Clavius, Christoph. Christophori Clauii Bambergensis ex Societate Iesu Horologiorum noua descriptio. Rome: Luigi Zanetti, 1599
A treatise on dialing the motion of the sun across the sky, by Christoph Clavius (Klau; 1537–1612), professor of mathematics at the Jesuit Collegio Romano. In his dedication (ff. [cross pattée]2r–3r) to Ferdinand II (1578–1637), newly installed as Archduke of the Inner Austrian provinces (1596–1597), Clavius makes several feints in the direction of patronage, revealing that he had been told of Ferdinand’s “thirst for mathematical things” and that Ferdinand had been reading other of his books “with pleasure.” This is not improbable, as Ferdinand was educated (1590–1595) at the Jesuit university of Ingolstadt, where Clavius’ texts were used in the classroom.
This copy was magnificently bound for presentation to Archduke Ferdinand in a Roman workshop established by Francesco Soresini and managed subsequently by his son Prospero and nephew Baldassarre, known as the Bottega dei Soresini. It is decorated with tools used during the earliest period of the shop’s activity (ca. 1585–1610), among them a pair of winged and tailed sphinxes, and another of monkeys with upraised arms (Tolomei, “I Ferri e le Botteghe di Legatori,” in Legatura romana barocca, 1565–1700 [Rome, 1991], p.31 & Pl.). The painted armorial displays Ferdinand’s offices, with the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece hanging from the collar.
Clavius had dedicated previous books to the Emperor Rudolf II, to Francesco Maria II della Rovere, and to various ecclesiastical officials, often receiving letters of acknowledgement in return. Ferdinand’s letter to Clavius (written from Graz, 3 October 1599) survives (Pontificia Università Gregoriana, Archivio storico, 529: Epistolae ad P. Clavium, no. 105). Several of those publications had also been bound for presentation by the Soresini workshop, notably a copy of Clavius’s Noui calendarii Romani apologia, aduersus Michaelem Maestlinum (Rome 1588), intended for Rudolf II, likewise with painted arms and crown (John Rylands Library, R51977).
4to (237 x 174 mm). Roman and italic types, 51 lines. collation: [cross pattée]6 A–Z4 Aa–Cc4 Dd6 Ee10: 126 leaves. Zanetti’s device on title-page, numerous woodcut diagrams in text (several full-page), numerous typographic tables, woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces.
binding: Roman red goatskin (242 x 184 mm), ca. 1599, by the Soresini workshop for presentation to the dedicatee, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, gold tooled, border formed by a pair of double fillets and open fields containing squares at corners and rectangles along sides framed by single fillets, corner squares with small ape figures and bud tool and rectangles with azured arabesques, bud tool, rows of buttons, small stars, and open oblong fields, central panel with cartouche comprised of an ovoid of double fillets surrounded by floral tools, small ape figures, bird heads, herms and rows of buttons, sphinx and ornamental square tools at 4 corners, within the cartouche painted armorial crest of the Archduke Ferdinand, spine with 5 bands with gilt swirling leafy tendrils, compartments containing gilt eagles, rows of buttons, and Chinese hats, traces of 2 pairs of ribbons at fore-edge, edges gilt. (Head and foot of spine worn and restored, with tiny loss at head.) Russet cloth folding-box, black morocco spine label.
provenance: Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria (1578–1637, from 1619 Holy Roman Emperor, the dedicatee; presentation binding incorporating armorial supralibros, possible shelfmark “B.R.4.E.98” of the imperial library on upper pastedown, “175” in ink on upper cover) — Charles van der Elst (1904–1982; Ader Picard Tajan & Claude Guérin with Dominique Courvoisier, Monte Carlo, 13 May 1985, lot 60), purchased by — H. P. Kraus, New York (FF 90,000; Catalogue 174 [1986]), item 48 ($18,000). acquisition: Purchased from H. P. Kraus, 1990.
references: Edit16 12686; USTC 822877; for the Soresini workshop see Macchi/Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, Arte della legatura a Brera: storie di libri e biblioteche: secoli XV e XVI (Milan, 2002), no. 62.
