Beschreibung:

Alberti, Leon Battista
L'architettura di Leon Batista Alberti tradotta in lingua fiorentina da Cosimo Bartoli gentilhuomo, & academico fiorentino. Con la aggiunta de' disegni. Venice: Francesco de Franceschi, 1565
Large paper copy belonging to Bartoli himself, in an unusual panel-stamped binding.The binding decoration is most likely from a panel stamp; this binding is also illustrated in R. Devauchelle, La reliure en France (1961), plate XLIX, who opines that the decoration is similar to the designs of Francesco di Pellegrino in his Livre de moresques (1530). While a Venetian origin for the binding is most likely, it has also been suggested that it might possibly be an Augsburg binding by the Leovitius-Meister.
This copy was owned by Bartoli himself; the inscription at the head of the title-page is not dissimilar to one on a book now in Padua, which has the inscription "Di m. Cosimo di matteo b[ar]toli", and the number 288 at the head of the title-page (see archiviopossessori.it). Bartoli's copy of the 1513 Giunta Vitruvius, with a similar inscription and the number 164, is also in the Bibliotheca Brookeriana (and will appear in a future sale).
Only a few large paper copies of this work are recorded; one belonged to Hippolyte Destailleur (perhaps the present copy?), and another was offered for sale by Theophile Belin, Livres des XVe et XVIe siècles dans leurs reliures (Paris, 1914), item 5, in an olive morocco gilt binding. The Magliabechi copy in the Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze also seems to be a large paper copy.
The pastedowns have a watermark of a cardinal's hat, similar to Briquet 3486 and 3488, both northeast Italy, 1550-1560s. The countermark (visible in the front flyleaf), a BS with a trefoil above, is assigned to Venice and Rome (?), between 1559 and 1561 (Wasserzeichen-Informationssystem DE5580-Codgraec64_354).
4to (271 x 203 mm), large paper copy. Roman type, 44 lines plus headline. collation: A8+2 B-Cc8 Dd6: 218 leaves (additional bifolium inserted after A2 containing Bartoli's dedication to Cosimo de' Medici). Title within woodcut border, woodcut portrait of the author on verso of title, woodcut initials, woodcut illustrations (those on S6v-7r each with a woodcut extension), folding woodcut plate signed X and bound before quire X. (Some damp-staining along outer half of pages all the way through, title-page with a few small wormholes and stains at foot, small wormhole in text of S7-T1, small wormhole at lower corner of last few leaves, a few other small areas of staining.)
binding: Contemporary Venetian tan morocco gilt (280 x 212 mm), large gilt panel stamp of interlacing arabesques, within a frame of a thick gilt line and numerous blind fillets and corner gilt acorn stamps, spine with gilt acorn stamp in compartments, gilt edges, stubs from two pairs of red silk ties. (Binding somewhat rubbed with a few small scrapes, ends of spine worn and slightly defective, some wormholes in boards.)
provenance: Cosimo Bartoli, "di coso b[-]rtoli... no 396", inscription at head of title-page — Earl of Aylesford, Packington Hall bookplate — [possibly Hippolyte Destailleur (1822-1893), sale, Paris, 1895, lot 226, large paper copy in a contemporary red morocco gilt binding] — Gumuchian & Cie, catalogue XII, Catalogue de reliures du XVe au XIXe siècles (Paris, ca. 1929), item 69, sold in 1934 to — Maurice Burrus (1882-1959), bookplate dated 1937 and note of acquisition at end — Thierry de Maigret, sale, Paris, 18 November 2008, lot 42, €6,000. acquisition: Purchased in 2012 from Benjamin Spademan. references: BAL RIBA 54; Edit16 725 (variant C)