BINDING. - MANUSCRIT. Collection of legal documents [marriag - Lot 249

BINDING. - MANUSCRIT. Collection of legal documents [marriage contracts?] Italy, 1639. Small manuscript in-4 (208 x 150 mm) of 78 ff, brown morocco, boards decorated with a wide border and a central panel with four small compartments at the corners, the first with an oval medallion charged with a figure (a saint armed with a sword) and richly bordered with a sheaf of small irons, the second decorated with a large coat of arms, two clasps, double ribbed spine entirely decorated with grotesque decoration, gilt edges (Italian binding of the period). Manuscript on parchment in a superb, rich Italian binding, probably executed in Rome around 1640. The coat of arms on the verso has not been identified. A similar binding, covering a set of legal documents dated 1637, 1638 and 1640, is reproduced in the Henry Davis Gift catalog, t. III, no. 364: same decorative structure, same border and same motif (a bird) in the spandrels. Engraved armorial bookplate Gioan Battista de Mari Principe d'Acquaviva. One corner dulled, small tear to upper cover.