Clavius, Christoph. Christophori Clauii Bambergensis ex Societate Iesu Horologiorum noua descriptio. Rome: Luigi Zanetti, 1599
A treatise on dialing the motion of the sun across the sky, by Christoph Clavius (Klau; 1537–1612), professor of mathematics at the Jesuit Collegio Romano. In his dedication (ff. [cross pattée]2r–3r) to Ferdinand II (1578–1637), newly installed as Archduke of the Inner Austrian provinces (1596–1597), Clavius makes several feints in the direction of patronage, revealing that he had been told of Ferdinand’s “thirst for mathematical things” and that Ferdinand had been reading other of his books “with pleasure.” This is not improbable, as Ferdinand was educated (1590–1595) at the Jesuit university of Ingolstadt, where Clavius’ texts were used in the classroom.
This copy was magnificently bound for presentation to Archduke Ferdinand in a Roman workshop established by Francesco Soresini and managed subsequently by his son Prospero and nephew Baldassarre, known as the Bottega dei Soresini. It is decorated with tools used during the earliest period of the shop’s activity (ca. 1585–1610), among them a pair of winged and tailed sphinxes, and another of monkeys with upraised arms (Tolomei, “I Ferri e le Botteghe di Legatori,” in Legatura romana barocca, 1565–1700 [Rome, 1991], p.31 & Pl.). The painted armorial displays Ferdinand’s offices, with the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece hanging from the collar.
Clavius had dedicated previous books to the Emperor Rudolf II, to Francesco Maria II della Rovere, and to various ecclesiastical officials, often receiving letters of acknowledgement in return. Ferdinand’s letter to Clavius (written from Graz, 3 October 1599) survives (Pontificia Università Gregoriana, Archivio storico, 529: Epistolae ad P. Clavium, no. 105). Several of those publications had also been bound for presentation by the Soresini workshop, notably a copy of Clavius’s Noui calendarii Romani apologia, aduersus Michaelem Maestlinum (Rome 1588), intended for Rudolf II, likewise with painted arms and crown (John Rylands Library, R51977).
4to (237 x 174 mm). Roman and italic types, 51 lines. collation: [cross pattée]6 A–Z4 Aa–Cc4 Dd6 Ee10: 126 leaves. Zanetti’s device on title-page, numerous woodcut diagrams in text (several full-page), numerous typographic tables, woodcut initials and head- and tailpieces.
binding: Roman red goatskin (242 x 184 mm), ca. 1599, by the Soresini workshop for presentation to the dedicatee, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, gold tooled, border formed by a pair of double fillets and open fields containing squares at corners and rectangles along sides framed by single fillets, corner squares with small ape figures and bud tool and rectangles with azured arabesques, bud tool, rows of buttons, small stars, and open oblong fields, central panel with cartouche comprised of an ovoid of double fillets surrounded by floral tools, small ape figures, bird heads, herms and rows of buttons, sphinx and ornamental square tools at 4 corners, within the cartouche painted armorial crest of the Archduke Ferdinand, spine with 5 bands with gilt swirling leafy tendrils, compartments containing gilt eagles, rows of buttons, and Chinese hats, traces of 2 pairs of ribbons at fore-edge, edges gilt. (Head and foot of spine worn and restored, with tiny loss at head.) Russet cloth folding-box, black morocco spine label.
provenance: Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria (1578–1637, from 1619 Holy Roman Emperor, the dedicatee; presentation binding incorporating armorial supralibros, possible shelfmark “B.R.4.E.98” of the imperial library on upper pastedown, “175” in ink on upper cover) — Charles van der Elst (1904–1982; Ader Picard Tajan & Claude Guérin with Dominique Courvoisier, Monte Carlo, 13 May 1985, lot 60), purchased by — H. P. Kraus, New York (FF 90,000; Catalogue 174 [1986]), item 48 ($18,000). acquisition: Purchased from H. P. Kraus, 1990.
references: Edit16 12686; USTC 822877; for the Soresini workshop see Macchi/Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, Arte della legatura a Brera: storie di libri e biblioteche: secoli XV e XVI (Milan, 2002), no. 62.
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