BENOÎT (saint). - Regula]. - Lot 17

BENOÎT (saint). - Regula]. Il Padre San Benedetto con l'espositione d'il R. Padre Frate Rogiero di Barletta, monacho celestino. S.l.n.d. [at colophon]: Bologna, Vicenzo Bonardo da Parma & Marc' Antonio da Carpi compagno, July 15, 1539. In-4, brown/olive morocco, framed with gilt and cold-stamped fillets and a small corner finial, central rectangle bordered by a gilt border and decorated with a round medallion containing the title of the work, ornamented with floral irons and wide spandrels, spine decorated with large cold-stamped irons and gilt-stamped fillets on the nerves and faux-nerves, gilt and chased edges (Italian binding of the period). Attractive Bolognese edition in round type of the Rule of St. Benedict, the title set in a portico-shaped frame and adorned with a woodcut depicting St. Benedict presenting his monastic rule to the monk Roger de Barletta. The typographical mark of Vicenzo Bonardo and Marcantonio Grossi, typographers and publishers active in Bologna in the 1530s-1540s, appears below the colophon. A superb Venetian binding from the Venetian workshop that supplied bindings for Jacob Fugger and Cardinal de Granvelle, a workshop named by Mirjam Foot Fugger Binder or Venitian Apple Binder. It undoubtedly comes from the same workshop as the bindings reproduced in The Henry Davis Gift, t. III, under n°293, 295 and 296: the same spandrels and the same irons surrounding the central medallion are used. It can also be compared with the binding covering a 1542 Venetian edition of the Decameron, from the same workshop, once owned by Kimball Brooker (cf. cat. Bibliotheca Brookeriana: Magnificent Books and Bindings, 2023, no. 18). The binding bears on the first cover, stamped in the central medallion, the title: Regula Scti Benedicti Abbatis; and on the second cover, the name of its patron: Ad usum D. Alber. Monaci. Very high quality volume. Some spotting. Hinges and headpieces skilfully restored.