Beschreibung
A FINE FRENCH ROYAL "RELIURE D'AMOUR" -- THE ROCQUENCOURT--FIRMIN DIDOT--BORDES --HOE--GANAY COPY Two volumes in one. Lyon: Jean de Tournes, 1551. Octavo (6 3/8" x 3 15/16", 162mm x 100mm). [Full collation available.] With two wood-engraved vignettes (one on each title page) and a wood-engraved printer's device (dd4v) in addition to several head- and tail-pieces. Bound (at least partly in the workshop of Louis-Antoine Boyet, active 1698-1733) in deep brown morocco. On the boards, all gilt, "HD" monogram at the center within a lobed square, each lobe with a fermesse (also "S fermé" or "closed S," not unlike $); set within a scrollwork scalloped lozenge surmounted with a coronetted fleur-de-lys; flanking the lozenge the coronetted initials L (viz. Louis XIII) and counterchanged A's (viz. Anne of Austria) top-and-bottom; set within a double-fillet lobed rectangular panel with fleurs-de-lys at the corner of each lobe (the left and right lobes scalloped, with a fleur-de-lys at the join), and with scrollwork corner-ornaments; pointillé corner-fleurons; all set within a double fillet border with rosettes at the corners. On the spine, five raised bands with a floral roll gilt. Panels gilt. Author gilt to the second panel. Gilt floral roll to the edges of the boards, continued at the inside dentelle. Marbled end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Near fine, with some rubbing at the edges of the raised bands and hinges. A little split to the upper fore-corner of the front board. Light even tanning throughout. Ruled in sanguine throughout. A very few marginalia in an early hand (T4v offsetting to T5r, T6v), partially trimmed. Armorial ex-libris of de Rocquencour, the small label of Hubert de Ganay and an octagonal (shelf?) label "KKb" to the front paste-down (with "No 202" written in graphite at the bottom). Partially obliterated shelf-label (printed ?]4,102 with 202 written in graphite at the top) to the verso of the front free end-paper. Booksellers' notes to the verso of the front free end-paper, the recto of the initial binder's blank and the recto of the rear free end-paper. Leo the Hebrew, as he is called in English (Leone Ebreo in Italian; Leon l'Hébreu or, as here, Hebrieu in French), born Judah Leon Abravanel (or Abrabanel) ca. 1460 in Lisbon, was a poet and a philosopher who relocated to Italy (including the courts of Naples, Genoa and Florence). His Dialoghi d'amore (first edition 1535) explores philosophy through the lens of love, philo-sophia being love of wisdom. The dialogue -- here between Philo and Sophia -- as a structure descends from Socrates via Plato; from Boethius through the medieval and early modern period, the dialogue as a rhetorical device allows the author a great deal of flexibility in the presentation of viewpoints. The Dialoghi were popular, being translated into Hebrew, Latin, Spanish (there is lingering confusion over the language of the work's composition) and, as here, French before long, long agreed to be the work of Pontus de Tyard. Standing on the shoulders both of renaissance Neoplatonism and of medieval courtly romance, the work might be read on many levels, whence its appeal. At the very heart of the allure of this storied copy of Tyard's translation -- otherwise quite rare; only one copy beside the present one has ever come to auction; seven copies are recorded in institutional libraries -- is its binding. [Please inquire for an extensive analysis of the binding as well as of later provenance.] To summarize the provenance evidence of the binding: the HD (whether a single person or a pair) at center of the boards is still unknown, but may have been active in either the first or last quarter of the XVIIc, and may predate the rest of the decorated binding. The Louis XIII-Anne of Austria surround likely does not date from their reign, but instead that of Louis XIV (though why is unclear). Adams A58; Brunet III.984; Olivier-Hermal-Roton XXV, pl. 2493 (and illust. 9). Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers JLR0253
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