Beschreibung:

Eusebius Caesariensis. Eusebiou tou Pamphilou Euangelikës proparaskeuës bib. pente kai deka. Eusebii Pamphili Evangelicae praeparationis Lib. XV. Ex Bibliotheca Regia [Greek]. Paris: Robert I Estienne, 1544. Bound with:
Eusebius Caesariensis, Eusebiou tou Pamphilou Euangelikës apodeixeōs biblia deka. Eusebii Pamphili Evangelicae demonstrationis Lib. X. Ex Bibliotheca Regia [Greek]. Paris: Robert I Estienne, [1545–] April 1546
Second and third parts in a series of Greek texts printed by Estienne from unpublished manuscripts in the Royal Library at Fontainebleau. The series commenced with the Ecclesiastica historia of Eusebius, completed earlier in 1544. All are printed in the “gros romain” font of the “grecs du roi” commissioned by François I through Robert Estienne and cut by Claude Garamond in imitation of the script of the Cretan calligrapher Angelo Vergecio.
This Greek-style binding is the work of Gomar Estienne, a native of Brabant (Gummarus of Lier is a Belgian saint), who held the office of royal bookbinder from about November 1547 until about May 1555, working intensively at Fontainebleau for the royal library, until mid-1552, thereafter from an atelier in Paris, for non-royal collectors such as Jean Grolier, Thomas Mahieu (see lot 40), Marc Laurin, and the Cardinal de Lorraine. He made about ten bindings for Marcus Fugger (see lot 26), of which six were in the alla greca style. Fugger’s copy of Eusebius’ Ecclesiastica historia, similarly bound, is in the Getty Library at Wormsley (sold in our rooms, 27 June 1995, lot 79, £133,500).
2 parts in one volume, folio (344 x 218 mm). (I) Greek type, 41 lines plus headline. collation: a-z6 aa-ss6 tt4: 250 leaves. Estienne’s woodcut basilisk device as king’s printer for Greek texts on title-page, woodcut headpiece and 9-line floriated initials. (II) Greek type, 41 lines plus headline. collation: Aa-Zz6 AAa-CCc6 DDd4: 160 leaves. Estienne’s woodcut basilisk device as king’s printer for Greek texts on title-page, his olive tree device on tt4v, woodcut headpiece and 9-line floriated initial. (Scattered light browning and spotting, some wormholes, mostly unobtrusive but more conspicuous in final seven quires.)
binding: Parisian russet morocco over wooden boards (350 x 227 mm), alla greca, ca. 1550–1555, by Gomar Estienne for Marcus Fugger, richly gold-tooled and black-enameled to a complex decorative design with an elaborate interlace and scrollwork painted black, gilt fillets and gouge-work, solid, hatched, and open tools, flat spine similarly decorated, Greek title lettered at top of upper cover, traces of 4 clasps, gilt and gauffered edges to a foliate design. (Lightest rubbing and fading; completely unrestored.) Green board folding-case.
provenance: Marcus Fugger (1529–1597; signature “Marcus Fuggerus” on upper pastedown), by descent to — Philipp Fugger (1567–1601), by descent to — Marcus Philipp Fugger (1598–1620), by descent to — Marquard Fugger, Graf von Kirchberg und Weissenhorn (1596–1655) — Öttingen-Wallerstein, family library at Schloss Maihingen (armorial ink-stamp on first title-page) — Eugen Wolfgang Karl Friedrich Joseph Notger, Fürst zu Öttingen-Öttingen und Öttingen-Wallerstein (1885–1969; Karl & Faber, Munich, 11 May 1934, lot 230), purchased by — unidentified owner — Librairie Lardanchet, Paris (Catalogue 47 [1953], item 2169) — Graf Oswald Carl Friedrich von Seilern und Aspang (1900–1967; exlibris; Christie’s, London, 26 March 2003, lot 58). acquisition: Purchased at Seilern auction through Robin Halwas.  
references: (I) BP16 111693; FB 70070; USTC 149170; A. A. Renouard, Estienne, p. 59: 12; Mortimer, French, no. 220; (II) BP16 112443; FB 70071/70073; USTC 160189/149590; Renouard, p. 59: 12; for this and other Gomar Estienne bindings see: Conihout & Ract-Madoux, “Nouveaux documents sur Gomar Estienne, relieur du roi de 1547 à 1555,” in Documents d’Histoire Parisienne 15 (2013), pp. 5–20; A. Hobson, Humanists and Bookbinders: The Origins and Diffusion of the Humanistic Bookbinding, 1459–1559 (Cambridge, 1989), p. 210.