rare et très recherchée.

 

Provenance:

Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode (1730-1799),

his arms on both covers and his monogram CMC on flyleaf (his date of acquisition has been erased). “Upon his father’s death in 1773 Cracherode inherited a fortune and lived quietly in London … He walked daily to Elmsly and Thomas Payne [both bookdealers] to buy books and never travelled farther than Oxford. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Society and obtained in 1784 the blue ribbon of literature – a Trusteeship of the British Museum. He collected right up to his death in 1799 and bequeathed his collection of art and his library to the British Museum … Besides many sixteenth century bindings he ’is supposed to have more books bound by the late unrivaled artist, Roger Payne, than any other person”. In his collection in the British Library there are well over thirty books bound by Roger Payne, which he acquired between 1790 and 1798 …” (M. Foot, The Henry Davies Gift. A collection of bookings, I, 102). The Database of Bookbindings of the British Library shows 272 bindings of the Cracherode collection, among these 4 bindings of Jean Picard and 2 of Claude Picques for Jean Grolier, several Duodo bindings, a great number of books bound for de Thou – to name but a few.

Stephen Weston( 1747-1830),

„Antiquary and man of letters“ (DNB), his stamp and initials SW on flyleaf, his library sold at Sotheby’s, 7 May 1830; the Theocritus was lot 1056.

William O’Brien (1832-1899),

Irish judge, the collection was purchased from many of the most important sales of the nineteenth century, including Henry Drury, Gosford, Hamilton Palace, Syston Park, Osterley Park, Michael Wodhull and the Sunderland Library. Much of his library was purchased at the sale of his friend Sir Edward Sullivan, which was auctioned by Sotheby’s in 1890.

His pencil note on verso of first fly-leaf: very scarce Bought of Priestly, who bought it in St. Weston’s sale (a fine copy). His booklabel dated 1899 on paste-down.